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A review by devannm
Carniepunk by Nicole D. Peeler, Jennifer Estep, Hillary Jacques, Seanan McGuire, Jaye Wells, Delilah S. Dawson, Kelly Meding, Rob Thurman, Jackie Kessler, Allison Pang, Kevin Hearne, Kelly Gay, Mark Henry, Rachel Caine
3.0
i think this is actually the first anthology i've ever read in its entirety and i'm finding it particularly difficult to rate because some of the stories were great and some were awful, so i just settled in the middle with 3 stars
one thing i will say is that the worst stories are probably towards the beginning. i found thurman's story's twist ending particularly eyeroll-worthy and 'the werewife' was the epitome of 'it's so obvious a man wrote this and i want to throw it across the room'. the first 3 or so stories also all had the classic 'twist ending' that writers seem to feel they need to hook readers on short stories, but which i find incredibly annoying. the middle was full of stories that were pretty good but all kind of blended together in the same kind of 'standard urban fantasy' story and i think almost half of them featured demons in the carnivals. the best story - and the reason i picked up the anthology in the first place - was definitely mcguire's piece at the very end, so at least it went out on a high note.
one thing i will say is that the worst stories are probably towards the beginning. i found thurman's story's twist ending particularly eyeroll-worthy and 'the werewife' was the epitome of 'it's so obvious a man wrote this and i want to throw it across the room'. the first 3 or so stories also all had the classic 'twist ending' that writers seem to feel they need to hook readers on short stories, but which i find incredibly annoying. the middle was full of stories that were pretty good but all kind of blended together in the same kind of 'standard urban fantasy' story and i think almost half of them featured demons in the carnivals. the best story - and the reason i picked up the anthology in the first place - was definitely mcguire's piece at the very end, so at least it went out on a high note.