A review by rketterer47
Arterial Bloom by Mercedes M. Yardley
3.0
Read on my Kindle. I was very excited to read this collection of weird fiction/horror short stories, and the book ended up falling a little flat for me. Overall, I thought most of the stories were just ok, not necessarily bad, but nothing that would stick with me. I rated each story individually and averaged the scores to get my rating for the whole book - this resulted in a perfect 3 stars, no rounding required!
A few standouts:
- Kudzu Stories was dark, gritty, and filled with pain. Pain both in the physical sense and as part of one's memory. I loved the involvement of Kudzu as the invasive species it is, but also a metaphor of the invasive nature of the results of certain human actions.
- Dead Letters was a fun story. I can't say a lot with spoiling it, but it was definitely a favorite of the bunch for me, as I found myself quickly turning pages to find out what was going on.
- Happy Pills was possibly the best in the collection, 5 stars. While I have not personally dealt with depression, the description of how The Absence lives inside of a person really stuck with me. I didn't really see the ending coming, and I fully appreciated some of the dark imagery that came with it.
- In the Loop was the only other story I gave 5 stars to. I related to the protagonist in that I am also a programmer, and at one point in my career I worked for a defense contractor. Tackling issues related to the war, and soldiers coming home from the war, is not easy, but I think Liu does a great job of illustrating the burden that killing puts on a person.
A few standouts:
- Kudzu Stories was dark, gritty, and filled with pain. Pain both in the physical sense and as part of one's memory. I loved the involvement of Kudzu as the invasive species it is, but also a metaphor of the invasive nature of the results of certain human actions.
- Dead Letters was a fun story. I can't say a lot with spoiling it, but it was definitely a favorite of the bunch for me, as I found myself quickly turning pages to find out what was going on.
- Happy Pills was possibly the best in the collection, 5 stars. While I have not personally dealt with depression, the description of how The Absence lives inside of a person really stuck with me. I didn't really see the ending coming, and I fully appreciated some of the dark imagery that came with it.
- In the Loop was the only other story I gave 5 stars to. I related to the protagonist in that I am also a programmer, and at one point in my career I worked for a defense contractor. Tackling issues related to the war, and soldiers coming home from the war, is not easy, but I think Liu does a great job of illustrating the burden that killing puts on a person.