short magical realism story collection about the beauty of being alive...this book is for me, specifically.
mini reviews for each story:
THE RETURN TO Mshort magical realism story collection about the beauty of being alive...this book is for me, specifically.
mini reviews for each story:
THE RETURN TO MONSTERLAND pretty traditional parent abandonment story, except what if your mom left your family to pursue the scientific study of godzilla. rating: 3
PLACENTOPHAGY this was just about the opposite of the last one: short and extremely unique. rating: 3.5
ROKUROKUBI if i were a demon and my only power was having a stretchy neck i would be so disappointed. all this guy does with his power is steal underwear and get cheated on by his wife. rating: 3
GIRL ZERO finally, some good f*cking food (if gordon ramsay was talking about a unique, emotional story that reminded me of why i loved the author's other work).
even if it lost it along the way. rating: 3.5
PEACH BOY i do love a fairytale vibe.
maybe now is a good time to point out that there are fun one-page interludes between these stories, which i enjoy even though they're messing with my format. rating: 3.5
THE INN OF THE DEAD'S ORIENTATION FOR BEING A JAPANESE GHOST the concept: :) the execution: ... :/
(this is the reaction of when you really want to like something but it's kinda just trying too hard and you have to cringe a bit.) rating: 3
THE PASSAGE OF TIME IN THE ABYSS contents aside, we've got some great titles here.
sorry but if i were taking my grandchildren on a fishing trip, i simply wouldn't go out when a huge storm was coming "because the catch is better before the storm." i'm just kind of built different like that. rating: 2.5
THE REST OF THE WAY sad one. but not sad enough? does that make sense? more depressing than emotional. rating: 2.5
WHERE WE GO WHEN ALL WE WERE IS GONE title story title story title story!
if you asked me to guess what this was about i probably would have had to go for a while before getting to "dystopian style dance party." rating: 3
THE SNOW BABY okay. rating: 2.5
HEADWATER LLC no matter how many interchangeable upsetting stories there are about human greed destroying nature, they will always be depressing. rating: 3.5
KENTA'S POSTHUMOUS CHRYSANTHEMUM i mean, the title is very literal. rating: 2.5
OVERALL i'm so disappointed by this book as to be actually confused. the author's novel is so emotional, so evocative, so powerfully rendered that each of its many perspectives feel unforgettable. with a few exceptions, this was...weird? trying to shock the reader? totally emotionless? shallow plays at feeling? i have no idea how the same person could have written both.
this book is not bad, but compared to the author's other work...sheesh. rating: 2.5...more
if i five star a book by an author, i will read everything they write for the rest of forever.
including amazon-exclusive essays with old-timey standupif i five star a book by an author, i will read everything they write for the rest of forever.
including amazon-exclusive essays with old-timey standup titles.
this was so totally charming and lovely. i find greer's writing style funny as always, and his real cast of characters in his life i found so unforgettable i almost wish he would write full-on nonfiction instead of very lifey and very whimsical metafiction. my only complaint is that it's too short! the ending was abrupt and unwelcome.
lame.
bottom line: why can't things i like go on forever?
(this comes to mind because this book explores the line between dream and reality, and not because i'm just thinking about childrenlife is but a dream
(this comes to mind because this book explores the line between dream and reality, and not because i'm just thinking about children's songs)
(anyway)
there were moments this was truly interesting, but for the most part it was overambitious and seemed to find the huge number of symbols, motifs, themes, and Various Things Of Literary Significance it had saddled itself with unwieldy. it didn't nail the dismount, so to speak.
i love books about women having mental breakdowns.
and this was kind of that, but what it mostly was was very, very good.
it's a brilliant exploration oi love books about women having mental breakdowns.
and this was kind of that, but what it mostly was was very, very good.
it's a brilliant exploration of womanhood, of what it means to mother and to work and to try to do your moral best and look around at everyone else and be unconvinced they're doing any of it — and for that worry to extend so far you wonder if you're actually doing any of it yourself.
this encapsulation of a few days in one ordinary life totally riveted me. i loved the protagonist's children, and while i wish a few more things were fleshed out — the husband, the babysitter, the ending — all in all this felt like drinking a cool glass of water.
the important thing to know about this is it's a bad book written by a good writer. the characters: flimsy. their rellike a reverse irish exit?
anyway.
the important thing to know about this is it's a bad book written by a good writer. the characters: flimsy. their relationships: inexplicable. the plot: filled with years-long gaps to the point of being incomprehensible.
but the writing itself? the dialogue? the little jokes? excellent.
the other thing to know is that it is very weird. it's a white woman who was once a backup singer in a Black group and can't get over it. that's not much to carry us through 250 pages and it never feels any more normal.
maybe it was a different time.
bottom line: sometimes books are forgotten for a reason.
this is a book about monsters and girls and girls who become monsters and monsters who become girls.
it's also a book i really wanted to like. it has athis is a book about monsters and girls and girls who become monsters and monsters who become girls.
it's also a book i really wanted to like. it has a weird eerie cover! it has weird eerie contents! it's filled with teeth and blood and sex and ghosts! i like books with all of these things.
in execution, though, it felt uneven, maybe less than the sum of its parts. the stories didn't seem to build on one another, and though their synopses varied, their themes felt unrelentingly the same. it was more cringey than spooky, and generally seemed as though the author's intent may have been beyond the scope of her writing talent.
in other words, a debut!
that being said, i'll definitely read more from this author.
this was the rare short story collection that makes me wish it'd been a novel instead: one synopsis, pursued to the extent of its meaning, rather than many short stories shallowly delving into the same one.
but i found it fast-paced and readable, two things i rarely think about short story collections.
bottom line: this is a review of a book about monster girls written by a girl monster. sorry i'm mean.
------------------ pre-review
...ok fine i'm judging books by their covers again
short stories about "slightly off-kilter worlds tucked away in the corners of everyday life"??? gimme
mini reviews for each story because i'm pretendinshort stories about "slightly off-kilter worlds tucked away in the corners of everyday life"??? gimme
mini reviews for each story because i'm pretending i have my life together:
TABLE FOR ONE sometimes i think that the title story being the very first story in the collection is not a good sign. this is a fun one about people who take lessons on how to eat alone, and it made me want korean bbq very badly. rating: 3.5
SWEET ESCAPE this story, which is about people eating popsicles and becoming obsessed with preventing bedbugs, includes a scene in which everyone in an apartment building smells cilantro — which apparently smells like bedbugs? — and is disgusted.
as a cilantro fan, i can't abide this insect-based propaganda. that's not the reason this story isn't great, but it didn't help. rating: 2.5
INVADER GRAPHIC i kinda wish i was a kleptomaniac. i love free stuff so i wish i didn't have my rule abiding self holding me back. plus i always made my sims have that trait since i thought it was fun to have them bring little presents back from work.
anyway. this is a story about a woman who works from a department store bathroom every day. rating: 3.5
HYEONMONG PARK'S HOUSE OF DREAMS it turns out if dreams were for sale it would mostly just be a capitalist contest to corner the industry.
which i guess is not that surprising. but it's also not all that fun to read about. rating: 3
ROADKILL there should be another word for "kafkaesque" meaning trying really hard to be. rating: 3
TIME CAPSULE 1994 i'm going to be real with you: i don't know what this one means. rating: 3
ICELAND this is a story about the category of "iceland person," which is a person who is obsessed with the concept of visiting and/or living in iceland.
we all know at least one. rating: 3
PIERCING they say if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. but this is MY goodreads account, so i get to say this was disgusting and stupid and i hated it so much. rating: 1
DON'T CRY, HONGDO this one was just about a kid who has to eat organic and has a crush on her teacher. maybe i'm just sensitive because being forced to eat organic was my trial in youth (i still remember the day they took the slushy machine out of the cafeteria...), but this one didn't quite click. rating: 2.5
OVERALL i honestly love when story collections are united by a theme, and it's something that if i were evil dictator of the world i would make a requirement. unfortunately these felt a bit elementary, and a little off, like they needed another polish before being sent out into the world. rating: 2.5
every book i read this year that isn't by toni morrison is against my willevery book i read this year that isn't by toni morrison is against my will...more
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