Stephanie Andrea AllenRecensioni
Autore di How to Dispatch a Human: Stories and Suggestions
5 opere 64 membri 21 recensioni
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DonnasBookAddiction | 2 altre recensioni | May 7, 2024 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
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Natalie_Coe | 2 altre recensioni | Dec 14, 2023 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
In one of my favorite pieces,“Three Years Later,” A. Brown writes, “we got the scraps. The misshapen and defunct magic.” But out of those scraps, family bonds weave a picture of love, seen through the lens of a high-stakes foot race and a box of origami butterflies.
The pieces are often exuberant outpourings of language, of desire, of willpower, of love. There is a lovely story in which the narrator tries to remember a pair of here mother’s shoes and remembers all the shoes her mother had, remembers shopping at Buster Brown (names from my childhood!), until the shoes bring back all the love contained in that mother/daughter relationship.
Maria Hamilton Abegunde meditates on the necessity for her of writing to connect with the presence of joy, the function of joy, in her lovely piece, “The Spirit of the Rhythm Catches You and You Dance.” Of writing she says, “I am alive because I write. . . . My writing is a practice dedicated to joy’s ‘constant unfolding. . .’”And of dancing she writes, “I am freest, most Black and, therefore, joyful, when I am dancing.” This essay contains so many lines I long to quote, to remember I will have to stop before I end up quoting the entire piece!
I will end with this quote from “To: Whom It May Concern/Re: Black Joy,” poet Regina YC Garcia almost sings:
The children know that there is love
Just there
In Black joy
and for ALL who may be concerned
Know this—
While this joy is juxtaposed to pain
the glory is that it can
Emerge
again, and again
Black Joy
Shine
Radiate
Refine
Create
More and more
Great God! Black joy!
I urge everyone to give themselves the gift of this collection, of the diversity of pieces united by the common theme of “Black Joy Unbound.”
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EllieNYC | 2 altre recensioni | Sep 10, 2023 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
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eudoh | 17 altre recensioni | Jan 25, 2023 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
I loved this collection of Speculative Black Lesbian short stories. The characters were fun, lively and engaging. The stories are full of feelings, humor and nuance. I think the fun lively tone of these stories was fantastic and really drove the stories along.
Some of my favorites were "Hirsute"(be sure you know the consequences before plucking any silver hair) and "Sans Pareil" about a sleeping mask that finally allows a woman to sleep, after many sleepless nights, but is it worth the price?? "Catfished" opens your eyes to online hook ups, and meetings.
My most favorite was "Luna 6000", where the truth of a womens family is stranger than fiction.
These stories were a great read, and stayed with me. I thought about them long after finishing the story. I look forward to more from Stephanie Andrea Allen.
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over.the.edge | 17 altre recensioni | Sep 22, 2022 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
I'm so glad the author created and included a glossary. I actually enjoyed it on its own. It was almost like its own story.
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saraswati27 | 17 altre recensioni | Dec 7, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
This book is like if you take the best of O. Henry but make it Black and queer (and authentically so) - it's amazing. Most of the stories are speculative fiction (many robots here, some vampires), and most of them feature some sort of plot twist. Some of those twists are more effective than others, some are more obvious than others, but all of them are a delight.
I feel like the folks who complain that the stories are too open-ended are not familiar with how short stories work as a genre. Their open-ended nature is an absolute strength - each story shows you a complete glimpse into a different, fully-fleshed world, and tells you a complete story. But each one could probably be chapter one of a full-fledged novel of its own.
I especially liked how the first and last stories bookend the entire collection and are the only two that are directly related. The glossary at the end is also masterfully executed.
Simply a beautiful book. My copy is an ARC, so I'll be buying the final print version along with the author's debut collection as well. I highly recommend it.½
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Shadow123 | 17 altre recensioni | Jun 15, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
The one caveat I feel like I have to mention is that this collection is absolutely front-loaded. The best of the stories are in the first two-thirds of the work, with the last few stories in the collection feeling a bit less polished and fully developed than earlier works in the collection. The ideas were still there, but the characters weren't quite so alive. Because of that front-loaded nature, I felt a bit let down with the last portion of the book, but at the same time, Allen set such a high bar for herself with the early stories, that 'let-down' is very much relative to the quality of the book. This is still, without doubt, a 4.5* read for me that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend, especially for readers who like short stories with a flare for humor.½
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whitewavedarling | 17 altre recensioni | May 3, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
Part of the problem, admittedly, probably rests with me; the experiences and metaphors may resonate better with someone with more (or, usually, anything) in common with the characters. However, some of the problems felt like they were more fundamental to the stories themselves.
One problem that struck me was that, while the author had interesting ideas
Another issue is that the viewpoint characters (or the main ones, in the case of stories with more than one) often feel more like observers than active participants, carried along by the story without doing anything to try to affect things. Sometimes this is a reasonable choice for the story (such as "Chums on the Run", where the narrator is in a similar position to the titular chums, but hasn't yet made any effort to do anything about it), but it usually just leaves it harder to sympathize with the characters. In the case of "Love Thy Neighbor", all of the work of dealing with the main problem is handled offstage (and, in fact, before the story starts) by the protagonist's wife. To be fair, some of the main viewpoint characters in the more complete-feeling stories (such as Jada in "Catfished" or Teagan in "Project M") are much more active in their own stories.
Some of the stories also left me wondering what the point of them was, but I suspect that this is mostly covered by all of the points above (including the one about my usually having nothing in common with the characters in terms of life experiences).
Finally, there are the little details that threw off my suspension of disbelief. These weren't the fantastical elements (a cat that can not only communicate telepathically, but also produce human speech out loud? Sure, I'll go along with that), but ones that involve the more mundane (could you really order that on Amazon? And is Alexa's security really so bad that anyone could place an order on your account through yours, at least if you know there's one person who'd have regular access to your Alexa?). These were mostly points which I'm not certain about, but they just felt off to me, and one story had plot points which depend on attitudes not changing at all in more than two centuries despite the society pretty much guaranteeing that attitudes would have changed noticeably.½
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Gryphon-kl | 17 altre recensioni | Apr 18, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
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Spiceca | 17 altre recensioni | Apr 16, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
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Mooose | 17 altre recensioni | Apr 8, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
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Magus_Manders | 17 altre recensioni | Apr 8, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
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deeEhmm | 17 altre recensioni | Mar 31, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
And yet, I hate to say it, but the writing just doesn't quite seem up to doing these ideas justice. I'm trying to think how best to describe it. "A bit amateurish" maybe just sounds mean. Perhaps I should go with "overly simplistic?" We've got lots and lots of little declarative sentences that keep telling us facts about the characters and their worlds and their lives when they really should be inviting us in to experience them, you know?
And, no doubt in large part because of that, these stories mostly failed to land for me the way they should, even the more disturbing ones. The overall result is a collection that constantly feels on the verge of doing something really, really interesting, and never quite delivers on it.
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bragan | 17 altre recensioni | Mar 21, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
'Chums on the Run' is a standout for me, because the entire tone is light and fun, so the short nature works for it. It feels like a snippet of day-to-day life in a speculative sci-fi world. Many of the other stories feel like they're larger, more important stories in that world, but the pace is so rushed, it seems like I'm missing a build-up.
Overall, I'd go 3.5 stars on this collection. I'd be interested in seeing some longer forms from the author. She creates interesting worlds, but needs to give them the time to expand.
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derek.stuhan | 17 altre recensioni | Mar 14, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
By Stephanie Andrea Allen
2021
A LibraryThing Early Reviewer book.
In the last year or so, by chance, I have read a lot of short stories, way more than I usually do. So I was willing to take a chance on this slim volume of stories. Especially since I appreciate LGBTQ+ and African-American Science Fiction. But, I just couldn't get into most of the stories in this book. Mostly because just as soon as I was getting hooked into a story, a quick ending was thrust onto it and it was over.I guess that they felt rushed to me and some of the endings felt forced.
My favorite stories were: Hirsute, Moji, Project M. Maybe it was because these three ended up on a lighter note than the other stories. Or that the main character didn't seem to completely change on the last page of the story. I also really appreciate that the author continued the first story (Luna 6000) with the last story (Project M), since the first did not feel finished when I read it and the "ending" was so contrived. By coming back to it, the author was able to make it a better story.
This volume of short stories has its flaws, but if you are looking for some quick, light reading, you might like to give this a try.
2 1/2 to 3 stars½
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d_perlo | 17 altre recensioni | Mar 9, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
I enjoy Allen's often playful tone, & her varied characters & settings. While there's a definite "feel" to these stories, they're certainly not repetitive or formulaic. Each addresses death, & often murder, in some form, but the perspectives & outcomes are as unique as the characters themselves.
Some of the stories felt too short or with resolutions that were too abrupt, but overall this is a refreshing, engaging collection of speculative fiction!
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porcupineracetrack | 17 altre recensioni | Mar 7, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
I enjoyed the stories with a fantasy element (Hirsute, Coral D. Cat) more than the science fiction stories (Coffee Date, Luna 6000). These stories start with a familiar premise then take a surreal turn. They were clever, creative, and fun.½
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N1na | 17 altre recensioni | Mar 4, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
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susanbooks | 17 altre recensioni | Mar 4, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
Thanks to the Librarything and the publisher for an Advanced Reader Copy.
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badube | 17 altre recensioni | Feb 8, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
These are quirky stories based around a variety of ways that humans are ‘dispatched’ (murdered). Most of the characters are Black LGBTQ women that find themselves in unexpected or dire circumstances, some by chance and some due to questionable decisions. Although several of the stories are fairly dark or creepy, they are not really that gruesome. I’d describe them as futuristic, with a lot of cultural references and a strong Black Mirror/Twilight Zone vibe. Allen uses sarcastic humor and contemporary dialogue to keep things snappy and weird but not too grim.
Although the ideas are good, the writing / editing isn’t really up to the level of some of the great speculative short stories being published these days. However, it’s probably not fair to measure these against other collections I’ve recently read (thinking of N.K. Jemisin’s short stories, for instance). I did have to laugh at the murderous Coral D. Cat story (cats - yikes).
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KatyBee | 17 altre recensioni | Jan 23, 2021 | ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/er_tiny_logo2_20h.png)
Original collection. Some of the stories work (of them, I liked "Tumbleweave," the best), some don't. For the ones that didn't, usually it was because I felt like the idea's implications weren't explored enough. A couple felt like they ended right when it started getting interesting. C'est la vie. Your opinions may differ, and that's okay.
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Jon_Hansen | 17 altre recensioni | Jan 17, 2021 | Recensori in anteprima
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Offerte passate
- Black Joy Unbound: An Anthology (Agosto 2023)
- How to Dispatch a Human: Stories and Suggestions (February 2021)
- How to Dispatch a Human: Stories and Suggestions (December 2020)
Collegamenti
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I particularly enjoyed:
½