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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
These short stories felt haunting in a really interesting way. Each was a journey about the human experience.
A collection of short stories of women going through all sorts of shit. Some stories were really deep and I wanted more and others were super confusing to me.
First read of ven den Berg's work, it will not be the last.
That she uses a line from Lispector as the epigraph gives you some idea where we are going.
Surreal, dark, and humorous at times. Tales told by women, as only women can tell them. Lots of paternal twins. Women (and some men) in their 30's who still have not figured out what it is they want to do with their lives. And are hanging on with jobs that barely pay the rent. And some stories by very successful people as well.
Very contemporary - the creepiest of the stories for me was "Your Second Wife". Which is a brilliant take on the gig economy.
A collection of short stories, coming in at about 200 pp, with a fair number of blank pages thrown in there as well. Quick read. Looking forward to my next read of her work.
That she uses a line from Lispector as the epigraph gives you some idea where we are going.
Surreal, dark, and humorous at times. Tales told by women, as only women can tell them. Lots of paternal twins. Women (and some men) in their 30's who still have not figured out what it is they want to do with their lives. And are hanging on with jobs that barely pay the rent. And some stories by very successful people as well.
Very contemporary - the creepiest of the stories for me was "Your Second Wife". Which is a brilliant take on the gig economy.
A collection of short stories, coming in at about 200 pp, with a fair number of blank pages thrown in there as well. Quick read. Looking forward to my next read of her work.
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Truly astonishing prose, weird and unsettling and vibrant. "Lizards" is going to haunt me forever, but I enjoyed every single one of these. I felt really connected to the author's emotions and the fears she tapped into. The symbolism througout was really satisfying to chew on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Misogyny
Moderate: Drug abuse, Mental illness
Minor: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Trafficking
I don't think I picked this one to read around Halloween, but I read most of it last weekend, and these unsettling stories were just the thing. They aren't jump scares and they don't have the shock ending you worry about from a scary story. Instead, they are just full of unsettling things.
Some of them were strange in ways I expected after reading The Third Hotel. So there are people pretending to be other people, or else being mistaken for someone they're not, that kind of identity slippage. But there were also some really grounded traumas here that resonated with me more than what was in the novel.... The opening story, about being institutionalized and then not being anymore was really powerful, and a lot of these stories worked their doubling in kind of similar ways, where the strangeness was rooted in how we can't always reconcile who we are with who we were, that kind of emptiness and fear about what happened and what if it happens again.
There are also a couple very funny political stories here, one about the Kavanaugh hearings and seltzer that is hilarious and wrong.
Lots to like in this collection, which is really accomplished on the level of craft and the way it made me feel unsettled.
Some of them were strange in ways I expected after reading The Third Hotel. So there are people pretending to be other people, or else being mistaken for someone they're not, that kind of identity slippage. But there were also some really grounded traumas here that resonated with me more than what was in the novel.... The opening story, about being institutionalized and then not being anymore was really powerful, and a lot of these stories worked their doubling in kind of similar ways, where the strangeness was rooted in how we can't always reconcile who we are with who we were, that kind of emptiness and fear about what happened and what if it happens again.
There are also a couple very funny political stories here, one about the Kavanaugh hearings and seltzer that is hilarious and wrong.
Lots to like in this collection, which is really accomplished on the level of craft and the way it made me feel unsettled.
really good collection of stories about women on the verge.
did not finish only because i wasn’t in the right mood to read these kind of stories/ but really enjoyed the first 3 ones . highly recommend
Great collection. The titular story (last in the collection) didn't hit me like I thought it would after several real wallops from the others, so that was sort of disappointing. Great collection though. Must read for my girls in out there.
I became a huge fan of Laura from her first book and super short story “Parakeets” which for me is undeniably the best short story ever written. It seems like I will never get enough of these carefully crafted tales about mysterious women, interesting phobias, odd obsessions and newly seen iconic places (in this case – Italy, Iceland, Mexico). For me it’s really doesn’t matter whether it seems like it’s the same one character in all stories. I even can noticed that from her first book it felt that there was always the same character and in “I Hold…” she is just a little older (mid-thirties). By the way, it is wonderful to get older with characters from one of your favourite authors. Anyway, van den Berg is undeniably the master of masters and it seems that with every book she uses less words and says more. As European, I also deeply enjoy clear, as we say here in the north of continental Europe, American structure of this stories with its fantastic abrupt ends. But still I gave the book just 3 because as some reviewers already noticed, true fans of the author won’t find anything new in this collection and deep down I anticipate for Laura to write something much more ambitious, something that will amplify her talent and bring her tales to the next level.
It had the saddest stories. I felt depressed and had to walk away