Super quick novella and a fun read. It sits a little awkwardly on some dark themes without delving into them too deeply. The ending chapters, which goSuper quick novella and a fun read. It sits a little awkwardly on some dark themes without delving into them too deeply. The ending chapters, which go into some really interesting mechanics behind the magic, was really solid and actually finally sold me on the premise in a way the early parts of the story didn’t quite manage
The hardcover book is unspeakably beautiful. The dustjacket illustration is lovely, but underneath the dustjacket is the full image, super detailed and really just a wonderful homage to the entire genre of magical girl fiction. The interior illustrations were all really great additions to the story as well. ...more
This a super quick read that packs a huge emotional punch. I strongly recommend listening to it as an audiobook,Falling Back in Love With Being Human
This a super quick read that packs a huge emotional punch. I strongly recommend listening to it as an audiobook, because the while the words themselves are moving and insightful, the author’s delivery of her lines makes the anger, grief and love behind the words jump out from the page with inescapable emotion. Fully one of the most emotional and gripping audiobook performances I have ever listened to. ...more
Gentle Chaos I listened to the audiobook while simultaneously reading through the print version. For a book that is so image heavy, I was curious to sGentle Chaos I listened to the audiobook while simultaneously reading through the print version. For a book that is so image heavy, I was curious to see how the audio would compare. Uniquely, the book and the audiobook each have things to offer than the other format can’t supply – instead of an old photo, the audio might have a small imagined dialogue between the photo’s subjects. An orginal handwritten old recipe has been scanned to the pages and that feeling of family nostalgia is captured in the audio as a recording from Gaca’s mother. ...more
By the time the apocalypse began, the world had already ended. It ended every day for a century or two. It ended, and another ending world spun in it
By the time the apocalypse began, the world had already ended. It ended every day for a century or two. It ended, and another ending world spun in its place. It ended, and we woke up and ordered Greek coffees, drew the hot liquid through our teeth, as everywhere, the apocalypse rumbled, the apocalypse remembered, our dear, beloved apocalypse – it drifted slowly from the trees all around us, so loudly we finally stopped hearing it.
This collection holds out the hope and new growth that lies under bitterness and catastrophe, and encourages the reader to find a way forward as well, better than an unforgivable past. The world will go on anyways, no matter who it has ended for, or how. The next one, the bit of the world that grows in next, should remember and be better for it....more
I honestly can’t tell if this felt poignant or exploitative. Poetry full of borrowed pain and embellished with literary flair and broken cadences, it’I honestly can’t tell if this felt poignant or exploitative. Poetry full of borrowed pain and embellished with literary flair and broken cadences, it’s either something necessary or something tasteless.
I think the author knows she’s treading that line - in “Fields Solve Nothing” part of my distaste is given words: “Your murder as reality show Crime scene, crime news, crime Cruises, but has anyone solved The crime? We worship the death On screen, but need to know more Information, overwhelms about the Programs, but not about you, who Were you? …questions, so Many questions, but if the questions Are all answered they cannot profit From your murder”
The contact info for the investigating agencies really does set this collection apart, calling out those who know and do not speak - “It remains a mystery, they say. But there is no mystery when someone Knows, and others won’t speak”...more
There are some truly astounding visuals here! A masterful fusion of magical realism with capitalist dystopiThe Crane Husband from Tor Publishing Group
There are some truly astounding visuals here! A masterful fusion of magical realism with capitalist dystopia, set on a farm, or rather around the family farmhouse and adjacent to the farm that isn’t theirs anymore.
This is a story about art and longing and family and loss and neglect, and it is almost unrelentingly bleak, but also full of strength and love...more
White Cat, Black Dog from Random House Publishing Group - Random House
Easily one of the best short story collections I have read in ages. Each story iWhite Cat, Black Dog from Random House Publishing Group - Random House
Easily one of the best short story collections I have read in ages. Each story is consistently both good and strange, filling haunting little liminal spaces and following me throughout the day. I’m a fairy-retelling addict and these hit the spot.
Favorites marked with an *
The White Cat’s Divorce - I laughed aloud at the title (it’s funny on its own, but I’ve been reading Erha, by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou and somehow the wording hit me in the hilarity.) anyways. This is a fascinating story that mixes classic fairy tale trope (man sets his three sons on an unlikely task, which the youngest excels at in unlikely ways) with commentary on the grotesque over-wealth of billionaires and as it gets going you think you know what kind of story you’re reading—when suddenly talking scientist cats are growing fancy pot and maybe you don’t really know at all.
*Prince Hat Underground - “Gary’s not even a word. Well, ‘garish,’ I suppose.” And then, for a while, Prince Hat refers to everything Gary habitually does as “garish.” It’s irritating and so after a day or two Gary goes and looks up the meaning of his name.” Also I love everything about this bizarre love story
*The White Road - an unsettling post-apocalyptic nightmare, with a fae atmosphere. Creeped me right the heck out.
*The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear - that empty hotel swimming pool is a whole mood.
The Game of Smash and Recovery - What parts of yourself can you lose and still be yourself?
***The Lady and the Fox - I experienced *emotions* about the embroidery.
The Essential Peter S. Beagle, Volume 1: Lila the Werewolf and Other Stories from Tachyon Publications (* favorites)
*Professor Gottesman and the IndianThe Essential Peter S. Beagle, Volume 1: Lila the Werewolf and Other Stories from Tachyon Publications (* favorites)
*Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros -
Maybe we should talk about the Rhino in the room. And maybe, when you come across true magic, you have to pretend it’s something more mundane. Or, you could spend your life debating philosophy with a mostly invisible rhinoceros (unicorn).
Come Lady Death -
Death has been invited to a party by the most callously rich lady you might ever meet. Lady Neville is a bit awful, a bit bored, a bit human and a lot rich; she needs her party to be a sensation.
Lila the Werewolf -
So many dogs were brutally killed. I also highlighted many lines of beautifully evocative prose. But then the dogs kept dying and it was too much for me. I think the story will stick with me though—so much to say about what it means to know someone
Gordon, The Self-Made Cat -
“Once upon a time to a family of house mice there was born a son named Gordon. He looked very much like his father and mother and all his brothers and sisters, who were gray and had bright, twitchy, black eyes, but what went on inside Gordon was very different from what went on inside the rest of his family.”
The Fable of the Moth -
“MORAL: Everybody knows better. That’s the problem, not the answer”
The Fable of the Tyrannosaurus Rex -
What is a Thursday, anyways?
The Fable of the Ostrich -
ok, the morals for these fables have all been 5 star fantastic, but this one had me rolling: “MORAL: Stupidity always wins, as long as it’s stupid enough.”
*The Fable of the Octopus -
the octopus of a philosopher, and he learns things can be different than he thought or expected, and he finds and creates meaning in his world.
*El Regalo -
Angie discovers magic and it’s *wild *. Easily more innovative than certain other big wizard stories you might name.
***Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and The Angel -
I didn’t mean to accidentally quite some scraps of faith while reading short fiction today, but here I am watching my worldview shift a little to one side as I read about an middle aged Jewish man repeatedly painting an Angel.
****We Never Talk About My Brother -
holy shit. I think I just witnessed my entire worldview change a little bit more. Second time in one short story collection.
King Pelles the Sure -
I think the best anti-war story I’ve ever encountered is actually (of all things) “Gunpowder Tim v. The Moon Kaiser” by the Mechanisms
The Last and Only; or, Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French -
No context spoilers: think of that scene in Lilo and Stitch where Lilo is drawing that silly picture of Stitch’s “badness level” filled in with red crayon. Except it’s French. [image]...more
Mer Mendoza
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Books:
short-stories-novellas-poetry
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