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grauspitz's review
3.0
With every short story collection I always expect for there to be a few that aren't suited to my tastes and for the sake of the rest of the stories I generally ignore them in favour of a more positive rating.
But after finding the first story in this collection hugely disappointing, I found very little reason to look positively upon the rest. Don't get me wrong, there were 3 or 4 stories that I did enjoy and if they were in their own collection I would be rating this book higher. That, however, is not the case and I found the stories that I did enjoy were overshadowed by the rest/majority of the collection which I found to just be alright.
Some I felt were taken from a longer story, leaving me without the context or a resolution and others I couldn't find the point to the story at all. For the most part though, I found a lot of them unmemorable even if I did enjoy them at the time.
I did, however, really enjoy the writing style of the author and look forward to picking up another one of her books.
But after finding the first story in this collection hugely disappointing, I found very little reason to look positively upon the rest. Don't get me wrong, there were 3 or 4 stories that I did enjoy and if they were in their own collection I would be rating this book higher. That, however, is not the case and I found the stories that I did enjoy were overshadowed by the rest/majority of the collection which I found to just be alright.
Some I felt were taken from a longer story, leaving me without the context or a resolution and others I couldn't find the point to the story at all. For the most part though, I found a lot of them unmemorable even if I did enjoy them at the time.
I did, however, really enjoy the writing style of the author and look forward to picking up another one of her books.
larrys's review
3.0
Like most short story collections - even those written entirely by the same author - I really liked some of these stories while others washed right over me, unnoticed. I enjoy Penelope Lively's work best when she delves into slightly darker territory. She does dark well, especially because she has a distinctly older woman's voice, which adds a layer of humour.
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