A review by kymme
Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins

2.0

I'm not sure it's fair of me to review this one, since I didn't finish it. I was so excited to read a book set in the desert! I don't want to pan it because I'm so grateful to anyone who writes from the desert, but for me it was too depressing, and since I started reading it thinking it was a memoir, then a novel, somehow not realizing it was a book of short stories (okay, yes, I should really pay attention to the genre). I felt a bit ripped off after investing in a few characters only to have their arcs end--for me these short stories work as introductions to novels, but don't feel quite complete to me as stories (again, though, I was not reading in the right mindset for stories, and my expectations were way too high). I read the first few stories, and then just... stopped, and never picked it up again. But please, desert writers of the world, keep it coming! (Just write a full novel, please!)