- If you're looking for short, dark, and creepy, this is it.
- There are stories by some great fantasy authors such as Neil Gaiman and Garth Nix.
And Why You Might Not:
Thoughts: I'm beginning to think that YA, or at least the a certain style that concerns "coming of age", really just isn't my thing at all. After having recently finished Catch & Release and this one, both of which have aspects of that, and liked neither, I'm more sure that I'm going to leave off certain kinds of YA for a while. (Although I'm going to make an exception for one more collection of short stories with what looks like an awesome Garth Nix in it.)
A few were enjoyably creepy, like "Morgan Roehmar's Boys", "The Prank", and "Watch and Wake" (this last especially). "Stone Tower" was probably my favourite, having creepiness and mystery and a story I liked.
But Gaiman and Nix's stories were both a bit disappointing, Gaiman's not living up to it's premise and Nix's already being in a different collection I read, as well as short and confusing. And even the ones I mentioned above didn't spark any particular interest in me besides momentarily creeping me out.
Grade: 2 stars
If You Like This, You Might Also Like:
--Under My Hat ed. by Jonathan Strahan: another collection of YA short stories, many with a dark twist. Neil Gaiman and Garth Nix are featured here too, but so also are Frances Hardinge and some other great authors.
--Enthralled ed. by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong: YA short stories again, often with a spiritual twist. It wasn't my favourite collection, but then neither was this book, so maybe they fit well together.
--And for a couple of novel recommendations that I actually quite enjoyed: Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz, a children's story; Another Faust by Daniel and Dina Nayeri, a YA retelling of Faust; and The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones, and adult story that I really liked, but that fits the tone of these stories best of all, I think.
--Under My Hat ed. by Jonathan Strahan: another collection of YA short stories, many with a dark twist. Neil Gaiman and Garth Nix are featured here too, but so also are Frances Hardinge and some other great authors.
--Enthralled ed. by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong: YA short stories again, often with a spiritual twist. It wasn't my favourite collection, but then neither was this book, so maybe they fit well together.
--And for a couple of novel recommendations that I actually quite enjoyed: Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz, a children's story; Another Faust by Daniel and Dina Nayeri, a YA retelling of Faust; and The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones, and adult story that I really liked, but that fits the tone of these stories best of all, I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment