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avidreadergirl1's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I liked all of the short stories but my least favourite was the one involving ghosts. All stories were well written and long enough to feel like a mini novel with the proper development in each story instead of the often unsatisfactory too short short stories that seem unstructured. I’d like to find some of the previous editions to see which other authors have contributed.
annemaries_shelves's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.0
A perfect read while in Edinburgh this summer.
This short anthology of 5 stories explores everyday lives of folks living in Edinburgh across various (recent) time points. Each story brought something new to my (limited) understanding of the city and its culture, and so I learned a lot about how these authors view Edinburgh.
I think one of my favourites was Nadine Aisha Jassat's as it was set mostly in Leith, right near where I was staying actually. But honestly I enjoyed each one - they were all so different. And two of the stories had LGBTQ+ characters, which was an unexpected delight! (I will note that one of the stories has a trans character, who meets again many years later with our POV character. So there's some accidental deadnaming and in flashbacks to the past, her birth pronouns/name are used. In my opinion, it was handled well, but I'm not trans.)
Definitely recommend if you're looking for a sampling of stories set in Edinburgh.
This short anthology of 5 stories explores everyday lives of folks living in Edinburgh across various (recent) time points. Each story brought something new to my (limited) understanding of the city and its culture, and so I learned a lot about how these authors view Edinburgh.
I think one of my favourites was Nadine Aisha Jassat's as it was set mostly in Leith, right near where I was staying actually. But honestly I enjoyed each one - they were all so different. And two of the stories had LGBTQ+ characters, which was an unexpected delight! (I will note that one of the stories has a trans character, who meets again many years later with our POV character. So there's some accidental deadnaming and in flashbacks to the past, her birth pronouns/name are used. In my opinion, it was handled well, but I'm not trans.)
Definitely recommend if you're looking for a sampling of stories set in Edinburgh.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Deadnaming and Religious bigotry
Minor: Murder and Confinement
vova3649's review against another edition
4.0
1) In Loving Memory - Nadine Aisha Jassat
- "I learned the ways you make a place home, and I learned them unintentionally, and on my own (...) with every step or turn of a street corner, every foot crossing over cobble or pavement or grass, I walked myself into knowing the city, and the city in turn walked itself into me: love for it filling me up with every purple sky over the clock face of the Balmoral Hotel, every clear day looking down to the sea from the golden cobbles of the Royal Mile, every after-work walk returning down that long tree trunk of Leith alive with people".
-" Here in this city, I had found my name. Have made it, and everything else my own".
2) Broukit Bairn, Ian Bairn
-"Gavin remembered something from a school or university lesson: Robert Louis Stevenson's description of Edinburgh as a 'precipitous city'. Yes, you could climb Arthur's Seat or Calton Hill or look down to the New Town from the heights of the Castle ramparts, but you could also be at the bottom of a chasm like the Cowgate, with the city almost impossibly out of the reach above".
- "I learned the ways you make a place home, and I learned them unintentionally, and on my own (...) with every step or turn of a street corner, every foot crossing over cobble or pavement or grass, I walked myself into knowing the city, and the city in turn walked itself into me: love for it filling me up with every purple sky over the clock face of the Balmoral Hotel, every clear day looking down to the sea from the golden cobbles of the Royal Mile, every after-work walk returning down that long tree trunk of Leith alive with people".
-" Here in this city, I had found my name. Have made it, and everything else my own".
2) Broukit Bairn, Ian Bairn
-"Gavin remembered something from a school or university lesson: Robert Louis Stevenson's description of Edinburgh as a 'precipitous city'. Yes, you could climb Arthur's Seat or Calton Hill or look down to the New Town from the heights of the Castle ramparts, but you could also be at the bottom of a chasm like the Cowgate, with the city almost impossibly out of the reach above".
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