reasie's review against another edition
5.0
Geminder's prose is lyric and at times breathtaking. Each story feels half a poem, digging deep into human nature, the beauty of the everyday and the way tragedy feels prosaic from too close.
"1-800-Fat-Girl" is as surreal and delightful as the title made me hope it would be, and really about female friendship, which is a consistent theme throughout the collection.
"Edie" is the story that most closely examines friendship, following two girls through playground best-friendship through troubled high school years, with threat and disfunction simmering on the edges of reality like Edie's insistence that she's an alien. (Obviously, you're always going to get me with the promise of an alien best friend.)
"Your Village Has Been Bombed" was haunting with its absurdity and meta-fictive feel.
"Choreograph" ties a story of a sister struggling with mental illness with the history of a famous dancer, and this blend of interesting fact and present fiction works throughout the collection.
I especially loved the relationship with a distant mentor in "Nausicaa" and now I want to read Ulysses for the first time.
"1-800-Fat-Girl" is as surreal and delightful as the title made me hope it would be, and really about female friendship, which is a consistent theme throughout the collection.
"Edie" is the story that most closely examines friendship, following two girls through playground best-friendship through troubled high school years, with threat and disfunction simmering on the edges of reality like Edie's insistence that she's an alien. (Obviously, you're always going to get me with the promise of an alien best friend.)
"Your Village Has Been Bombed" was haunting with its absurdity and meta-fictive feel.
"Choreograph" ties a story of a sister struggling with mental illness with the history of a famous dancer, and this blend of interesting fact and present fiction works throughout the collection.
I especially loved the relationship with a distant mentor in "Nausicaa" and now I want to read Ulysses for the first time.
gondorgirl's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Classism, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Rape, Death, Emotional abuse, War, Xenophobia, Chronic illness, Sexism, and Suicide attempt
oddly's review against another edition
5.0
This book fully captures why I love short story collections.
Geminder is first of all, a brilliantly lyrical and magnetic writer. I couldn't help but be drawn in to her writing every time my eyes hit the page.
With stories weaving together themes about gender, identity, politics, trauma, and more, the focus of the book is on perception and the self: how the world sees us versus how we see ourselves and what comes of those perceptions. Sometimes reality wavers or is more gauzy as in the strange ghostliness of "1-800-FAT-GIRL", and sometimes the harshness of it comes right in your face, like in the more journalistic stories set in other countries.
Each story offers something new that I really had to think about and sit with. This isn't the type of collection you can just breeze through, and you won't want to either. There are so many beautiful sentences to contemplate and savor—a true joy to read.
Favorite stories: "Houses," "1-800-FAT-GIRL," "Coming to," "Edie," and "Dead Girls." And yes, that's half of them! They are so good. It's hard to choose.
My thanks to Dzanc Books for sending me a copy of this one.
Geminder is first of all, a brilliantly lyrical and magnetic writer. I couldn't help but be drawn in to her writing every time my eyes hit the page.
With stories weaving together themes about gender, identity, politics, trauma, and more, the focus of the book is on perception and the self: how the world sees us versus how we see ourselves and what comes of those perceptions. Sometimes reality wavers or is more gauzy as in the strange ghostliness of "1-800-FAT-GIRL", and sometimes the harshness of it comes right in your face, like in the more journalistic stories set in other countries.
Each story offers something new that I really had to think about and sit with. This isn't the type of collection you can just breeze through, and you won't want to either. There are so many beautiful sentences to contemplate and savor—a true joy to read.
Favorite stories: "Houses," "1-800-FAT-GIRL," "Coming to," "Edie," and "Dead Girls." And yes, that's half of them! They are so good. It's hard to choose.
My thanks to Dzanc Books for sending me a copy of this one.
lake's review
2.0
2.5? 2.75?
When I found this book at my library, I was pleasantly surprised. The title was interesting, I like to support new authors, and I love short story collections (which I don't feel that I see many of nowadays).
I will say that there was obvious effort put into "Dead Girls." There was a lot of research done here: quotes, works reminiscent of each other, winding timelines and much to keep track of.
However, having death feature so often in each story made the book grow monotonous. In the literary world, death is best when it's shocking, when it hurts. And maybe I wasn't expecting what should have been expected from a book literally titled "Dead Girls and Other Stories" but. It just all melded together.
I'm also into stories about ghosts, but now I might have to rescind that. There were times that ghosts were mentioned so often that the word "ghost" stopped becoming a word.
I found Geminder's writing style repetitive and heavyhanded. There were many statements that seemed as though they were trying to mean something, but fell short to me.
There was a lot of effort put into this book, though, and I kinda feel bad about writing this review. "Your Village Has Been Bombed" was my favourite story. I wouldn't recommend this book, but I'm sure some will enjoy it.
When I found this book at my library, I was pleasantly surprised. The title was interesting, I like to support new authors, and I love short story collections (which I don't feel that I see many of nowadays).
I will say that there was obvious effort put into "Dead Girls." There was a lot of research done here: quotes, works reminiscent of each other, winding timelines and much to keep track of.
However, having death feature so often in each story made the book grow monotonous. In the literary world, death is best when it's shocking, when it hurts. And maybe I wasn't expecting what should have been expected from a book literally titled "Dead Girls and Other Stories" but. It just all melded together.
I'm also into stories about ghosts, but now I might have to rescind that. There were times that ghosts were mentioned so often that the word "ghost" stopped becoming a word.
I found Geminder's writing style repetitive and heavyhanded. There were many statements that seemed as though they were trying to mean something, but fell short to me.
There was a lot of effort put into this book, though, and I kinda feel bad about writing this review. "Your Village Has Been Bombed" was my favourite story. I wouldn't recommend this book, but I'm sure some will enjoy it.
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