A review by ayundabs
At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson

4.0

I'm not a huge fan of short stories, although lately I've been trying to explore short story collections like this one based on other people's recommendations, and I've heard that this is an exceptional one. What I love about this collection is how varied it all it, but how all of them feel like they have the same thread and similar tones to it. I love the deep, dark, somewhat depressing feel of them, and the cold atmosphere you get while reading it, and also the one thread connecting them all, involving animals and their relationship with humans. And even in the shorter stories, I found that I managed to really like the characters and feel the whole vibe of the story.

Some of my favourites are: At the Mouth of the River of Bees, Wolf Trapping, and Ponies. I love the whole magical realism on the first one, and the ending was just perfect. Wolf Trapping was great as well, I love how I could feel the cold and the forest-y atmosphere. And Ponies is probably my favourite, since I love those kind of creepy and heart wrenching stories, and the length is just perfect.

Although some short stories were just forgettable for me, a lot of them stuck a lot to me and in eneral I really love this collection. Can't wait to read more of Kij's work!