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nearfutures 's review for:
The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror
by Daniel M. Lavery
I will preface this by saying I am an enormous fan of Daniel Mallory Ortberg's work but that I have never been particularly taken with fairy tales; I think someone who quite likes both fairy tales and the space between the profoundly horrifying and the uncanny would love this collection. I was torn between 3 and 4 stars and ultimately went with 3.
As is often the case with short story collections, not all the stories are created equal. The first three were underwhelming for me, but things picked up as I went on and I read the back half of the book all in one sitting. My favorite stories fell in the middle: particularly "The Rabbit" and "The Merry Spinster," but I thoroughly enjoyed"The Wedding Party" and "Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Mr. Toad" as well. The last three stories were satisfying to read, with spots of absolutely brilliant humor, but didn't stand out to me.
Ortberg's writing is taut and impressive, and I enjoyed the inversions of gender in many of the stories. That said, I sometimes felt I didn't have the literary background to fully appreciate the content of the tales...which was a weird way to feel because I am familiar with pretty much all of the source material. I can't pinpoint exactly what it was. Many of the stories ended abruptly -- occasionally this was to their merit, but often I found myself wanting a neater ending.
I don't know when I'll return to re-read this book, but I'm glad I did and it certainly gave me much to think about.
As is often the case with short story collections, not all the stories are created equal. The first three were underwhelming for me, but things picked up as I went on and I read the back half of the book all in one sitting. My favorite stories fell in the middle: particularly "The Rabbit" and "The Merry Spinster," but I thoroughly enjoyed"The Wedding Party" and "Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Mr. Toad" as well. The last three stories were satisfying to read, with spots of absolutely brilliant humor, but didn't stand out to me.
Ortberg's writing is taut and impressive, and I enjoyed the inversions of gender in many of the stories. That said, I sometimes felt I didn't have the literary background to fully appreciate the content of the tales...which was a weird way to feel because I am familiar with pretty much all of the source material. I can't pinpoint exactly what it was. Many of the stories ended abruptly -- occasionally this was to their merit, but often I found myself wanting a neater ending.
I don't know when I'll return to re-read this book, but I'm glad I did and it certainly gave me much to think about.