A review by tdstorm
Twin Study by Stacey Richter

3.0

Some clever premises underlie many of the stories in Richter's collection. And a few of them, like "The Land of Pain," and "Twin Study" were pretty effective in their weaving a net of themes. But many of these stories left me a bit cold. It was often difficult to identify with or sympathize with Richter's characters. In fact, they're often caricatures rather than characters. "My Mother the Rock Star" is perhaps the best example. The mother is exactly what you'd expect: good-looking, entitled, insensitive to the needs of her daughter--it's all pretty predictable. I wouldn't mind if at the very least the daughter had some nice character complexity or even if nobody had character complexity but the plot itself were (like a fairy tale, which often has thin characterization) more compelling.

Richter doesn't take herself too seriously, though. And that's nice. She's playful with her storytelling, and if her characters are sometimes too cliche, her premises certainly aren't. Nor does she ever get too cute or sentimental.