ccqtpie's review
3.0
2.5
Hate to give this a low rating bc I did thoroughly enjoy the first 4 stories but the rest just fell flat.
Hate to give this a low rating bc I did thoroughly enjoy the first 4 stories but the rest just fell flat.
nwhyte's review
5.0
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3566340.html
These are really good short stories, most of them liminal fantasies involving children in small-town America; the most famous one apart from the title story is "Subcommittee", where a human woman and her child manage to find a channel for peaceful communication with aliens where the grown men (of both sides) have failed. I did not even realise that it was a collection, and after finishing the first story was expecting another 150 pages of adventures for the child and teacher with the Anything Box (and then found myself on an alien world). Really something out of the ordinary.
These are really good short stories, most of them liminal fantasies involving children in small-town America; the most famous one apart from the title story is "Subcommittee", where a human woman and her child manage to find a channel for peaceful communication with aliens where the grown men (of both sides) have failed. I did not even realise that it was a collection, and after finishing the first story was expecting another 150 pages of adventures for the child and teacher with the Anything Box (and then found myself on an alien world). Really something out of the ordinary.
satyridae's review
5.0
3/2013 I read Walking Aunt Daid through tears, oh, who am I kidding- through sobs, the other night to a teenaged boy. If I never do another thing in my life, it's okay. Henderson's that good. I've dipped and supped throughout the book in the days since I read that story and as always I marvel that Henderson isn't more revered, isn't celebrated with parades and sparklers on her birthday. There are so many brilliant stories in this collection alone. Seriously, READ ZENNA HENDERSON. Read her right now.
2008 Henderson was brilliant. I was looking in the mirror the other day, and the plethora of wrinkles got me thinking of her short story "Walking Aunt Daid", which had a profound effect on my teenaged self. I wondered what it would be like to read from middle age. I like to play with fire, you see.
And I read it, I did, and it tore great heaving sobs from me. The bitterness at the heart of it is so hurtful, so bruised and ultimately so universal. And one feels for the boys, generation upon generation of them.
I can't read this very often. Then again, I don't need to because I carry it with me every step of the way.
2008 Henderson was brilliant. I was looking in the mirror the other day, and the plethora of wrinkles got me thinking of her short story "Walking Aunt Daid", which had a profound effect on my teenaged self. I wondered what it would be like to read from middle age. I like to play with fire, you see.
And I read it, I did, and it tore great heaving sobs from me. The bitterness at the heart of it is so hurtful, so bruised and ultimately so universal. And one feels for the boys, generation upon generation of them.
I can't read this very often. Then again, I don't need to because I carry it with me every step of the way.
avalinahsbooks's review
5.0
The Anything Box is one of the most amazing books I've ever read. I don't even like short story collections, but this one was so perfect. If I could, I'd give it ten stars. Fifty.
I had, in fact, drafted a lot of my review just as I started reading it. But I wasn't home when I did and I sadly lost the paper. It was a good review full of emotion and ideas and I was so distraught at having lost it that I even stopped reading the book. For a year.
But I finally picked it back up, and although I can't tell you exactly what I thought of those stories a year ago, I can say that they completely blew my mind. This is one of the best collections of SFF I have ever had the pleasure to read. It just doesn't get better. And I wish Zenna Henderson was better known because she was a one of a kind writer.
I had, in fact, drafted a lot of my review just as I started reading it. But I wasn't home when I did and I sadly lost the paper. It was a good review full of emotion and ideas and I was so distraught at having lost it that I even stopped reading the book. For a year.
But I finally picked it back up, and although I can't tell you exactly what I thought of those stories a year ago, I can say that they completely blew my mind. This is one of the best collections of SFF I have ever had the pleasure to read. It just doesn't get better. And I wish Zenna Henderson was better known because she was a one of a kind writer.
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