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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
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:
No
Would be nice to listen to on audiobook to fall asleep to. A little boring.
Just wasn't connecting with any of it. The ideas are vaguely compelling and the writing is fine, but the characters don't connect and the lack of continuity means I don't feel any pull to read on.
medium-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:
N/A
medium-paced
Charles de lint, Newford and read by Kate Reading - of course it's a 5
This is another one of those books where I just have to say 'How does one review something this special, this odd and this wonderful?' I can't. I can, though, try and tell you why I love this anthology so much.
It's the second of de Lint's works that I have read. The first was [b:The Blue Girl|182332|The Blue Girl (Newford, #15)|Charles de Lint|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1295707955s/182332.jpg|2893], which, when I started it, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. This anthology really connected some dots about Newford for me, though.
The characters in here are just magical in that they are totally realistic, but believe in their imaginations and the true spirit of the world. They are exactly the type of person I'd like to be... quirky, funny, interesting, imaginative, creative and open to other things.
Strewn among the many many short stories are famous and not so famous quotes that pertain to the story. Some of them were very memorable.
Also, it felt a bit as though de Lint was trying to tell me something with each story, trying to make me learn a lesson about life, love, living, what have you. But it didn't feel negative to me, like most authors bring it across.
This collection left me with a feeling of hope, awareness and but also knowledge. Just because something is magical doesn't mean that it's not bad as well. These stories are as much positive and wonderful and happily ever afters as negative and threatening and trying to explain that life isn't just cherry blossoms and tea time.
I know that some of these stories will stay to haunt me for a while yet. I know that the characters will; they definitely came off the page and seemed so real, like if I were to start walking the 2am streets of my city I could meet them, and they'd open the doors to the Faerie realm for me!
It's the second of de Lint's works that I have read. The first was [b:The Blue Girl|182332|The Blue Girl (Newford, #15)|Charles de Lint|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1295707955s/182332.jpg|2893], which, when I started it, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. This anthology really connected some dots about Newford for me, though.
The characters in here are just magical in that they are totally realistic, but believe in their imaginations and the true spirit of the world. They are exactly the type of person I'd like to be... quirky, funny, interesting, imaginative, creative and open to other things.
Strewn among the many many short stories are famous and not so famous quotes that pertain to the story. Some of them were very memorable.
Also, it felt a bit as though de Lint was trying to tell me something with each story, trying to make me learn a lesson about life, love, living, what have you. But it didn't feel negative to me, like most authors bring it across.
This collection left me with a feeling of hope, awareness and but also knowledge. Just because something is magical doesn't mean that it's not bad as well. These stories are as much positive and wonderful and happily ever afters as negative and threatening and trying to explain that life isn't just cherry blossoms and tea time.
I know that some of these stories will stay to haunt me for a while yet. I know that the characters will; they definitely came off the page and seemed so real, like if I were to start walking the 2am streets of my city I could meet them, and they'd open the doors to the Faerie realm for me!
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Collection of short stories that all have a connection with the town of Newford and its characters. Some stories were good, some not so, all in all an enjoyable but not an amazing book.
A long time ago, at least fifteen years but possibly longer, I'm pretty sure I got a few de Lint novels out from the library and read them. I don't remember which ones precisely, aside from The Onion Girl because I do recall that cover, and I thought, I remember thinking these were interesting, so why not give him a try again but start at the beginning?
So I didn't know, when I picked this up from ThriftBooks, that it was a short story collection, and that's my fault, because I was expecting a novel. But even taking my incorrect expectations into account, I was unimpressed by this.
Together the stories do paint a vivid picture of a place, a city, that could exist nearly anywhere in North America, at least anywhere many cultures have come together with their many traditions of folklore, mythical creatures, and magic. The world-building is the strongest thing about this; if I felt like combing through the book again for each specific detail, I could probably draw you a half-decent map of Newford. (But this is the age of the Internet, and I bet someone else, a more invested fan than me, already has.)
But though this city could exist anywhere it could definitely not exist anywhen. The combined vagueness and immediacy of place is not matched by an equal timelessness, because these stories are so incredibly, painfully dated in their language and details. How many times was a large cassette player called a "ghetto blaster?" How many musical references are there to existing artists like 10,000 Maniacs and The Pogues? How many characters have Mohawks? (Not that that isn't still a thing, it is, but the hairstyle has an incredibly strong link with the punk culture of the '80s.) All of the individual stories appeared in magazines throughout the late '80s and early '90s, and it shows in the level of technology in the setting, but also in the language. Compact discs aren't even abbreviated as "CDs" yet! So there's where the specificity of an urban fantasy setting rubs the wrong way against the threads of magical realism--I wanted these stories to be more timeless than they could possibly be.
My second major complaint is the weakness of characterization. Everyone gets a physical introduction of a paragraph or two that covers most of the same details--it's very, very important that we know everyone's height and hairstyle--but the stories do little to flesh out personalities, being so focused on the magical aspects of the story. Even the characters that come up the most often are still fairly thin, built from tropes that don't gain complexity through their actions--Jilly is a starving-artist type, Geordie a starving-musician type, and so on. I especially don't like how all of the women are basically the same woman with slightly different looks and slightly different backstories. Jilly didn't bother me in that regard so much because she's the first one we meet, but the Hispanic waitress and the Romani musican lady honestly didn't feel all that different from her, except the waitress used the most awkward forced Spanish in her narrative even while she whined that she had hung out with "Anglos" so long that she was losing her Spanish and could barely speak to her abuela anymore. Listen, I'm not bilingual, but I've read a lot of advice on how to write bilingual characters, based on how actual bilingual people switch between their languages, and this ain't it. This is definitely a White Male Author writing both poor examples of women and worse examples of women of color.
And yeah, I know, this was more than thirty years ago in some cases and attitudes have progressed. Maybe his more recent works are better in this regard, but my interest was in starting the series from the beginning to get the full picture of his world. The world still seems interesting, but it's populated by characters I can't connect with. I won't be coming back again.
So I didn't know, when I picked this up from ThriftBooks, that it was a short story collection, and that's my fault, because I was expecting a novel. But even taking my incorrect expectations into account, I was unimpressed by this.
Together the stories do paint a vivid picture of a place, a city, that could exist nearly anywhere in North America, at least anywhere many cultures have come together with their many traditions of folklore, mythical creatures, and magic. The world-building is the strongest thing about this; if I felt like combing through the book again for each specific detail, I could probably draw you a half-decent map of Newford. (But this is the age of the Internet, and I bet someone else, a more invested fan than me, already has.)
But though this city could exist anywhere it could definitely not exist anywhen. The combined vagueness and immediacy of place is not matched by an equal timelessness, because these stories are so incredibly, painfully dated in their language and details. How many times was a large cassette player called a "ghetto blaster?" How many musical references are there to existing artists like 10,000 Maniacs and The Pogues? How many characters have Mohawks? (Not that that isn't still a thing, it is, but the hairstyle has an incredibly strong link with the punk culture of the '80s.) All of the individual stories appeared in magazines throughout the late '80s and early '90s, and it shows in the level of technology in the setting, but also in the language. Compact discs aren't even abbreviated as "CDs" yet! So there's where the specificity of an urban fantasy setting rubs the wrong way against the threads of magical realism--I wanted these stories to be more timeless than they could possibly be.
My second major complaint is the weakness of characterization. Everyone gets a physical introduction of a paragraph or two that covers most of the same details--it's very, very important that we know everyone's height and hairstyle--but the stories do little to flesh out personalities, being so focused on the magical aspects of the story. Even the characters that come up the most often are still fairly thin, built from tropes that don't gain complexity through their actions--Jilly is a starving-artist type, Geordie a starving-musician type, and so on. I especially don't like how all of the women are basically the same woman with slightly different looks and slightly different backstories. Jilly didn't bother me in that regard so much because she's the first one we meet, but the Hispanic waitress and the Romani musican lady honestly didn't feel all that different from her, except the waitress used the most awkward forced Spanish in her narrative even while she whined that she had hung out with "Anglos" so long that she was losing her Spanish and could barely speak to her abuela anymore. Listen, I'm not bilingual, but I've read a lot of advice on how to write bilingual characters, based on how actual bilingual people switch between their languages, and this ain't it. This is definitely a White Male Author writing both poor examples of women and worse examples of women of color.
And yeah, I know, this was more than thirty years ago in some cases and attitudes have progressed. Maybe his more recent works are better in this regard, but my interest was in starting the series from the beginning to get the full picture of his world. The world still seems interesting, but it's populated by characters I can't connect with. I won't be coming back again.
I'm giving this four stars because I would give it three stars for the writing, and five for how much I loved it. That doesn't make much sense, let me explain: the writing was a little overwrought with metaphor and simile, and there were certainly some problematic elements to some of the stories...but the stories themselves pulled me along. Like magic.
A re-read of a favorite. I think this is only my third read but it has been awhile. A long enough while that it was before I was writing reviews on goodreads. These are a sweet set of connected short stories. Many of the stories star characters who are major characters in later longer works. I forget how many of them show up in this collection - an awful lot get there are own stories - especially Jilly but also Geordie and Christie. Isabelle doesn't get her own story but she is name-checked. And we don't see the Crow Girls. But a lot of the cast appears. There is a bit of a slump in the middle of the collection where the stories don't pack quite as strong of a punch. But they are offset by some tough to take stories. This collection has more than its share of characters with tough lives. But throughout there are strong characters with beautiful language that doesn't get in the way of story.