eholleywood720's review
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.0
welikenicethings's review
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
midnightcharcuterie's review
2.0
There is so much here that I really enjoyed, but the execution fell flat for me. There were a couple of stories where I loved the characters Wood had created, but then the story would abruptly end with no real resolution to the scenario they had been placed in (I even checked to see if pages were missing on one story). I enjoyed reading all the different viewpoints of these people living in such remote and rural areas but inevitably each story had some aspect that annoyed me and pulled me out of being fully immersed in the world she was describing.
foggy_rosamund's review
3.0
This selection of short stories set in rural US is a mixture of absolutely phenomenal writing, and curious blunders. The first story "How to Stop Smoking" typifies this: it begins with a queer, educated woman returning to her home town to spend some time with her two younger brothers. Once home, she is faced with the grinding poverty and crime that typifies her brothers' lives. Woods' observations are excellent here: our narrator struggling to find her feet in this world, and realising that her education doesn't get her very far when faced with the reality of her brothers' lives. Then the story is brought to a close with a bizarre magic-realism ending that feels entirely out of keeping with the rest of the story. This problem keeps coming in Woods' stories: she has an vivid imagination, and is very interested in exploring the weird, but she isn't always in control of it. However, when it works, it really works: the story "Mohawk" was the strongest in this collection, and has the weirdest central concept: a man wakes up one morning with a section of the gaza strip on his head. Woods uses this idea to explore the ways in which we have become inured to violence, and even blase about it, and yet how individual death remains shocking and even inconceivable. Woods is a fresh writer, and it feels like she has a lot of interesting things to say: I'll definitely be seeking out her work in future.
curlyqueen's review
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
likecymbeline's review
3.0
Goth and punk are kissing cousins when you're in the country and this title captured the attention of my frustrated rural upbringing and complicated return to this place as home. The way we tangle with class and queerness and outsider experiences in a way that constantly shifts back and forth as to who is on the fringes was captured especially well in the first story in the collection. What it is to be arty/educated and to have left, what it is to be seen as cornfed trash in the city but rich and arrogant and out-of-touch in the backwoods, what it is to be connected by blood or geography while being unable to truly relate to one another's lives. When she says her brother and her cousin are "illegal" types and always have been and none of her advice counts for their lives because the circumstances are already stacked in such a way for each of them - I've been there.
"Zombie" was my favourite short story of the lot, again with a feeling of this being a person I might've met, an experience I might've had in parallel ways. Perfectly written right down to the ending. Other stories were a bit too offbeat for my taste, but "Revelations" was a good old-fashioned one in the style of Jackson or O'Connor and most every story had moments that held a particular charge for somebody who's a little bit haunted by life in the country.
"Zombie" was my favourite short story of the lot, again with a feeling of this being a person I might've met, an experience I might've had in parallel ways. Perfectly written right down to the ending. Other stories were a bit too offbeat for my taste, but "Revelations" was a good old-fashioned one in the style of Jackson or O'Connor and most every story had moments that held a particular charge for somebody who's a little bit haunted by life in the country.
simlish's review
5.0
Things to Do When Goth in the Country had been sitting on my tbr for a loooong time, based almost entirely on how delightful I found the title. Finally reading it blew me out of the water. It's just delightfully weird. There wasn't a story I didn't enjoy.
rustbeltjessie's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
lelex's review
3.0
This was both very different than what I thought it was and also exactly like what I thought it was. Some of the stories really did it for me and a few of the other ones didn't really. I think my favorites were Revelations and the titular Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country.
"Apparently you can go home again, but maybe you just shouldn't."
"It was just like any other slumber party I'd ever been to, except it was being hosted by a homeless adult, and we were in a cemetery hiding in a candlelit one-room mausoleum."
"Rich people are hard enough to deal with when not on acid."
"They seemed to like me though. They were always sort of awed by the fact that I have no interest in appearing super smart,"
"Tyson was in line right in front of me. Our last names began with the letters at the end of the alphabet, so we did everything last, together."
"Nearly, but not quite, as shocking as surprise exorcism. If you are going to be Goth in the country and really go for it, I would highly recommend a nonconsensual, surprise Southern Baptist exorcism. There's not anything else that can compete."
"It told me to always smell the grass. It told me the wind would guide and protect me and loved me unconditionally because I was exceptionally beautiful to the wind in my area. It told me where to find dead things."
"Apparently you can go home again, but maybe you just shouldn't."
"It was just like any other slumber party I'd ever been to, except it was being hosted by a homeless adult, and we were in a cemetery hiding in a candlelit one-room mausoleum."
"Rich people are hard enough to deal with when not on acid."
"They seemed to like me though. They were always sort of awed by the fact that I have no interest in appearing super smart,"
"Tyson was in line right in front of me. Our last names began with the letters at the end of the alphabet, so we did everything last, together."
"Nearly, but not quite, as shocking as surprise exorcism. If you are going to be Goth in the country and really go for it, I would highly recommend a nonconsensual, surprise Southern Baptist exorcism. There's not anything else that can compete."
"It told me to always smell the grass. It told me the wind would guide and protect me and loved me unconditionally because I was exceptionally beautiful to the wind in my area. It told me where to find dead things."