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rebhlee 's review for:
Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions
by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is a magician!! He is someone who is in full control of the reader's experience. He withholds just enough to make me question my observations/conclusions, even though he's the one feeding me the intel! Can writers gaslight you?
Something about Gaiman's stories seem horror-adjacent, because there is just so much that feels unknown, other, powerful and untamable about his beings (which are sometimes monsters, sometimes god-like, usually both.) He makes the reader feel vulnerable and small because the world and powers above are just beyond our plane.
I could've done without all the graphic sex, but I guess it lends to the horror element sometimes. A few stories were lost on me because of references to outside series I was unfamiliar with... The narrators were all kind of the same person (Maybe a self-insert? Not sure) but overall very masterfully done storytelling. Looking forward to reading one of his longer works in the future.
Something about Gaiman's stories seem horror-adjacent, because there is just so much that feels unknown, other, powerful and untamable about his beings (which are sometimes monsters, sometimes god-like, usually both.) He makes the reader feel vulnerable and small because the world and powers above are just beyond our plane.
I could've done without all the graphic sex, but I guess it lends to the horror element sometimes. A few stories were lost on me because of references to outside series I was unfamiliar with... The narrators were all kind of the same person (Maybe a self-insert? Not sure) but overall very masterfully done storytelling. Looking forward to reading one of his longer works in the future.