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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
I haven't read any of Ms. Russell's other books, so I came to this with no preconceptions. It's eight stories, and the first two are the strongest - the others, I sort of sped-read through after a few pages because they didn't really grab me.
"Vampires" is not horror, it's more about a sad old man who happens to be a vampire and is maybe losing his wife? They've stayed in Italy, in a former nun's lemon grove (or nearby), drinking lemon juice rather than, you know, blood. But it isn't working any more... "Reeling for the Empire" is more disturbing, with former women-turned-silkworms in Mejie Empire Japan. The rest of the stories felt like they were trying too hard, with "The New Veterans" reading like an update version of Bradbury's "Illustrated Man".
ARC provided by publisher.
"Vampires" is not horror, it's more about a sad old man who happens to be a vampire and is maybe losing his wife? They've stayed in Italy, in a former nun's lemon grove (or nearby), drinking lemon juice rather than, you know, blood. But it isn't working any more... "Reeling for the Empire" is more disturbing, with former women-turned-silkworms in Mejie Empire Japan. The rest of the stories felt like they were trying too hard, with "The New Veterans" reading like an update version of Bradbury's "Illustrated Man".
ARC provided by publisher.
This is one of those well written books that left me completely flat. I cared about absolutely nothing that went on in the few stories I could get through. Throwing in the towel.
I got this book for the second short story which was everything I wanted! I read a couple others too, but the vampire one kinda sucked and the one about the gulls was really weird.
Mostly great; the last story was too sad, although I do like the name Saturday.
I like to think I can handle a certain amount of quirk.....but this one passed by that line very quickly. My favorite was easily the massage therapy/tattoo one, and my least favorite the silkworm story. The imagery for all of them was incredible, but it seemed like I was reading a well written story plotted out by a third grader.
"Reeling for the Empire" was the best story in this collection by far.
Like most short story collections I read, I loved about half and the other half I found to be just okay.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
slow-paced
I enjoyed the first and last few stories the most. Fun to read short stories! Took me a while though.
This was as good as I'd heard--I tend to agree with Michael Chabon's vast generalization of the contemporary short story as a little boring and over-impressionistic, and I think I'd read and enjoy more of them if they were filtered through Karen Russell's creepy brain first.
My favorite stories were the two middle ones: "Proving Up," which got me good and scared on the bus in broad daylight, and "The Barn at the End of Our Term," in which Rutherford B. Hayes and other American presidents are reincarnated (maybe?) as horses in a stable in some uncertain dimension, and it's exactly as nutty and delightful as you'd expect. The rest were entertaining and sinister, as well; the only dud for me was the third one, about the boy and the seagull. I think Karen Russell appeals to my enjoyment of things that are creepy without being horror, and I'd be interested to see what she does with a novel--maybe I'll give Swamplandia! a shot.
My favorite stories were the two middle ones: "Proving Up," which got me good and scared on the bus in broad daylight, and "The Barn at the End of Our Term," in which Rutherford B. Hayes and other American presidents are reincarnated (maybe?) as horses in a stable in some uncertain dimension, and it's exactly as nutty and delightful as you'd expect. The rest were entertaining and sinister, as well; the only dud for me was the third one, about the boy and the seagull. I think Karen Russell appeals to my enjoyment of things that are creepy without being horror, and I'd be interested to see what she does with a novel--maybe I'll give Swamplandia! a shot.