A review by kali
Trick of the Light by Laura Elvery

4.0

I don't read short stories often, and short story collections more rarely. I was about one-third my way through Trick of the Light before I realised I had to change my reading habits. I'd been reading each story as a 'book chapter', each life dipped into merging with the lives of the characters in the next. The moment I broke this up, interleaving a single short story with my normal fiction reading, starting the day with a story, ending the evening with a story, my satisfaction and fulfilment increased exponentially. There are some stunning stories -- 'Fledermaus' is incandescent. Here are the intimacies of people's lives, specificity of detail and unspoken desires.