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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Much more eerie and unsettling than her previous two collections. Similar to Samanta Schweblin's Mouthful of Birds.
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is somewhere between 2 and 3. The stories were fine, but the tone rarely varied and partway through the book, I started to feel like I was reading the same story over and over again. There were repeated themes and characters in every piece and it was sometimes a struggle to remember that each story was about a different character. They all had the same sort of haunting, surreal vibe that short fiction so often has, which was much more interesting at the start than it was at the end. I think each piece would work better in their stand alone form than in their collection form.
This was hard to rate because some of the stories (Last Night, Slumberland, Volcano House, Karolina, Your Second Wife, and the title story) were eerie and masterful in craft, while the others were good but didn’t leave as great of an impression on me. But damn van den Berg knows how to write the weird and strange—I’m a fan and will still be marking this as a favorite because I plan to return to the stories I did love in the future.
I liked some of the first stories in this collection best, particularly Last Night and Slumberland. The title story was also interesting. Sadly, though, most of the stories in here didn't really speak to me at all. I requested this collection from Netgalley, and I really wanted to love it, but ultimately I didn't. I like the writing style and the eerie mood though
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes