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A review by clareads_
So We Can Glow: Stories by Leesa Cross-Smith
4.0
I really liked this!! This was a gorgeous, lush anthology with tons of short stories focused on feminine lust, desire, and friendship. I really appreciated this as other anthologies often felt all over the place and never really felt right , but with this, as it was all written by the same author, it felt really cohesive and thematically strong - with reoccurring characters and plot points throughout.
the writing was so so vivid and beautiful it felt like it had transcended across the pages, and the ATMOSPHERE. I really felt the lush arizona heat, the sticky cherry lip gloss, the thirsty lust...... I also appreciated the author's variation in medium with plays, playlists, text messages, and short & sweet prose - it really mixed things up a bit and really tied the entire anthology up so nicely.
however I WILL say that I am 100% not the target demographic for this, and a lot of the adultery and middle age nostalgia centered in America's deep south is.... too niche + not my cup of tea. It holds a lot more adult themes and cheating than I would really prefer, so maybe I'll like it more in 20 years LMAO. some stories were also just a BIT too short, just a tad too uninteresting, and just not relatable imo, but obviously this is all down to personal preference - and I really did love the VIBE it exuded and the overarching message of the novel to just embrace and bask in one's femininity, and does so by exploring all of its beauty and sins with nothing left behind.
favs: some are dark, some are light, summer melts + pink bubblegum and flowers
the writing was so so vivid and beautiful it felt like it had transcended across the pages, and the ATMOSPHERE. I really felt the lush arizona heat, the sticky cherry lip gloss, the thirsty lust...... I also appreciated the author's variation in medium with plays, playlists, text messages, and short & sweet prose - it really mixed things up a bit and really tied the entire anthology up so nicely.
however I WILL say that I am 100% not the target demographic for this, and a lot of the adultery and middle age nostalgia centered in America's deep south is.... too niche + not my cup of tea. It holds a lot more adult themes and cheating than I would really prefer, so maybe I'll like it more in 20 years LMAO. some stories were also just a BIT too short, just a tad too uninteresting, and just not relatable imo, but obviously this is all down to personal preference - and I really did love the VIBE it exuded and the overarching message of the novel to just embrace and bask in one's femininity, and does so by exploring all of its beauty and sins with nothing left behind.
favs: some are dark, some are light, summer melts + pink bubblegum and flowers