Scan barcode
A review by khopeisz
How to Wrestle a Girl: Stories by Venita Blackburn
4.0
this was a densely packed collection of stories, all of which were excellent. I wonder why some of these were included, however. Thematically everything was cohesive, but some of the stories with the older characters for example felt out of place when bookended by the bleaker voices of youth. Maybe I’m not seeing the connection. And some of the stories in the second half could have existed in their own novella (ik those stories call back to some of the stories in the first half but there were so many stories in between them that the significance of the call back was lost on me). It was slightly overwhelming to consume all of this together.
I’ve never read a book that features a crossword puzzle and an excel spreadsheet before: that was so much fun! And done really well. I was surprised at my being able to be emotionally moved by the excel spreadsheet story. I think it was called Grief Log. Effectively executed.
Blackburn has a way of capturing the essence of humanity and grief that is so unique and resonating. Those classroom stories were dark; they’re still lingering with me. Blackburn’s language is skillful as well. However, the last story includes an observation about how animals are not competitive and I HARD disagreed with that lol. Every nature documentary I’ve watched says otherwise!!!!
Would recommend as a book to dip in and out of until you get to the Esperanza storyline in the second half, then you should sit and finish it without long stretches of interruption. Please note, I did not find any of these stories to be funny. I think it’s blurbed as being that, dunno why lol.
I’ve never read a book that features a crossword puzzle and an excel spreadsheet before: that was so much fun! And done really well. I was surprised at my being able to be emotionally moved by the excel spreadsheet story. I think it was called Grief Log. Effectively executed.
Blackburn has a way of capturing the essence of humanity and grief that is so unique and resonating. Those classroom stories were dark; they’re still lingering with me. Blackburn’s language is skillful as well. However, the last story includes an observation about how animals are not competitive and I HARD disagreed with that lol. Every nature documentary I’ve watched says otherwise!!!!
Would recommend as a book to dip in and out of until you get to the Esperanza storyline in the second half, then you should sit and finish it without long stretches of interruption. Please note, I did not find any of these stories to be funny. I think it’s blurbed as being that, dunno why lol.