A review by mrsthrift
The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories, by Aimee Bender
4.0
I read this book because my friend Imogen Binnie told me that she loves (LOVES!) Amy Bender. Imogen has good taste in books, so I thought, How Could This Be Bad? I requested it from the library. I had a sense of déjà vu reading this book; I have read one (or more) of the stories in one of their previously-published incarnations. So in that case, it was like an old friend and a friend of a friend, plus I read it in one of my favorite places (the bathtub), and the point I'm making is that this book really had everything going for it from the starting point.
OK, but the actual book! This is a collection of short stories that show off Aimee Bender's extraordinary imagination. There are funny parts, but mostly you feel a little hollow, fragile, like you were just slapped by your ex-best friend on an important day. There are magical happenings - not like a dragon or a dungeon, but like a hole through the gut. There are many instances where you, the reader, must suspend disbelief entirely to make it to the next page. The characters are a party mix of lovable and unimaginably irritating. There is a humanity in all of this, but it is not from planet Earth. The humanity here is surreal, complicated, sort of sick, and removed from limitations of reality. The stories stick to crevasses of your brain and you could try to use a toothpick, but you will probably never pick them all out. These stories stay with you. I think my favorite (it's hard to pick) is The Healer, about two girls in an isolated town. One has a crackling hand of ice, the other has a burning hand of fire. When they hold hands, both hands are perfectly normal hands, but if they aren't in contact, the elemental form returns. They used to be friends, then they stopped. (thinking back, that is probably why this is my fave) The ice-hand girl volunteers at the hospital as a healer, the fire-hand girl becomes destructive, their lives are intertwined, and then, well, you know you should really read this.
OK, but the actual book! This is a collection of short stories that show off Aimee Bender's extraordinary imagination. There are funny parts, but mostly you feel a little hollow, fragile, like you were just slapped by your ex-best friend on an important day. There are magical happenings - not like a dragon or a dungeon, but like a hole through the gut. There are many instances where you, the reader, must suspend disbelief entirely to make it to the next page. The characters are a party mix of lovable and unimaginably irritating. There is a humanity in all of this, but it is not from planet Earth. The humanity here is surreal, complicated, sort of sick, and removed from limitations of reality. The stories stick to crevasses of your brain and you could try to use a toothpick, but you will probably never pick them all out. These stories stay with you. I think my favorite (it's hard to pick) is The Healer, about two girls in an isolated town. One has a crackling hand of ice, the other has a burning hand of fire. When they hold hands, both hands are perfectly normal hands, but if they aren't in contact, the elemental form returns. They used to be friends, then they stopped. (thinking back, that is probably why this is my fave) The ice-hand girl volunteers at the hospital as a healer, the fire-hand girl becomes destructive, their lives are intertwined, and then, well, you know you should really read this.