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Maybe it's me. I know a year or two ago there was a lot of excitement about this short story collection, but I just didn't care that much for it. To be honest, I was quite bored and I was never so happy to get to the final page of a book.
The stories had a lot of potential, but in my opinion there was a lot of room for improvement. I'm usually a huge fan of short stories and I am quite familiar with the narrative that's suddenly disturbed by a random usually peculiar event. And I quite like that, when it flows, when the vibes are there. Which wasn't the case with this volume. I actually felt it quite formulaic and annoying at times. The predictability was not working for me. The suspense was lacking.
I wasn't big on the writing style either. I do not see the need to know what each character is wearing, or the random enumerations of things.
It's not all bad; at times it did remind me of summer and it captured that summertime essence. But that wasn't enough for me. Some stories I liked more than others, some were quite good (okay, maybe just one and two had a lot of potential).
Overall, an unfortunate miss for me. I know everyone else loved this book. So maybe it's me. Maybe it's not.
Below my reading notes on each short story:
Svetlana - tried very hard to care and get over some things, it was a tad bit nostalgic and made me miss the sea or the summer nights in my birthtown, spent on the beach, with guys just as annoying as those in the story, but I so did not care about them, only the sand, the water and the stars around me.
Libelula - The thing with such short short stories is that I know the formula so I already know what will happen and it's not really fun and I don't get to care for the people either. But they definitely remind me of summer. The stillness, the boredom...
Concertul - I left no notes for this one, I assume I just got very bored with it.
Terasa - the predictability is getting predictably dull.
Inainte de inceperea sezonului. Finally a spark of something.
Martori. Maybe I spoke too soon. It's not that these short stories are bad - although sometimes the writing is a bit annoying (do we really need to know what all the characters are wearing?), it's just that they are formulaic and predictable and each story tries too hard to surprise, instead of building something. A feeling, a story, anything.
Complexul Barcelona. Grateful she didn't tell us what everyone was wearing. This story had potential, I just didn't vibe with the writing.
Giovanni 3:16 - quite probably my favourite story in this collection, all the feels and the uncertainty, and the different formula of it, which is probably why it works so well.
Superman. Meh.
Cabana schiorilor. A hint of something. But I still feel like I did not get enough out of this story.
The stories had a lot of potential, but in my opinion there was a lot of room for improvement. I'm usually a huge fan of short stories and I am quite familiar with the narrative that's suddenly disturbed by a random usually peculiar event. And I quite like that, when it flows, when the vibes are there. Which wasn't the case with this volume. I actually felt it quite formulaic and annoying at times. The predictability was not working for me. The suspense was lacking.
I wasn't big on the writing style either. I do not see the need to know what each character is wearing, or the random enumerations of things.
It's not all bad; at times it did remind me of summer and it captured that summertime essence. But that wasn't enough for me. Some stories I liked more than others, some were quite good (okay, maybe just one and two had a lot of potential).
Overall, an unfortunate miss for me. I know everyone else loved this book. So maybe it's me. Maybe it's not.
Below my reading notes on each short story:
Libelula - The thing with such short short stories is that I know the formula so I already know what will happen and it's not really fun and I don't get to care for the people either. But they definitely remind me of summer. The stillness, the boredom...
Concertul - I left no notes for this one, I assume I just got very bored with it.
Terasa - the predictability is getting predictably dull.
Inainte de inceperea sezonului. Finally a spark of something.
Martori. Maybe I spoke too soon. It's not that these short stories are bad - although sometimes the writing is a bit annoying (do we really need to know what all the characters are wearing?), it's just that they are formulaic and predictable and each story tries too hard to surprise, instead of building something. A feeling, a story, anything.
Complexul Barcelona. Grateful she didn't tell us what everyone was wearing. This story had potential, I just didn't vibe with the writing.
Giovanni 3:16 - quite probably my favourite story in this collection, all the feels and the uncertainty, and the different formula of it, which is probably why it works so well.
Superman. Meh.
Cabana schiorilor. A hint of something. But I still feel like I did not get enough out of this story.