Helpful Score: 1
Quicksomeone teach me how to review a short story collection. Im afraid I didnt take notes on individual stories as I read this, so just a few words on the collection as a whole.
The books afterword explains not only Lanagans inspiration for each of these stories, which I found interesting to read, but also that the majority of these stories have been previously published elsewhere. If youve been a dedicated YA short story anthology reader, particularly of the SFF kind, then you may have read some of these stories already. Its probably a good idea to know this, in order to avoid buyers disappointment.
The best audience for YELLOWCAKE is devoted Lanagan fans, or readers who have read a book or two by her and are curious for more. I fall into the latter, perhaps moving into the former. Like her other books, the stories in YELLOWCAKE dont seem like they should work, but they do. In each of them is a vague echo of something familiar: I felt like I had read the essence or the ideas of some of them before. But in Lanagans uniquely skillful hands, the ideas turn into phantasmal sights, old and new at the same time.
Im not sure if theres a connecting thread running through all these stories. Sometimes I felt like I could catch hold of a connection, but then the next story comes along and dashes my tentative theories into pieces. The best I can come up with is that this short story collection persuasively argues, in a peripheral, is-it-or-is-it-not kind of way, the importance of having a little more magichowever you define itin our lives.
The books afterword explains not only Lanagans inspiration for each of these stories, which I found interesting to read, but also that the majority of these stories have been previously published elsewhere. If youve been a dedicated YA short story anthology reader, particularly of the SFF kind, then you may have read some of these stories already. Its probably a good idea to know this, in order to avoid buyers disappointment.
The best audience for YELLOWCAKE is devoted Lanagan fans, or readers who have read a book or two by her and are curious for more. I fall into the latter, perhaps moving into the former. Like her other books, the stories in YELLOWCAKE dont seem like they should work, but they do. In each of them is a vague echo of something familiar: I felt like I had read the essence or the ideas of some of them before. But in Lanagans uniquely skillful hands, the ideas turn into phantasmal sights, old and new at the same time.
Im not sure if theres a connecting thread running through all these stories. Sometimes I felt like I could catch hold of a connection, but then the next story comes along and dashes my tentative theories into pieces. The best I can come up with is that this short story collection persuasively argues, in a peripheral, is-it-or-is-it-not kind of way, the importance of having a little more magichowever you define itin our lives.
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