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rnbhargava's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is a wonderful collection of short stories by NK Jemisin. The content is thus varied and so are the triggers. There’s a good amount of Fantasy, Science Fiction, Magical Realism, even supernatural horror in this collection. It’s not perfect. Some of the stories are arguably too short, basically the germ of an introduction or an idea. Some others are perhaps slightly plodding, though I enjoyed quite a few of the stories regardless of length.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Car accident, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Murder, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Violence
There’s a lot of content warnings across all these stories, I honestly probably missed some. That said, I loved the majority of Jemisin’s shorts in this book and I look forward to reading even more books from her.teekeita's review against another edition
Just wanted to read something else, and found it was taking me a really long time to read this book, and didn’t want to reach for it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse and Racism
Minor: Grief
steveatwaywords's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I so admire Jemisin as an author, not just for her fresh internally complex characters, but for how her entire worlds are built to shape her questions and themes. This could not be more true than in her Broken Earth trilogy, but she is not always equally successful title to title. That's why this anthology of her short works is so striking.
Jemisin herself says that the short story is a space for her to test out ideas and approaches. Read it for its marvelous stories, of course, but read it too as a terrific example of a writer testing herself in her craft. Each story is unique in its world-building and its character challenges, but many also vary significantly in style--and, like her worlds, the styles are structured not just as gimmick but as essential to the ideas she explores.
Again, not every story hits equally well, but there are definitely stories in here to meet anyone's taste for fantasy or speculative fiction. Some are warm-ups or spin-offs of her other novel worlds, but some are concepts which could only be written as short story, brief challenges or ideas to provoke. So far, this is one of my favorite works of hers, because it reveals a writer working, willing to experiment, to take risks.
Jemisin herself says that the short story is a space for her to test out ideas and approaches. Read it for its marvelous stories, of course, but read it too as a terrific example of a writer testing herself in her craft. Each story is unique in its world-building and its character challenges, but many also vary significantly in style--and, like her worlds, the styles are structured not just as gimmick but as essential to the ideas she explores.
Again, not every story hits equally well, but there are definitely stories in here to meet anyone's taste for fantasy or speculative fiction. Some are warm-ups or spin-offs of her other novel worlds, but some are concepts which could only be written as short story, brief challenges or ideas to provoke. So far, this is one of my favorite works of hers, because it reveals a writer working, willing to experiment, to take risks.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Grief, and Death
annalisaely's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I loved this book the way I tend to love N K Jemisin's work - the prose is amazing, furthered by the fact I listened to the audiobook which has a different narrator for almost every short story, and the world building took me to faraway places and times in such a vivid way. I also managed to connect with every one of the main characters, which is rare for me with a short story collection. If you want a taste tester for many different kinds of Afrofuturism, this is a great one, with space operas, alternate history, steampunk, dystopian (if I'm remembering correctly) and utopian. Plus the foreword made my author heart cry.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Sexual content
Moderate: Child death and Grief
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