miduhadi 's review for:

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

2.0

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Call me old-fashioned but I expect my short stories to have a beginning, middle, and an ending. While perusing the stories in this collection, I could see that the author can write. Her descriptions plop you down right in the middle of her stories. The characters, too, were quirky without being annoying. Most importantly, I can still recall the plots of several of the stories by just looking at their titles — that’s rare for me — and means that they left quite an impression. Now, if only they had also left me with satisfying conclusions, I’d have loved this anthology. I feel the same way I did about her previous short story collection as well, Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories.

In addition, I also think that while this style of writing works for short stories, it would start to get on my nerves were I reading a novel. So, it is safe for me to say I won’t enjoy Swamplandia. A lot of allegorical elements and strangeness. In any case, if you asked me, I’d say the titular story happens to be my favorite out of this bunch.