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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
DNF after 3 stories. The writing was good but ultimately the stories were not compelling enough for me. They might appeal to others though.
I don't like short story anthologies in general but these were a lot of fun. They are not quite the Shirley Jackson level of horror but definitely are in that same style of "the real world is creepier than you let yourself notice." Some switch to a male POV at least part of the time, but the protagonist in each is a middle aged white woman. Below are the basic plots of each story, but this doesn't really capture the bizarre thoughts and beautiful phrasing in each.
1. Last Night - Woman remembers sneaking out of a sanitarium on her last night and hanging out on the train tracks with two other inmates.
2. Slumberland - A creepy lady drives around at night and photographs people without their knowledge, and meets a neighbor with a weird fetish job.
3. Hill of Hell - A woman has issues with motherhood.
4. Cult of Mary - Tourists in Rome have a guide who is a bit too honest for some people.
5. Lizards - A wife questions her husband's sexual past, he uses duplicity to force her into silence, while prehistoric creatures who have no business existing continue to thrive.
6. The Pitch - A husband is cagey about the boy in the background of family photos.
7. Volcano House - A woman reflects her past with her sister, who is in a coma. There might be something here about choosing to live life versus choosing a safer imitation of it?
8. Friends - A woman has trouble meeting friends in a new city and then finds a really creepy one.
9. Karolina - A woman runs into her brother's ex-wife and struggles with why her image of him is so different from hers.
10. Your Second Wife - A woman invents a job in which she imitates the dead wives of widowers and goes on dates with them.
11. I Hold a Wold by the Ears - A woman's sister stands her up without explanation, leaving her alone in an isolated Italian village as her identify is striped away a piece at a time.
1. Last Night - Woman remembers sneaking out of a sanitarium on her last night and hanging out on the train tracks with two other inmates.
2. Slumberland - A creepy lady drives around at night and photographs people without their knowledge, and meets a neighbor with a weird fetish job.
3. Hill of Hell - A woman has issues with motherhood.
4. Cult of Mary - Tourists in Rome have a guide who is a bit too honest for some people.
5. Lizards - A wife questions her husband's sexual past, he uses duplicity to force her into silence, while prehistoric creatures who have no business existing continue to thrive.
6. The Pitch - A husband is cagey about the boy in the background of family photos.
7. Volcano House - A woman reflects her past with her sister, who is in a coma. There might be something here about choosing to live life versus choosing a safer imitation of it?
8. Friends - A woman has trouble meeting friends in a new city and then finds a really creepy one.
9. Karolina - A woman runs into her brother's ex-wife and struggles with why her image of him is so different from hers.
10. Your Second Wife - A woman invents a job in which she imitates the dead wives of widowers and goes on dates with them.
11. I Hold a Wold by the Ears - A woman's sister stands her up without explanation, leaving her alone in an isolated Italian village as her identify is striped away a piece at a time.
One of my favorite genres: women making bad decisions, with delicious writing, dark atmosphere, and menace aplenty.
dark
reflective
medium-paced
This book was 100% Yana-jam. If you haven't liked my other recommendations, probably not for you. But if you have, it may be! These short stories all have a melancholy mood (do NOT read this if you need a pick-me-up), minimalist style, and spend most of their time inside the protagonists' thoughts. They have just enough detail to pull you in & immerse you in each story's little world. My only minor quibble is that although the circumstantial details are different, the voice of each of the protagonists is very similar. But I'm not sure I have a problem with that, it just struck me.
They were far less weird, supernatural, or surreal than I expected based on the jacket description and the blurbs, but many of them do have a dream-like quality. For fans of Clarice Lispector, Samantha Schweblin, maybe Lauren Groff. Blurbed by the lovely Mariana Enriquez and Sigrid Nunez (both of whom I love so that set my hopes really high -- I was ready to be disappointed!).
They were far less weird, supernatural, or surreal than I expected based on the jacket description and the blurbs, but many of them do have a dream-like quality. For fans of Clarice Lispector, Samantha Schweblin, maybe Lauren Groff. Blurbed by the lovely Mariana Enriquez and Sigrid Nunez (both of whom I love so that set my hopes really high -- I was ready to be disappointed!).
4.75 stars
I really savored this short story collection. Laura van den Berg is a masterful observer of modern life, whether she's tackling #MeToo-esque storylines, mass gun violence, or the precariousness of the gig economy. She also has a real knack for good endings (as in skillfully done, not "happy" endings), which is not always the case in contemporary short story collections. And on that note, not that it's really a competition, I prefer this collection over Lauren Groff's [b:Florida|44776662|Florida|Lauren Groff|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554295453l/44776662._SY75_.jpg|57682000], which was heavily hyped when it came out in 2019. I hope this book gets just as much critical acclaim! Highly recommend this one.
I really savored this short story collection. Laura van den Berg is a masterful observer of modern life, whether she's tackling #MeToo-esque storylines, mass gun violence, or the precariousness of the gig economy. She also has a real knack for good endings (as in skillfully done, not "happy" endings), which is not always the case in contemporary short story collections. And on that note, not that it's really a competition, I prefer this collection over Lauren Groff's [b:Florida|44776662|Florida|Lauren Groff|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554295453l/44776662._SY75_.jpg|57682000], which was heavily hyped when it came out in 2019. I hope this book gets just as much critical acclaim! Highly recommend this one.
Masterful, powerful writing. I attended a virtual book event recently where five authors read from their latest works - Laura was last, and she was well worth the wait, as she seized the restless audience's attention with her exquisite reading from this collection of short stories. It makes a huge difference when an author has a commanding grasp of their work and is able to convey its importance to an audience via spoken word. I'm glad I stuck around to the end of the book event, as it led me to discover and purchase this wonderful collection that I won't soon forget.
Just ok to me! The stories all kind of blurred together for me - the narrator’s all had very similar voices and honestly some of the plot repeated from story to story. I did really like the story “Your Second Wife”, def a standout for me.
I did like the author’s style, which would be better suited for longer fiction than a collection of short fiction, imo
I did like the author’s style, which would be better suited for longer fiction than a collection of short fiction, imo