A review by unabridgedchick
In the Palace of Repose by Holly Phillips

2.0

Ultimately unsatisfying, Phillips' inventive collection of short stories sucks the reader into mysterious, dark worlds where natural laws are bent, twisted, and at times, outright ignored. Unfortunately, too often, her stories are high on mood and light on substance, abandoning the reader to imagine what could be and wish for what wasn't. There are stand-out stories in this collection, however, that are worth the book alone. In particular, I found the title story evocative as well as 'A New Ecology'. Otherwise, I found the rest of the stories to be incredibly moody; but I reached the end of each puzzled and feeling empty.