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thomaswjoyce's review against another edition
5.0
This is an amazing collection. I already knew Kiste was a fantastic author, having read a couple of her longer works. But her short stories are just as impressive. I appreciate the difficult topics she explores through her fiction, including women's rights, LGBTQ rights, domestic horror, grief, and how she combines these with her incredible imagination to deliver some truly effective horror tales. There are a lot of good authors out there, and there are some whose depth of imagination and ability to tell an otherwise straightforward story in an original and fascinating way (seriously, check out "The Man in the Ambry") leave me reeling with awe and envy. Darkly poetic and breathtakingly beautiful, Kiste's prose can fill you with equal parts wonder and terror.
sophmcgraw's review
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
dayseraph's review against another edition
2.0
The ideas for these stories are really good. Kiste is clearly very creative and imaginative, and this collection is full of the unexpected. However, overall, the execution felt unpolished.
It looks like all of the other reviewers here loved this collection, and I am happy for them even if it didn't quite work for me. I did really enjoy a few of the stories, but I never really got/bought into the atmosphere that I feel like Kiste was trying to create for the most part. For the most part, I was curious about where the stories would go, because they felt fresh. But personally, I was rarely satisfied by the experience.
Partly because the stories are nearly all told in the first person, there is a lot of "telling" vs "showing." It's like if someone waved their arms around a haunted house and said, "isn't this spooky? It's so spooooky!" It barely matters if the house is haunted at that point, because being told something is spooky is off-putting. It's not enough to be told the mood; you need to really feel it.
It's hard to rate short story collections, the whole experience was just okay for me.
It looks like all of the other reviewers here loved this collection, and I am happy for them even if it didn't quite work for me. I did really enjoy a few of the stories, but I never really got/bought into the atmosphere that I feel like Kiste was trying to create for the most part. For the most part, I was curious about where the stories would go, because they felt fresh. But personally, I was rarely satisfied by the experience.
Partly because the stories are nearly all told in the first person, there is a lot of "telling" vs "showing." It's like if someone waved their arms around a haunted house and said, "isn't this spooky? It's so spooooky!" It barely matters if the house is haunted at that point, because being told something is spooky is off-putting. It's not enough to be told the mood; you need to really feel it.
It's hard to rate short story collections, the whole experience was just okay for me.
beentsy's review against another edition
5.0
An excellent group of short stories. In particular, the title story, Audrey At Night, The Tower Princesses, and Lazurus Bride were absolutely beautifully written.
maggiefan's review against another edition
4.0
I loved some of the stories and others I didn't like that much. However it is a really good story collection. My favourite stories are definitely "The Tower Princesses" and "The Man in the Ambry". I also really enjoyed reading "By Now, I'll Probably Be Gone", "The Lazarus Bride" "The Five-day Summer Camp", "Audrey At Night", "Skin Like Honey and Lace" and "The Clawfoot Requiem". I appreciate the authors ability to create such unique and unusual stories.
alexanderp's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Been trying to get to this one for awhile and I'm happy I finally did. While not every story did not sit with me well, the title short story was worth the wait.
grapebutton's review against another edition
3.75
Some stories I really enjoyed; others, not so much. Regardless, they’re all still beautifully written and worth checking out.
sisteray's review against another edition
5.0
Holy Cats! I loved this amazing collection of dark fiction and horror stories.
Kiste walks in a tightly crafted space of florid dreamlike language without wasting a word. She writes stories that are completely unreal but all of them feel heavily grounded in the emotional connections that are tied into her characters. Honestly, I don't think there is a story here that is less than very good, and most of them are just stellar.
I obviously don't want to spoil any of these pieces, so I'm not going to go into them in detail as any detail is probably going to give too much away, but the big stand-out stories for me were THE CLAWFOOT REQUIEM, THE MAN IN THE AMBRY, AUDREY AT NIGHT, SKIN LIKE HONEY AND LACE, THE TOWER PRINCESSES.
Her work feels like it walks in a world between spaces. Her subjects are all over genres, magical realism, fairy tale, speculative fiction, dystopian sci-fi, whatever. You aren't just getting the same stories over and over again, but you are getting her queer feminist twist on wild scenarios, and how these women manage the bizarre and outrageous.
I need to read everything she's done.
Kiste walks in a tightly crafted space of florid dreamlike language without wasting a word. She writes stories that are completely unreal but all of them feel heavily grounded in the emotional connections that are tied into her characters. Honestly, I don't think there is a story here that is less than very good, and most of them are just stellar.
I obviously don't want to spoil any of these pieces, so I'm not going to go into them in detail as any detail is probably going to give too much away, but the big stand-out stories for me were THE CLAWFOOT REQUIEM, THE MAN IN THE AMBRY, AUDREY AT NIGHT, SKIN LIKE HONEY AND LACE, THE TOWER PRINCESSES.
Her work feels like it walks in a world between spaces. Her subjects are all over genres, magical realism, fairy tale, speculative fiction, dystopian sci-fi, whatever. You aren't just getting the same stories over and over again, but you are getting her queer feminist twist on wild scenarios, and how these women manage the bizarre and outrageous.
I need to read everything she's done.