devonmaree's review
3.0
I really didn't like this but I've loved everything else I've read by her and I love her writing style. The last short story was great and I also enjoyed on other. This is more a 2.5/5
joaniemaloney's review
3.0
I appreciate the construction of the stories and how I never could quite grasp where the direction was headed, and the drops into the dark from the everyday mundane living that she has the skill for, but I might not be the right audience for this collection. I don't really have anything to nitpick about it. It's all me. I hadn't read any of Samantha Hunt's work before so I wasn't sure what to expect, but with the rave reviews I was hoping I would love these stories. Oh well. In terms of 'enjoyment,' if I can even call it that, I'd give it a 2. With her immersive storytelling and the tension thrown in there, I can't possibly give this anything lower than a 3.
beholdtheanimals's review
4.0
3.5 stars. I think I prefer Samantha Hunt as a novelist (and just FYI, I fucking love her as a novelist) but there's still a fair bit of her signature weirdness and poignancy to go around. Even the stories that didn't quite land for me had several gorgeous lines, and the reason they didn't land was usually because I wished they'd gone on just a bit longer and amped up their tensions just a bit more. IMO, that's always the opposite of a backhanded compliment ("I just wanted more of what you already set up there") when it comes to a short story.
jasonfurman's review
4.0
This collection of semi-linked short stories was excellent. Samantha Hunt's trademark gritty reality combined with a dark unreality that is more likely madness than the supernatural but you are not always sure. Not quite as good as her first two novels (The Seas and The Invention of Everything Else), but I liked every one of the stories. Thematically they tended to be similar--usually middle-aged women, dealing with their desire or their husbands, often broken or bad marriages, and engaging in all of this from a position of strength. But there are some more bizarre ones, like the dialogue between a remote control robot/remote control bomb and the Unabomber on the problems with technology and a meta story within story about a women who in an effort to have a baby ends up creating a dirtier but smarter clone of herself. Worth reading all of the stories and in order as they follow thematically and even contain sly references to each other--with the exception of the robot/unabomber which was more of a pleasant diversion.
afaithu's review
3.0
Hard to rate a selection of short stories, as I deem some better than others, but overall I really liked this book. The stories have that classic dark, twisted, humorous lilt that Samantha Hunt does so well. The rambling thinking of her characters, their poetic and romantic visions of the world encourage me to see my own life with that same exaggerated view. Beautiful.
rachelmac476's review
DNF
I read 3 of these stories before accepting that this collection just isn't for me. I've pushed myself through books that I've enjoyed less than this one, but since I just picked this collection up on Saturday and still have the ability to return it - I'd prefer to do that.
I don't think this collection is bad - it just doesn't have the qualities that I look for in short stories. The prose and the content just aren't appealing to me right now. My taste in short story collections is generally on the dreamy side though.
I read 3 of these stories before accepting that this collection just isn't for me. I've pushed myself through books that I've enjoyed less than this one, but since I just picked this collection up on Saturday and still have the ability to return it - I'd prefer to do that.
I don't think this collection is bad - it just doesn't have the qualities that I look for in short stories. The prose and the content just aren't appealing to me right now. My taste in short story collections is generally on the dreamy side though.