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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
Some of these stories are real gems...some are just meh. I think established Neil Gaiman fans will enjoy this book.
Snow, Glass, Apples: I will never see Snow White the same way again.
Snow, Glass, Apples: I will never see Snow White the same way again.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Idk
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Probably my least favorite Gaiman book. I didn't really vibe with any of the stories except for the few in the beginning (I really like the one about the black cat). Plus, there's too much sex used for freaky + weirdness value, which is not my taste at all.
Some of the stories were pretty amazing, but many of them were quite mediocre. The mediocre ones generally did not make too much sense.
Actual rating: Bit difficult for a short story collection, I'll go from a 0 to 3.5
I'll start with the ones I enjoyed. Chivalry had a kind of nonsense humour about it that was a pleasant read, We Can Get Them for You Wholesale was spooky but oh so clever, with the right mix of funny bizarre and horror bizarre. Snow, Glass, Apples means that I will never look at Snow White in the same way again.
However, those were pretty much it. The poetry I'm not properly in a position to judge as I generally skimmed or skipped a lot of it, but the rest of the stories I just didn't enjoy. As a whole this collection was a lot darker than I had been expecting, with weird horror and kinda brutal ugly sex-related stuff which is not really my cup of tea, but on top of that it was also that there were a fair few that I read and just went "well, what was the point of that?"
All in all not one I would recommend or come back to.
I'll start with the ones I enjoyed. Chivalry had a kind of nonsense humour about it that was a pleasant read, We Can Get Them for You Wholesale was spooky but oh so clever, with the right mix of funny bizarre and horror bizarre. Snow, Glass, Apples means that I will never look at Snow White in the same way again.
However, those were pretty much it. The poetry I'm not properly in a position to judge as I generally skimmed or skipped a lot of it, but the rest of the stories I just didn't enjoy. As a whole this collection was a lot darker than I had been expecting, with weird horror and kinda brutal ugly sex-related stuff which is not really my cup of tea, but on top of that it was also that there were a fair few that I read and just went "well, what was the point of that?"
All in all not one I would recommend or come back to.
scary!!! not a fan of horror, usually I really love Neil Gaiman but most of these fell short in my opinion. I think I would have given it a higher rating if I had a stronger stomach but these were so horrific and sexual in turn & often at the same time that I had a hard time getting through. I also didn't feel like his usual skill shone through in most of them, but there were definitely a few that I thought were great. "chivalry" in particular was very beautiful but I felt like on the whole the stories were so much more violent & explicitly sexual than I'm used to with his works.
I listened to Neil read this as an audio and it was as always a marvellous experience. He's an excellent narrator and, of course, knows exactly the way the story should be told. Some very powerful pieces in this book, with many leaving me with a sense that the author wanted me as the reader to really come to my own conclusions about what was going on – both pleasing and frustrating, at times! The ones that particularly struck me were "When We Went To See The End of The World by Dawnie:Morningside, age 11 1/4", "Murder Mysteries" and "Snow, Glass, Apples", although looking back, it's probably the second half of the book I found more memorable. Or maybe I was less distracted, as I had the second half as road trip listening. Anyway, good stuff in here, and well worth listening to in Gaiman's audio glory.
This might be a 4.5 that I'm rounding up on, but I loved many of these stories, many because of the chill they left me with ("Don't Ask Jack", "Queen of Knives", "We Can Get Them For You Wholesale", The Sweeper of Dreams", and "Foreign Parts" in particular). If I had to create some superlatives, I might nominate:
"Changes" as the story I'd love to see as a film or a larger novel (despite being great as is)
"The Daughter of Owls" for Most Satisfying Comeuppance
"When We Went to See the End of the World by Dawnie Morningside, age 11 1/4" for Story that Made Me Heartsick
"We Can Get Them For You Wholesale" as Largest Tripper of My Twilight Zone Alarms
...and I could do more.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this collection and I'm so happy to keep discovering Neil Gaiman.
*note: My copy didn't include "Eaten", "The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch", "Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot", "How Do You Think It Feels?", and "In The End" since I have the US print version.
"Changes" as the story I'd love to see as a film or a larger novel (despite being great as is)
"The Daughter of Owls" for Most Satisfying Comeuppance
"When We Went to See the End of the World by Dawnie Morningside, age 11 1/4" for Story that Made Me Heartsick
"We Can Get Them For You Wholesale" as Largest Tripper of My Twilight Zone Alarms
...and I could do more.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this collection and I'm so happy to keep discovering Neil Gaiman.
*note: My copy didn't include "Eaten", "The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch", "Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot", "How Do You Think It Feels?", and "In The End" since I have the US print version.