Goth Girls of Banff is an excellent collection of Canadian short stories.

This was a book I read over several days, and man was it worth every read! I kind of drew the read out because it was so good and I didn't want to rush it (although, if you want to - do it. The book is good). When you jump into this book, you're taken to a very Canadian landscape. This book does feel like it needs to be held in some Canadian book museum because it's just an all around super Canadian read. It feels like home.

John O'Neill has a way with words and paints very beautiful stories. Goth Girls of Banff is one of the stories inside this collection, which is where the title gets it name. Each story will resonate with you differently, I definitely preferred the first half of the book more than the last half. What is Written or Talking to Keep the Bears Away, Athabasca, Attacking the Bear and Three Places were my favourites out of this collection.

Whether you want to pick up all the stories and binge it, or tackle them one at a time, this book is a purely Canadian read that is on my 2021 must reads list! It's a great collection of stories for those seeking something with a little more 'umph'. This book will transport you to Canada.

Four out of five stars.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. ( )

John O'Neill’s stories aren’t really all that gothic but they can be grisly as they turn a sardonic, clear-eyed focus on hazardous and occasionally fatal human encounters with the natural world. The stories are set in the Canadian Rockies and depict characters grappling with an array of problems, from thwarted desires to chronic pain to tricky family relationships to feelings of being at odds with where their lives are taking them. The collection opens with a story of taut suspense in which a hitchhiker on the run is picked up by a family in a VW van—mother, father, two daughters. The narrator, beginning to feel a connection with the family, is wondering how much he can safely reveal about himself when tragedy strikes. In “Athabasca,” Karen, who suffers from migraines, has ventured west, leaving Toronto to visit her sister Sylvie on a trip that’s supposed to be therapeutic. Disappointed though to find that their relationship is just as combative and complicated as it’s always been, she begins to suspect that the difficulties are mostly her fault. “Rudy” is the story of a socially awkward, grossly overweight man with impulse control issues who is shocked and confused when people show him kindness. And in “The Book About the Bear” a veterinary surgeon whose days are spent performing necropsies is in for a surprise when he cuts open a bear that killed a man. O’Neill, primarily known as a poet, is also an artful writer of fiction whose stories gradually build tension and achieve sharp and startling focus as the action reaches its denouement. The western setting is lovingly evoked. These stories are thoroughly engaging, inventive and often wryly humorous. But there is violence in these pages too. In Goth Girls of Banff nature is freely available for anyone to enjoy, but only the naïve and reckless turn their back on it. ( )