As the various plotlines come together, the story does verge on zany, but successfully toes the line. And for a story that started with death and revenge, I was happy to allow Choo some coincidences (or, perhaps, twists of fate) to lead the characters to an improbably happy ending.
Tag Archives: Fiction
‘Fifty Beasts’ a Strange and Magical Collection of Shorts
Though many of the stories verge on the dark or twisty side of things, there really is a strong sense of playfulness throughout. It’s like watching shadow children frolic, or sprites dance, things that are having fun but can also devour you whole.
‘Beautiful’ Unflinchingly Humanizes the Invisible Cost of Modern Life
It’s one thing to understand that the status quo demands a human cost in some far-off corner of some anonymous country. It’s another to put faces and stories to that cost, and to see how steep that cost really is, and how our culture is complicit to it.
‘North Woods’ A Puzzlebox of a Story
Even in its more intricate and obtuse moments, North Woods quickly links itself back to its original purpose: to tell the story of one fictional geographic location through the ages.
‘Panda Killer’ a Story of New Starts and Hard Truths
The story is plenty heavy but never unbearable. And there are moments of levity, and of hope, and joy, for both Jane and Phúc, even as their circumstances make life a little darker for them than for others.
‘Gifted School’ a Tale of Parents Behaving Badly
This is a book about disproportionate freak-outs over where children go to school when the worst of all possible options is still far better than most people have access to. We’ve seen far more drastic and public bad behavior for the same thing getting the criminal effect of a slap on the wrist.
‘Whalefall’ a Better Drama Than Thriller
Whalefall is billed as a survival thriller like The Martian, but that creates some false expectations. This is a criticism more of the marketing of this book than the book itself, because what the book actually is, is a novel-length version of the “Men will literally do X instead of going to therapy” meme.
‘Foul’ a Tale of Revenge as Bloody as the Bard’s
There’s something transgressive to watching this fast-paced, consequence-lite rampage. What makes it feminist is perhaps the freedom these four female characters feel in behaving badly—a realm that the male characters felt entitled to do before their bloody ends.
In Bowlaway, Disparate Threads Are Tied by Omniscient Narrator
Who deserves what isn’t any of McCracken’s concern. Nor is she worried about a strong arc or poetic justice, or even a tidy conclusion. Rather, she leans into the sprawl, which at times can make the story feel unfocused as its loose tether sways.
An Overlooked Character Gets Life in ‘Other Bennet Sister’
Yes, there’s a romance in The Other Bennet Sister, but, crucially, it comes as neither the product or instigator of her inner discovery and change. The emphasis is again and again on Mary as a person.
Ring Reads 