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A review by silverthane
Werewolves in Their Youth: Stories by Michael Chabon
3.0
When I first heard of this collection of nine short stories I judged the book by its title and assumed it was a collection of horror stories. This turned out to be untrue. All the stories are quite different but a common theme is strained or broken relationships. The stories are well written, easy to read and a good length.
Most of them are thought provoking and empathetic towards the plights of the characters who are well developed and generally likeable. The characters have been carefully written to present as human beings with real human problems. Even in situations the reader can't personally relate to Chabon seems to encourage the reader to really consider how they would think, feel and act in the characters shoes.
The stories have no fixed genre so you have no idea what you are going to get until you begin reading them.
My favourite story is 'In The Black Mill' which is, coincidentally, the only horror story on offer here. The main character is an archaeologist studying the remains of an ancient, cannibalistic tribe of American Indians. A small town dominated by a large industrial mill now stands on the site. Most of the town's menfolk carry mutilations of one type or another; a missing finger here, a missing ear there. They explain away these disfigurements as results of industrial accidents at the mill. No matter how hard he tries, our archaeologist cannot discover much about the mill. It is only when his dig site reveals a startling discovery that the true nature of the mill, and the mutilated townsfolk, is revealed. I really found this story frightening, it literally chills the blood and, as far as I'm concerned, it was the best of the bunch.
The book is not perfect and more than one of the stories fell flat for me. One or two felt as though they lacked direction but I find this can be frustratingly common with short stories, I often wonder if some short stories (if not most) begin life as an idea for a full blown novel but end life as a short story, almost as though the writer gets bored with the story and just ends it.
Most of them are thought provoking and empathetic towards the plights of the characters who are well developed and generally likeable. The characters have been carefully written to present as human beings with real human problems. Even in situations the reader can't personally relate to Chabon seems to encourage the reader to really consider how they would think, feel and act in the characters shoes.
The stories have no fixed genre so you have no idea what you are going to get until you begin reading them.
My favourite story is 'In The Black Mill' which is, coincidentally, the only horror story on offer here. The main character is an archaeologist studying the remains of an ancient, cannibalistic tribe of American Indians. A small town dominated by a large industrial mill now stands on the site. Most of the town's menfolk carry mutilations of one type or another; a missing finger here, a missing ear there. They explain away these disfigurements as results of industrial accidents at the mill. No matter how hard he tries, our archaeologist cannot discover much about the mill. It is only when his dig site reveals a startling discovery that the true nature of the mill, and the mutilated townsfolk, is revealed. I really found this story frightening, it literally chills the blood and, as far as I'm concerned, it was the best of the bunch.
The book is not perfect and more than one of the stories fell flat for me. One or two felt as though they lacked direction but I find this can be frustratingly common with short stories, I often wonder if some short stories (if not most) begin life as an idea for a full blown novel but end life as a short story, almost as though the writer gets bored with the story and just ends it.