sydneyedens's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
bizarre! funny! surreal!! loved it, can’t wait to share one of the stories w book club, they’re so weird and “as we rode along the edge” is perfectly halloweeny
so is jemima and the wolf, my runner up story for book club and another favorite
i also really enjoyed the debutante, how to start a pharmaceuticals business and my mother is a cow lol
so is jemima and the wolf, my runner up story for book club and another favorite
i also really enjoyed the debutante, how to start a pharmaceuticals business and my mother is a cow lol
myyearofreadingandrelaxation's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
cesspool_princess's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 but just bc its harder to write a perfect 5 collection of short stories. I loved this so much, its my first time reading straight up surrealism and I'm definitely on the hunt for more now. I was surprised at how genuinely funny these stories are, many of the most surreal moments made me chuckle out loud. Another thing about LC is she knows exactly when to end a story. I feel there were so many times where a story is cut at the perfect point to leave u like daaang and she always errs on the side of cutting early leaving u to think on the story, none of these stories even came close to overstaying their welcome.
Right off the bat, this starts with a banger. This is the only one i'll give a plot summary of just to give y'all a sense of what some of these stories are like (and this is one of the most straight forward, least surreal ones). A young girl is about to have her "coming out" to high society debutante ball but she rly does not want to go. Luckily she is friends with one of the hyenas at the zoo and convinces the hyena to take her place at the ball. So the girl breaks the animal out and brings her home, then has the hyena eat the face off of her maid and wear it on top of her own face as a disguise. The girl teaches the hyena how to stand on two feet and how to dance and then sends her off to the ball... I won't say here how it ends.
This book is filled with 5 star short stories and particularly how LC handles animals, how characters can simultaneously be human and animal and even pass between these forms and designations at will, how animals can speak and have relationships with human characters I thought was amazingly done. This really gave these stories a classic "fairy tale" vibe. Also bc many of these stories were so surreal you never know what is "allowed" or what can happen and so there is always a sense that at any moment anything can happen, that we are just along for the ride. It was so fun to submit myself and surrender to each story's particular logic.
I loved this and would highly recommend it to anyone: it is funny, absurd, profound, beautiful, pregnant with symbolism and it will keep you on your toes the whole way through.
Right off the bat, this starts with a banger. This is the only one i'll give a plot summary of just to give y'all a sense of what some of these stories are like (and this is one of the most straight forward, least surreal ones). A young girl is about to have her "coming out" to high society debutante ball but she rly does not want to go. Luckily she is friends with one of the hyenas at the zoo and convinces the hyena to take her place at the ball. So the girl breaks the animal out and brings her home, then has the hyena eat the face off of her maid and wear it on top of her own face as a disguise. The girl teaches the hyena how to stand on two feet and how to dance and then sends her off to the ball... I won't say here how it ends.
This book is filled with 5 star short stories and particularly how LC handles animals, how characters can simultaneously be human and animal and even pass between these forms and designations at will, how animals can speak and have relationships with human characters I thought was amazingly done. This really gave these stories a classic "fairy tale" vibe. Also bc many of these stories were so surreal you never know what is "allowed" or what can happen and so there is always a sense that at any moment anything can happen, that we are just along for the ride. It was so fun to submit myself and surrender to each story's particular logic.
I loved this and would highly recommend it to anyone: it is funny, absurd, profound, beautiful, pregnant with symbolism and it will keep you on your toes the whole way through.
xirasoles's review against another edition
4.0
«Hay escritores que describen lo desconocido (como el proceso de descuartizar ballenas para extraer su grasa subcutánea) y logran volverlo familiar; hay escritores que describen lo ordinario (un día en Dublín) y consiguen revestirlo de novedad».
madamepurpura's review against another edition
fast-paced
5.0
Una locura onírica, fascinante, confusa, triste, iracunda, hilarante, bella.
suddenlyjamie's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
camillejov's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25