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xeyra1's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 out of 5 stars. It's hard to judge short stories, because most of them only last for a moment and need to convey worlds in so few words. And in some cases in this collection, they work and in others they end too abruptly to actually feel like fully contained stories.
The writing is very beautiful and lyrical in most of the stories but I feel like only about 3 of them ended at just the right point to be both eerie or fantastical or depressing. Others, however, needed perhaps a bit more to feel like they had reached their end (this is especially true of "A Woman's Bones", which was one of my favorites up until the abrupt finish; I didn't feel like an ending was earned yet and wanted to have had more development on it.
The writing is very beautiful and lyrical in most of the stories but I feel like only about 3 of them ended at just the right point to be both eerie or fantastical or depressing. Others, however, needed perhaps a bit more to feel like they had reached their end (this is especially true of "A Woman's Bones", which was one of my favorites up until the abrupt finish; I didn't feel like an ending was earned yet and wanted to have had more development on it.
xeyra's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 out of 5 stars. It's hard to judge short stories, because most of them only last for a moment and need to convey worlds in so few words. And in some cases in this collection, they work and in others they end too abruptly to actually feel like fully contained stories.
The writing is very beautiful and lyrical in most of the stories but I feel like only about 3 of them ended at just the right point to be both eerie or fantastical or depressing. Others, however, needed perhaps a bit more to feel like they had reached their end (this is especially true of "A Woman's Bones", which was one of my favorites up until the abrupt finish; I didn't feel like an ending was earned yet and wanted to have had more development on it.
The writing is very beautiful and lyrical in most of the stories but I feel like only about 3 of them ended at just the right point to be both eerie or fantastical or depressing. Others, however, needed perhaps a bit more to feel like they had reached their end (this is especially true of "A Woman's Bones", which was one of my favorites up until the abrupt finish; I didn't feel like an ending was earned yet and wanted to have had more development on it.
unabridgedchick's review against another edition
2.0
Ultimately unsatisfying, Phillips' inventive collection of short stories sucks the reader into mysterious, dark worlds where natural laws are bent, twisted, and at times, outright ignored. Unfortunately, too often, her stories are high on mood and light on substance, abandoning the reader to imagine what could be and wish for what wasn't. There are stand-out stories in this collection, however, that are worth the book alone. In particular, I found the title story evocative as well as 'A New Ecology'. Otherwise, I found the rest of the stories to be incredibly moody; but I reached the end of each puzzled and feeling empty.
tishmisc's review against another edition
3.0
I picked this up on a whim while visiting Dreamhaven, and I am so happy about the find! The stories in this collection hover at the edge of the fantastical, invoking myths as often as they relate the struggle of the day to day. This debut collection has me really excited to read more.
library_brandy's review against another edition
This was recommended to me a couple of years ago, and I can't help but wonder if Me From a Couple of Years Ago would have liked it more. There were some stories I liked a lot, and some that didn't hold my interest at all. All very well written, with beautiful language, but left me a little blah anyway.
The title story was really good, though.
The title story was really good, though.
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