A review by routergirl
Daydreams of Angels: Stories by Heather O'Neill

5.0

Heather O'Neill is brilliant. I've had this book for months, and I'm kicking myself that I only just opened it up. Every story is a gem - I'd struggle to pick any that didn't appeal. Some are fantastical (Where Babies Come From), some will make your head spin (The Gypsy and the Bear), or make you scratch your head (The Story of Little O). Messages in Bottles is one of my favorites - two children shipwrecked who take to writing messages in bottles from their island, while they fall in love with the wildness of it all. O'Neill takes her words and arranges them just so, to bring you closer to the tale with each line. Like, "The full moon was laughing at the twins as they sailed on their bed across the Atlantic Ocean."

The Holy Dove Parade reached into me in a unique way - my reading journal is full of quotes from this book, but that story I loved the best (and it's written as a letter to a kidnapped child from their kidnapper):

“We are brainwashed from when we are very little to have the thoughts that the government wants us to have. We think these are our own thoughts, but they are not. They are like frozen-dinner thoughts. We buy them already made and then heat them up in our brains a little and then think them. As if they are our own. As if thoughts didn’t take any effort.

You have to create thoughts from scratch, Piglet. And as for the ingredients, you need love, wisdom, terror and acceptance. You have to put all these emotions together in order for them to be big and bold and gigantic ideas that you can be proud of and truly call your own. These are the kinds of thoughts that are free and original and can change the world.”

Read this. Heather O'Neill is artistic, amusing, fantastical, and she makes me smile.