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julgas's review against another edition
4.0
Nick Healy is good at characters. Really good. With just a few lines you know the people in his stories; what they look like, how they think and feel, who they are.
tlbob53's review against another edition
3.0
I wasn't sure what to expect, but I liked this collection of stories quite a bit. Vivid characters and an authenticity in each of the stories that resounds with real life. MN author.
nomonbooks's review
2.0
I was dissapointed. I have read better shorter stories where the characters are better set out. I think my expectations were too high when I started. However some of the stories were enjoyable. The baroness, being one I enjoyed, and also the final two. It does get better as it goes along.
otterno11's review
4.0
It Takes You Over is quite a gripping collection of short stories, with characterizations, emotions, and a masterful use of setting that might well “take you over” as you read. Healy’s stories take on the perspectives of a wide variety of people, sympathetic or less so, going about their everyday lives in the cities and towns of Minnesota. Joy and pain, love and loss, nostalgia and humor, all drift through these pieces as their subjects wrestle with family and relationships, regrets from the past and hope for the future.
It is impressive how much detail and power Healy concentrates in each story, making the reader feel that they have been given a deep look at a slice of another person’s life. The use of the Minnesota landscape was particularly effective, with our lakes and rivers, our seasons, the sweltering summers and frozen winters, the familiar smells, feelings, and sensations of life here punctuating the tales with another level of feeling. It Takes You Over is neither idealized nor trite, but the tales, from the comedic to the tragic, feel strikingly true to life.
It is impressive how much detail and power Healy concentrates in each story, making the reader feel that they have been given a deep look at a slice of another person’s life. The use of the Minnesota landscape was particularly effective, with our lakes and rivers, our seasons, the sweltering summers and frozen winters, the familiar smells, feelings, and sensations of life here punctuating the tales with another level of feeling. It Takes You Over is neither idealized nor trite, but the tales, from the comedic to the tragic, feel strikingly true to life.
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