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4.26 AVERAGE
4.26 AVERAGE
It's hard to give a star rating to an omnibus of an author's entire collected short stories, where there are obvious standouts (5+ stars) such as "The Bloody Chamber" and "Black Venus", while the rest left me a little underwhelmed.
This is a great collection of magical, gothic and more ordinary tales. The reason I don’t give it 5 stars is that some of the stories are not that interesting as the others are. However for the most part the tales in this collection of all her tales are really great and engaging. I particularly loved the bloody chamber and other stories section (where she rewrites traditional fairy tales in her own original way) but there are also other great original tales such as Lizzie’s tiger, Peter and the wolf, The scarlet house, and the snow pavilion.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
There are some decent stories in the collection, but the writing feels dated. The pacing is quite bad and the short stories tend to lack a hook or intrigue. It’s mildly enjoyable but not worth the effort
mysterious
reflective
Beautifully written but occasionally too disturbing for my taste.
This book is a treasure. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a great deal about writing from it. Not just for Horror/Fantasy writers--Carter is one of the top short story writers of the century.
I used one of Carter's stories in my thesis back in undergrad and I always meant to come back around and read the rest of her works. Taken as a whole, they can be a bit overwhelming but there is no denying, the woman could write a creepy, gothic fairy tale re-visited like no other. I think the stories from The Bloody Chamber were my favorite though; there she was in full-on fairy tale mode and I don't think anyone could retell a fairy tale like Carter.
Excellent! Highly recommend this to anyone who likes short stories, fantasy, fairy tales or just really great quality writing. I especially loved the stories in the Bloody Chamber series.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
If Cory Bernardi (an unfortunate Australian politician who made an even more unfortunate comment about Gay Marriage and bestiality) ever read this book his head would explode. I am sure (well more hopeful, but doubtful) that he is intelligent enough to see the metaphors, but it would it would make Q&A more interesting. The amount of tigers and wolves sinking their teeth into the virgins delicate flesh would make you very drunk in a drinking game.
But that doesn't stop me from wanting look up every so often while read and go 'f&*k me'. It is that good.
But that doesn't stop me from wanting look up every so often while read and go 'f&*k me'. It is that good.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
"I speak as if he had no secrets from me. Well, then, you must realise that I was suffering from love and I knew him as intimately as I knew my own image in a mirror. In other words, I knew him only in relation to myself."