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quynh23's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
creolelitbelle's review
5.0
A delightful tale of librarians, books, and their purposes for readers. I smiled, laughed out loud, felt my heart constrict (metaphorically speaking), and sighed satisfactorily at the end. Librarians having all these special powers to help readers is such a thrilling thought, and helping readers is exactly what good library workers and librarians always hope to do. The books having personalities of their own and sensing things about potential readers is also fun. There's a book out there for everyone, but I genuinely loved this line:
"And you really can’t do anything for the people who only read Award-Winning Literature..."
Alix E. Harrow is a great storyteller, and I feel the essence of her three books I've already read from this short story written before any of those were published.
Merged review:
A delightful tale of librarians, books, and their purposes for readers. I smiled, laughed out loud, felt my heart constrict (metaphorically speaking), and sighed satisfactorily at the end. Librarians having all these special powers to help readers is such a thrilling thought, and helping readers is exactly what good library workers and librarians always hope to do. The books having personalities of their own and sensing things about potential readers is also fun. There's a book out there for everyone, but I genuinely loved this line:
"And you really can’t do anything for the people who only read Award-Winning Literature..."
Alix E. Harrow is a great storyteller, and I feel the essence of her three books I've already read from this short story written before any of those were published.
"And you really can’t do anything for the people who only read Award-Winning Literature..."
Alix E. Harrow is a great storyteller, and I feel the essence of her three books I've already read from this short story written before any of those were published.
Merged review:
A delightful tale of librarians, books, and their purposes for readers. I smiled, laughed out loud, felt my heart constrict (metaphorically speaking), and sighed satisfactorily at the end. Librarians having all these special powers to help readers is such a thrilling thought, and helping readers is exactly what good library workers and librarians always hope to do. The books having personalities of their own and sensing things about potential readers is also fun. There's a book out there for everyone, but I genuinely loved this line:
"And you really can’t do anything for the people who only read Award-Winning Literature..."
Alix E. Harrow is a great storyteller, and I feel the essence of her three books I've already read from this short story written before any of those were published.
katleap's review
5.0
This was amazing.
"There have only ever been two kinds of librarians in the history of the world: the prudish, bitter ones with lipstick running into the cracks around their lips who believe the books are their personal property and patrons are dangerous delinquents come to steal them; and witches"
It was like all wonderful stories, too short.
"I do my best to give people the books they need most. In grad school, they called it “ensuring readers have access to texts/materials that are engaging and emotionally rewarding,” and in my other kind of schooling, they called it “divining the unfilled spaces in their souls and filling them with stories and starshine,” but it comes to the same thing."
Also I would totally read more librarian witches.
"There have only ever been two kinds of librarians in the history of the world: the prudish, bitter ones with lipstick running into the cracks around their lips who believe the books are their personal property and patrons are dangerous delinquents come to steal them; and witches"
It was like all wonderful stories, too short.
"I do my best to give people the books they need most. In grad school, they called it “ensuring readers have access to texts/materials that are engaging and emotionally rewarding,” and in my other kind of schooling, they called it “divining the unfilled spaces in their souls and filling them with stories and starshine,” but it comes to the same thing."
Also I would totally read more librarian witches.
eb00kie's review
The first story about the librarian witch was not bad, but the stakes were unclear as to why such good books were forbidden so the payoff ended up muddled.
The following interview and story started boring, therefore, DNF.
The following interview and story started boring, therefore, DNF.
maplessence's review
5.0
My review is for A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies by Alix Harrow and Interview with Alix Harrow by Andrea Johnson only.
Enchanting
Really the only word that can be used to describe this longish short story. I entered the Witch Librarian's library - and I didn't want to leave.
Books can do magic, can create a world for the lost, bewildered and lonely. Ms Harrow understands this.
I'm excited by the depth and complexity of Ms Harrow's imagination and look forward to reading more of her work.
It's only September, but I am going to call this my best short story read of 2019.
Great interview by Andrea Johnson - which shows she also has a vivid imagination! Brief, but witty and informative. 5★
Want to change Goodreads policy on short stories? If you want to talk to staff about it here is the link. https://www.goodreads.com/about/contact_us Librarians are volunteers - we have little to no influence on Goodreads policies. On the rare occasions that Goodreads backs down, you need Librarians prepared to do the reversals and usually have active Librarians either stop doing the edits or only do their own. Just saying.
More chance of success would be to ask if the authors concerned if they would put the short stories on their own website. If the story is on their website, it would have to be unconditionally available. (readers not required to join a mailing list for example).
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshessonovel.wordpress.com
Enchanting
Really the only word that can be used to describe this longish short story. I entered the Witch Librarian's library - and I didn't want to leave.
Books can do magic, can create a world for the lost, bewildered and lonely. Ms Harrow understands this.
I'm excited by the depth and complexity of Ms Harrow's imagination and look forward to reading more of her work.
It's only September, but I am going to call this my best short story read of 2019.
Great interview by Andrea Johnson - which shows she also has a vivid imagination! Brief, but witty and informative. 5★
Want to change Goodreads policy on short stories? If you want to talk to staff about it here is the link. https://www.goodreads.com/about/contact_us Librarians are volunteers - we have little to no influence on Goodreads policies. On the rare occasions that Goodreads backs down, you need Librarians prepared to do the reversals and usually have active Librarians either stop doing the edits or only do their own. Just saying.
More chance of success would be to ask if the authors concerned if they would put the short stories on their own website. If the story is on their website, it would have to be unconditionally available. (readers not required to join a mailing list for example).
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshessonovel.wordpress.com
titusfortner's review
4.0
Fun short story about witches who are librarians
Listened to this via Apex Magazine podcast from 2/6/2018.
Listened to this via Apex Magazine podcast from 2/6/2018.
fourtriplezed's review
5.0
This isn’t how it is meant to be. I awake without the alarm, it is dark and it is raining heavily. I wander downstairs and make coffee and decide to read a few reviews and then get a few pages in of my present book before heading on the insufferable freeway to go to work. Thunder starts and I check the radar. There is rain aplenty.
I sip the coffee and the first review is of this short story. It seems promising, so I hit the link offered and read along with the audio. I have never done that before, I think to myself.
About 40 minutes later, a clap of thunder roars over head as I read/listen to the last line. Timing is everything, I suppose. My coffee has gone cold. It is still raining.
Merged review:
This isn’t how it is meant to be. I awake without the alarm, it is dark and it is raining heavily. I wander downstairs and make coffee and decide to read a few reviews and then get a few pages in of my present book before heading on the insufferable freeway to go to work. Thunder starts and I check the radar. There is rain aplenty.
I sip the coffee and the first review is of this short story. It seems promising, so I hit the link offered and read along with the audio. I have never done that before, I think to myself.
About 40 minutes later, a clap of thunder roars over head as I read/listen to the last line. Timing is everything, I suppose. My coffee has gone cold. It is still raining.
I sip the coffee and the first review is of this short story. It seems promising, so I hit the link offered and read along with the audio. I have never done that before, I think to myself.
About 40 minutes later, a clap of thunder roars over head as I read/listen to the last line. Timing is everything, I suppose. My coffee has gone cold. It is still raining.
Merged review:
This isn’t how it is meant to be. I awake without the alarm, it is dark and it is raining heavily. I wander downstairs and make coffee and decide to read a few reviews and then get a few pages in of my present book before heading on the insufferable freeway to go to work. Thunder starts and I check the radar. There is rain aplenty.
I sip the coffee and the first review is of this short story. It seems promising, so I hit the link offered and read along with the audio. I have never done that before, I think to myself.
About 40 minutes later, a clap of thunder roars over head as I read/listen to the last line. Timing is everything, I suppose. My coffee has gone cold. It is still raining.
shiradest's review
5.0
Hang on, I thought I just wrote a review saying that I remember reading this, and I loved it, but my review has disappeared, and so I'll have to find it again so I can write a proper review. I guess the good reads app is glitching, again.
misssusan's review
4.0
"I sat at the circulation desk, running returns beneath the blinky red scanner light, and breathed him in. I was expecting something like generic Arthurian retelling or maybe teen romance with sword-fighting, but instead I found a howling, clamoring mess of need.
He smelled of a thousand secret worlds, of rabbit-holes and hidden doorways and platforms nine-and-three-quarters, of Wonderland and Oz and Narnia, of anyplace-but-here. He smelled of yearning.
God save me from the yearners. The insatiable, the inconsolable, the ones who chafe and claw against the edges of the world. No book can save them."
a gorgeous piece about providing escape.
4.5 stars
futurememory's review
4.0
This is a review for "A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies" by Alix Harrow, which can be read for free, here: https://apex-magazine.com/a-witchs-guide-to-escape-a-practical-compendium-of-portal-fantasies/
A lovely short story about the power of reading, about librarians and Books, and about how the landscapes and magic in books transports us... and causes deep yearning, and healing, too.
A lovely short story about the power of reading, about librarians and Books, and about how the landscapes and magic in books transports us... and causes deep yearning, and healing, too.