A review by heamarhar
Growing Things and Other Stories by Paul Tremblay

4.0

3.5 stars rounded up. This collection of stories is brilliant if you are able to turn off the logical part of your brain while reading. A lot of the stories drop you into unfamiliar territory and leave little room to figure out where you are, how you got here, and what is going on. My best example would be Our Town's Monster. If you know, you know. Or you don't know, I guess? I loved the lack of exposition, and I'm not being facetious when I say so - going into a story with zero context makes it 10x more unsettling than if I knew every minute detail. The best example of this is It's Against the Law to Feed the Ducks. We aren't ever told what is going on in the outside world, but that only enhances the macabre atmosphere.


I do feel like I would have gotten more out of this collection if I had first read A Head Full of Ghosts to understand more about Merry and Marjorie, two sisters who make appearances in a few stories.