reading_rainbow_with_chris 's review for:

Crocodile Tears Didn't Cause the Flood by Bradley Sides

3.5

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

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“Crocodile Tears Didn’t Cause the Flood” by Bradley Sides

In this short story collection, Bradley Sides has crafted a carnival of melancholy oddities. A boy with a much loved monster in his backyard pond. A vampire who wants to leave the family garlic farm. A boy praying for snow. A man protecting his family from apocalypse in unusual consequences. Each short story, most of them technically flash fiction, aims to give voice to human longing through the lens of magical realism, of the weird and absurd.

To be honest, I wanted to like this collection more than I did. I did enjoy quite a few of the stories, such as “Our Patches,” “Festival of Kites,” “2 Truths & A Lie About the Monsters Atop Our Hill,” “Claire & Hank,” and “From 1973.” But for me, my enjoyment was surface level, a tickle of engagement as opposed to the immersion. I think this is because Sides tends to lean toward direct narration in the stories, directing the story directly at the reader in various forms (such as instructions for caring for a pond monster or a quiz on a questionably diabolical monster). The focus is on what was said as opposed to what is seen. Additionally, the brevity of Sides’s stories, some of them exceedingly short, means I felt like there wasn’t time to build an experience the way I like in my magical realism stories. Anyone who has followed me for a while knows that for me the pinnacle of short story writing is Karen Russell and it is her immersive worldbuilding that captures me; Sides simply doesn’t do that. 

This does NOT mean, however, that this is a subpar short story collection. I do think it’s astounding what Sides is able to do in terms of displaying the depth and variety of how humans can long, can yearn, can want for something more. There are some clever premises here as well, often with a wry twist (a family of vampires owning an organic garlic farm is a stroke of ridiculousness to the point of genius, in my opinion). For me, “Crocodile Tears Didn’t Cause the Flood” is a simple case quality against preference. Did I enjoy reading this? Mildly, but to be honest it just wasn’t the writing style I find most satisfying in short fiction. Is this a good collection? Yes, arguably even a great one! There are some really incredible pieces here and, if you are a fan of flash fiction, I can definitely recommend this book.