idroplungs's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.75
laissezfarrell's review against another edition
3.0
Didn't love every story but want more collections like this.
cdlindwall's review against another edition
4.0
Magic for Beginners is a collection of nine surrealist short stories, all with plot twists and characters more bizarre and unsettling than the last.
I wavered on how to rate this book, actually. A few of the stories I really disliked. I thought Link was trying too hard to have "weird, surreal" plot structures but the overarching tone was missing. I hated the first story, "Faery Handbag," and wasn't crazy about the zombie/gas station/dead dog story called "The Hortlak." (That actually sums up this book pretty well, that I can describe one of them as the "zombie/gas station/dead dog" story.)
But what seemed to be the missing element in a few — the subtle creepiness, the just-right mixing of mundane with insane — was done perfectly in "Stone Animals," a 60-page horror/drama about a marriage, house, and life overrun by rabbits. Another story, "Lull," was also amazing — how it devolves and then evolves again into this entire kaleidoscope of plots and sub-plots. It goes a little like this -- over a game of poker, a group of old friends calls a sex hotline and requests a story from a girl named Starlight, whose story is about a cheerleader playing 7 minutes in heaven with the Devil in the closet, but then this girl ends up telling the Devil a story about one of the original men playing poker. Somehow, it works.
Normally, short stories aren't my thing. And surrealist short stories with a touch of horror definitely aren't my thing. That's probably why I'm not as enamored with this book as so many other people seem to be. Also, a few of the stories are significantly richer and more creative than others. Hit or miss. (It seems that my favorites — "Stone Animals," "Lull," and "Magic for Beginners" — are most people's favorites. They are also the longest, which makes me think that Link just needs a little more space to develop and improve the others.)
But I definitely give her credit for a gifted imagination. Her writing creates a unique tension and uneasiness, without ever writing anything overtly horrific, that few other authors can do so skillfully. I think there is so much nuance in her storytelling — at some point I should go back to re-read my favorites and find more to appreciate.
So for that, I decided on 4 stars.
Also, the book starts out with this gem:
"I used to go to thrift stores with my friends. We'd take the train into Boston, and go to The Garment District, which is this huge vintage clothing warehouse. Everything is arranged by color, and somehow that makes all of the clothes beautiful. It's kind of like if you went through the wardrobe in the Narnia books, only instead of finding Aslan and the White Witch and horrible Eustace, you found this magic clothing world — instead of talking animals, there were feather boas and wedding dresses and bowling shoes, and paisley shirts and Doc Martens and everything hung up on racks so that first you have black dresses, all together, like the world's largest indoor funeral, and then blue dresses — all the blues you can imagine — and then red dresses and so on. Pink reds and orangey reds and purple reds and exit-light reds and candy reds. Sometimes I would close my eyes and Natasha and Natalie and Jake would drag me over to a rack, and rub a dress against my hand. 'Guess what color this is.'
We had this theory that you could learn how to tell, just by feeling, what color something was. For example, if you're sitting on a lawn, you can tell what color green the grass is, with your eyes closed, depending on how silky-rubbery it feels. With clothing, stretchy velvet stuff always feels red when your eyes are closed, even if it's not red. Natasha was always best at guessing colors, but Natasha is also best at cheating at games and not getting caught."
I wavered on how to rate this book, actually. A few of the stories I really disliked. I thought Link was trying too hard to have "weird, surreal" plot structures but the overarching tone was missing. I hated the first story, "Faery Handbag," and wasn't crazy about the zombie/gas station/dead dog story called "The Hortlak." (That actually sums up this book pretty well, that I can describe one of them as the "zombie/gas station/dead dog" story.)
But what seemed to be the missing element in a few — the subtle creepiness, the just-right mixing of mundane with insane — was done perfectly in "Stone Animals," a 60-page horror/drama about a marriage, house, and life overrun by rabbits. Another story, "Lull," was also amazing — how it devolves and then evolves again into this entire kaleidoscope of plots and sub-plots. It goes a little like this -- over a game of poker, a group of old friends calls a sex hotline and requests a story from a girl named Starlight, whose story is about a cheerleader playing 7 minutes in heaven with the Devil in the closet, but then this girl ends up telling the Devil a story about one of the original men playing poker. Somehow, it works.
Normally, short stories aren't my thing. And surrealist short stories with a touch of horror definitely aren't my thing. That's probably why I'm not as enamored with this book as so many other people seem to be. Also, a few of the stories are significantly richer and more creative than others. Hit or miss. (It seems that my favorites — "Stone Animals," "Lull," and "Magic for Beginners" — are most people's favorites. They are also the longest, which makes me think that Link just needs a little more space to develop and improve the others.)
But I definitely give her credit for a gifted imagination. Her writing creates a unique tension and uneasiness, without ever writing anything overtly horrific, that few other authors can do so skillfully. I think there is so much nuance in her storytelling — at some point I should go back to re-read my favorites and find more to appreciate.
So for that, I decided on 4 stars.
Also, the book starts out with this gem:
"I used to go to thrift stores with my friends. We'd take the train into Boston, and go to The Garment District, which is this huge vintage clothing warehouse. Everything is arranged by color, and somehow that makes all of the clothes beautiful. It's kind of like if you went through the wardrobe in the Narnia books, only instead of finding Aslan and the White Witch and horrible Eustace, you found this magic clothing world — instead of talking animals, there were feather boas and wedding dresses and bowling shoes, and paisley shirts and Doc Martens and everything hung up on racks so that first you have black dresses, all together, like the world's largest indoor funeral, and then blue dresses — all the blues you can imagine — and then red dresses and so on. Pink reds and orangey reds and purple reds and exit-light reds and candy reds. Sometimes I would close my eyes and Natasha and Natalie and Jake would drag me over to a rack, and rub a dress against my hand. 'Guess what color this is.'
We had this theory that you could learn how to tell, just by feeling, what color something was. For example, if you're sitting on a lawn, you can tell what color green the grass is, with your eyes closed, depending on how silky-rubbery it feels. With clothing, stretchy velvet stuff always feels red when your eyes are closed, even if it's not red. Natasha was always best at guessing colors, but Natasha is also best at cheating at games and not getting caught."
nikkispina's review
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
tsapparelli's review against another edition
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
These stories are so weird but they are so my taste. So many amazing lines in here. I love the writing, I found it so immersive. At times I felt the stories dragging a bit, but I just got that 5 star feeling. Can’t wait to explore more anthologies and short story collections like this.
notallbooks_mp's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
windywistera8's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
antimony's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
all the lessons that i learned from get in trouble I forgot when i liked black dog, white cat, and then i checked this out from the library thinking maybe i will like it after all. but every story I read I seemed to get more and more fed up with this book. i actually haven't finished it im writing this review halfway through the final story because i am sick of it!!!!! i wanted to like this so bad which in turn made me like it even less than i liked get in trouble. for some weird twisty windy illogical reason.
i really did like the faery handbag. yes there was no resolution but it was enjoyable. and I kind of liked the stone animals too even though i only half got it. but I can't say the same for pretty much any of the other stories. there were a lot of cool ideas here & I really wanted to like some of the stories (like if I try to explain back to myself what happened in magic for beginners I feel like I should have liked it but it was SUCH a slog) and some of them started interesting but every page I turned I liked them less (some zombie contingency plans) and some of them started by making me really sad then just got confusing and ended with more questions than I had begun with (the hortlak) and some of them had a nice atmosphere but thats the only thing i liked (catskin) and some of them i just plain didnt like the whole way through (the great divorce, lull)
but at least there were little illustrations?
i really did like the faery handbag. yes there was no resolution but it was enjoyable. and I kind of liked the stone animals too even though i only half got it. but I can't say the same for pretty much any of the other stories. there were a lot of cool ideas here & I really wanted to like some of the stories (like if I try to explain back to myself what happened in magic for beginners I feel like I should have liked it but it was SUCH a slog) and some of them started interesting but every page I turned I liked them less (some zombie contingency plans) and some of them started by making me really sad then just got confusing and ended with more questions than I had begun with (the hortlak) and some of them had a nice atmosphere but thats the only thing i liked (catskin) and some of them i just plain didnt like the whole way through (the great divorce, lull)
but at least there were little illustrations?
gabesteller's review against another edition
4.0
Unsettling!! Link is really good at the kind of horror story where it begins super normal and then one thread of reality is pulled and slowly, and then sometimes rapidly, the character's whole reality falls apart. Also shes great at the sorta modern fairy tale thing. just totally amazing imagination man. The strangeness, the uncanniness, and the nausea (!!) is like no other.
Picking nits: I have a semi- firm belief that short stories should be easily read in one sitting and should therefore be 35-40 pages max. Kelly ur testing my rule!!!
Best ones: The Hortlak, Stone Animals, Catkskin
Picking nits: I have a semi- firm belief that short stories should be easily read in one sitting and should therefore be 35-40 pages max. Kelly ur testing my rule!!!
Best ones: The Hortlak, Stone Animals, Catkskin
tarynwanderer's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0