A. A. Balaskovits

This is a fun book of stories of varying length, some even super short, for people who enjoy going a step beyond tame fairy tales into the absurd. The results of the author’s creative story-telling are intriguing scenarios and captivating, strange tales. It was as if Hans Christian Anderson, Jonathan Lethem, and Edgar Alan Poe all got together for a long weekend and were told to collaborate on short stories about women. Imagine that weirdness. It’s all here in Bakaskovits’ book of short stories!

I found the longer stories in this collection the most interesting and wonder what kind of full size novel this talented author could create. Since I love “weird”, I would be eager to find out.

I will admit that a few of these stories grossed me out, but I applaud the author being brave enough to tackle them. Some of the stories had similar endings which I found a bit disappointing, but I loved how the author’s imagination came alive in them. I also love the pink-beaked blackbird named Gizmo in the last story. I sure would like having that bird as my friend.… (altro)

This is a book of 14 mostly reimagined fairy tales- not Disney fairy tales, but grimmer than the brothers Grimm. Think Angela Carter’s “Bloody Chamber” or Emma Donahue’s “Kissing the Witch”. These stories are feminist in a way; they explore the horrible ways in which women and girls are suppressed and abused, but they don’t always offer hope. Girls turn on other girls in one and feed off the bodies of others in another. In “Eden”, the one person with kindness in his heart is ripped apart by the women of the town.

These aren’t pretty stories at all. Most are moving, though, and there is a beauty to the prose even as it describes horrible things. It turned out to be not my cup of tea, but I think it’s very good. Four stars.… (altro)

Shimmer Magazine publishes stories that dwell on darkness and powerful emotion. There is a particular mood to the magazine, like you're walking alone along a foggy road at midnight with only the sound of your breath echoing against the mist. Of course, this doesn't mean that I loved every story, but of the ten in this volume I had three strong favorites. "Chinvat" by Sunny Moraine takes place in a future San Francisco, with the Golden Gate Bridge and its legacy of suicide taking center stage. In "Made of Mud" by Ari B. Goelman, the urban fantasy tale takes for granted the existence of mudlings in a teenager's backyard. My favorite was "We Make Tea," a science fiction story from the perspective of a household robot; that makes the tale sound average, but this tea plantation has been abandoned by humans, and the repercussions of this are myriad and heartbreaking.

There were typos throughout, some stories with more than others. It was distracting at times, which is unfortunate considering the quality of the work. I really wonder if it was an issue with file formatting on the Kindle, as the typos were standardized in a strange way, like "flash" and "flashlight" missing the "l" in every instance.

That issue aside, this was a joy to read.… (altro)