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rhetoricandlogic's review
4.0
Disclaimer: I received a copy from one of the authors/editors in exchange for an honest review.
This is a story collection more than an anthology (no overarching theme) and as always with collections: some stories are excellent, some not so much and for some I just don't have enough intellectual capacity.
So it was here. I liked the stories a lot, particularly the ones by Andrew Hiller and Emily Wood. Hiller's for the "mystery" (the open-ended-do-your-thinking-dear-reader) and Emily's for the the parallels and double (entwined) plots. Both of them have strong narrator-voices and a clear vision of how the story is supposed to go. I like that. Both of them employ tools typical of an experienced author's magic toolbox and it shows. Huzzah!
I admit freely to not being able to understand Dyingman and or At First Sight - William Jacobs writes practically literature and as such over my mental paygrade. (I never made it through even One T. Pynchon, let alone Ulysses). The same goes vor Mary Salmonson.
Mark Ballweg's "A Week in the Life ..." was extremely entertaining - a little in the line of the "Please Don't Tell My Parents ..." series that I also love. Does he know that series? Hello, Mark Ballweg: I recommed the series to you, you might even like it!
I'm sorry to say that Linda Meyer's stories are not my cup of tea. I felt, they aren't "stories" as such, but simple (more or less fatal) accounts of accidents. There's no narrative arc that I can see, no plot, not point of either catharsis or catastrophe (as such) and both mums in both stories are -for all purposes- copypasta of each other. I'm terribly sorry to say that by the second story in the same vein I got somewhat irritated.
Overall it was a very enjoyable ride and I do recommend this collection.
Thank you, Andrew, for the ARC.
This is a story collection more than an anthology (no overarching theme) and as always with collections: some stories are excellent, some not so much and for some I just don't have enough intellectual capacity.
So it was here. I liked the stories a lot, particularly the ones by Andrew Hiller and Emily Wood. Hiller's for the "mystery" (the open-ended-do-your-thinking-dear-reader) and Emily's for the the parallels and double (entwined) plots. Both of them have strong narrator-voices and a clear vision of how the story is supposed to go. I like that. Both of them employ tools typical of an experienced author's magic toolbox and it shows. Huzzah!
I admit freely to not being able to understand Dyingman and or At First Sight - William Jacobs writes practically literature and as such over my mental paygrade. (I never made it through even One T. Pynchon, let alone Ulysses). The same goes vor Mary Salmonson.
Mark Ballweg's "A Week in the Life ..." was extremely entertaining - a little in the line of the "Please Don't Tell My Parents ..." series that I also love. Does he know that series? Hello, Mark Ballweg: I recommed the series to you, you might even like it!
I'm sorry to say that Linda Meyer's stories are not my cup of tea. I felt, they aren't "stories" as such, but simple (more or less fatal) accounts of accidents. There's no narrative arc that I can see, no plot, not point of either catharsis or catastrophe (as such) and both mums in both stories are -for all purposes- copypasta of each other. I'm terribly sorry to say that by the second story in the same vein I got somewhat irritated.
Overall it was a very enjoyable ride and I do recommend this collection.
Thank you, Andrew, for the ARC.
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