A review by bluestjuice
M Is for Magic by Neil Gaiman

2.0

Honestly, something of a disappointment. I like Gaiman's writing, but it's becoming clear to me that his short stories can be a bit of a mixed bag - which is fine, so far as it goes. This collection in particular ended up having a lot of overlap with other publications of his - I just got finished reading Fragile Things, which shared "October in the Chair," "Sunbird," and "How to Talk to Girls at Parties," which I had also just read as a stand-alone graphic novel. "The Witch's Headstone" is really a piece of The Graveyard Book, which I have also very recently read, and of course "Instructions" is ubiquitous. But I don't mind because it's short and also fantastic, so I'll happily read it over again. I don't know which of these short story collections came first, so it's entirely possible M Is for Magic unluckily gets short shrift here by happening to be the one I read last, but there it is. I haven't even read Smoke and Mirrors yet, but apparently there is also a great deal of overlap with this, so I think I'll refrain, at least for awhile.

Leaving aside the annoyance of reading stories over again in short succession because my completionist nature means I can't just skip over them - there are some good stories here, and some I was nonplussed by. As is to be expected. I think my favorites (that were new to me here) were "Chivalry," about Sir Galahad's attempts to persuade a nice little old lady to let him take the Grail, and "The Price," which was ominous and evocative and didn't carry its limited conceit on and on for a prolonged time.