Difference between revisions of "Newest Short Stories Reviews"

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[[Category:New Reviews|Short Stories]]
 
[[Category:New Reviews|Short Stories]]
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Edith Pearlman
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|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=Honeydew
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|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|rating=4
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|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|genre=Short Stories
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|rating=5
|summary=American short story writer [[:Category:Edith Pearlman|Edith Pearlman]] brings us a compilation of stories that have only been seen separately in magazines over the yearsThis follows on from the huge success of ''Binocular Vision'' (in 2013), the short story collection that led to Ms Pearlman being presented with the National Critics' Circle Award.   
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|genre=Science Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444797018</amazonuk>
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|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
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I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen.  Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetimeI've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening.  Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theoristI needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B0CDZRGT1M
|author=Leslie Charteris and John Telfer (narrator)
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|title=Super Short Stories: Flash Fiction
|title=Enter the Saint
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|author=Mark C Wallfisch
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Thrillers
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|genre=Short Stories
|summary=When you think of thrillers written by a man in his early twenties there's a temptation to believe that the books might not be, well, top drawer, but that would be a mistake.  The first of ''The Saint'' novels was published in 1928 when Leslie Charteris was just twenty one and this collection of stories is dated 1930. You might expect the rambunctious adventurer we meet, but not the subtleties of the slightly world-weary man of the world, all-knowing about the evils to which men (and women) can sink, but they're all there. Admittedly the Saint is more boisterous and less subtle than he will become - but that speaks more about the later works than this book.
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|summary=''Got a minute to be amused, entertained, or challenged?''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00OS74GQU</amazonuk>
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''These 100 stories are super short. None is more than 300 words. You can read one in a flash.''
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''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short.''
  
{{newreview
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Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of a fully rounded little story if that story is told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to draw out themes from all the flash fictions in a book of them? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn't a fixed definition of flash fiction but that for this collection, author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. That's about a single page in your average paperback.
|author=J Robert Lennon
 
|title=See You In Paradise
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|summary=Lennon writes with a relaxed, easy style and his characters are instantly recognisable as people from everyday walks of life, without being in any way stereotypical. Many of the people in these stories are dealing with normal frustrations, and Lennon is cleverly detached enough not to make them individuals that you're obviously supposed to root for (the only exception is the industrialist in the eponymous tale, who is an archetypal capitalist fat cat). There are some very clever characterisations – in ''Weber’s Head'', for example, the narrator is a flawed individual whose opinions of his housemate are gradually revealed to be unreliable and unfair. For me, the most unsettling story is ''No Life'', because it portrays a decent couple at the mercy of people more powerful and influential than them. There is no supernatural or bizarre element at work here, just ordinary characters at the mercy of social power.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781253358</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Rachel Harrison
|author=Rebecca Lee
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|title=Bad Dolls
|title=Bobcat and Other Stories
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|rating=4
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=The first story in ''Bobcat'' is the title story, and this alone is worth the price of admission. Plaster it with prizes, put it in anthologies; it deserves every accolade it can get. However, the last story echoes the first, and the five tales in between are strangely repetitive, most with Midwestern North American narrators and 1980s university settings. Moreover, all seven are in the first-person; I would have appreciated more variety of perspective.
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|summary=It's been some time since I've read any horror.  I had a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the books from a boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them to the point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of the vampires outside!  Don't worry - this short story collection isn't like that!  It doesn't have those jump scares, and I didn't have to read it during daylight hours only!  But it is creepy, and I found most of that feeling came from the fact that these are stories about women, living normal lives, and that at least in part, the horrors arises from very normal situations such as a breakup, trying a new dieting app, going to a hen party and a coping with grief.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1922182311</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1803363932
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn= B0CCCVRSGX
|author=Kelley Armstrong
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|title=Stories 2
|title=Otherworld Nights
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|author=Richard F Walker
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Paranormal
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|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Kelley Armstrong revisits her hugely popular 'Otherworld' series in this collection of short stories, featuring many of the prominent characters from the series.
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|summary= This is Richard F Walker's second volume of short stories. There are thirteen in all and I took something from each of them. There isn't a single one that doesn't deserve to be among the others or brings down the overall quality. It can be tricky to review short stories without giving too much away, so I'll just pick two to talk about and I think they give a general flavour.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500667</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1739593901
 +
|title=22 Ideas About The Future
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|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
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|rating=5
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|genre=Science Fiction
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|summary=''Our future will be more complex than we expected.  Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.''
  
{{newreview
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I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the book.  There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engagedThen there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building.  It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidentalSo, what did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it.  
|author=Robin Ince and Johnny Mains (editors)
 
|title=Dead Funny
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Horror
 
|summary=In a world of nightmares, disasters, death and ignominy there is a book called ''Dead Funny''. Invented purely to satisfy the remit built into its title, it collects some horror stories written by comedians, both household names and those more up-and-comingLike all horror books it comes out at the time of year best suited for horror – Halloween, when we read with the darkest corners in our rooms, with the longest evenings outside – but is only suited for Halloween because it is a worthless, hellish piece of dross.  It never excites, it is the most self-serving vanity project, and the only funny thing about it is that some idiot ever decided it was worth publishingNow I know you know, courtesy of those bright shiny stars alongside this review, that this volume, Dead Funny, is not ''that'' Dead Funny. But just bear in mind the horror story this could have been, if these pages were not so surprisingly adept at taking those said nightmares, disasters, deaths and ignominy and presenting them to us so competently.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773762</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B09XZMCDVF
|author=Konstantina Souzou-Kyrkou
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|title=Stories: 13 tantalising tales
|title=Black Greek Coffee
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|author=Richard F Walker
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=If your experience of Greece is as a tourist then you'll almost certainly think of it in terms of history, mythology and startlingly white buildings against sapphire blue sky and sea.  It looks idyllic, but there's a darker side to Greek life, explored by Konstantina Souzou-Kyrkou, in ''Black Greek Coffee'' - a neat metaphor for the lives she looks at: sharp, bitter but ultimately addictive.  In twenty three short stories she illuminates the chauvinism and superstition, the concepts of ''honour'' and the status of women, the dominance of religion and the lives led by ''ordinary'' people.  They sound like grand themes, but the stories are grounded in domesticity and there will be few people - in any country - who have not been touched by one of the problems.
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|summary=''A news vendor is crying out the headlines in the middle of the night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; a stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the ideal person to have around in a lawless village; the new boy on the pub football team is very useful with his feet, and awfully familiar…''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784620351</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
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This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the eclectic reader. Tying them together is the idea that remarkable and strange, even miraculous, things can happen to ordinary people. And that ordinary doesn't mean boring or uninteresting. Form and tone varies so this little treasury of short fiction is never boring and you're never quite sure what's coming next.
|title=Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 Stories
 
|author=Malorie Blackman, Holly Black and others
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=How long do you keep your birthday presents for? A week, a month, a year – or life? Is that time-scale different, perhaps, when you're nearly a thousand years old? I only ask because Doctor Who is, of course, both 51 (in our earthly, televisual representation) and 900 and more in human years as a character. In 2013 we were given a great book that gave us a story for every Doctor Who we've seen on TV, in honour of the 50th birthday proceedings. But now is a year on, and we're a further Doctor down the line. And so what was '11 Doctors, 11 Stories' is now '12 Doctors, 12 Stories'. So while many of us would have cherished and kept said birthday present, the only addition is the last, which like the rest was available as an e-book. So it's worth revisiting what I said about the book last time, then chucking in the (what might only be temporarily) concluding story at the end.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141359889</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1737030942
|title=Problems with People
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|title=Bag O'Goodies
|author=David Guterson
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|author=Jolly Walker Bittick
|rating=4.5
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|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
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|genre= Anthologies
|summary=''Problems with People'' is a meandering exploration of the relationships, big and small, that we form across a lifetime. Ranging from that of parent and child to that between landlord and tenant, Guterson’s observation of the complexities and nuances involved in how we navigate these personal links is extremely sharp and true to life.
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|summary=Sometimes, you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'Goodies''.  I first encountered his writing about a year ago, when I read his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], a rollicking tale of what happens when five young men find a base for their partying. Right now, I didn't want a full-length novel, so I turned to this anthology of verse and short stories.  Bittick's writing has matured - and so have his characters.  Well... most of them!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408859963</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529418100
|title=Burnt Tongues: An Anthology of Transgressive Short Stories
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|title=Bruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales
|author=Chuck Palahniuk, Dennis Widmyer and Richard Thomas
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|author=Martin Walker
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Saying certain things out loud just don’t sound right.  Some things are so disturbing or politically incorrect that you are best off leaving them inside your head, or better yet not thinking of them at all.  When these words are spoken they could lead to the sensation of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect of knowing what you said was wrongAre you prepared to enter the world of Transgressive Fiction that aims to disturb, alienate, disgust and question?
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|summary=I'm not usually a fan of short stories - I find it all too easy to put the book down between stories and forget to pick it up again - but I am a fan of Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the temptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was hard to resist and I'm rather glad that I didn't even tryFor those new to the series, there's an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to know about who's who and the background to why Bruno is in St Denis.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329552X</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B08NF79QXT
|title=The Best British Short Stories 2014
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|title=Cherry Blossom Boutique
|author=Nicholas Royle (editor)
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|author=Brooke Adams
|rating=5
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|rating=3
|genre=Short Stories
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|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=I’m a keen reader and I like a massive tome. But every so often, I drift into a mode of finding it hard to settle to anything and at such times, I like to read short stories. I also enjoy them when I’m horribly busy and don’t have the time to read much more.
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|summary=Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. She's delighted and the two people she's brought with her to the event couldn't be more pleased.  Sonja, her mother, is an ex-model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, Charles and their four-year-old daughter, Ava.  Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773673</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B08KKQ85FN
|title=Any Other Mouth
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|title=But Never For Lunch
|author=Anneliese Mackintosh
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|author=Sandra Aragona
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=With a title like ''Any Other Mouth'', you know from the outset that this is, shall we say, a rather niche book. It’s not all about orifices, though. Partially autobiographical, this is the messy, ludicrous, wildly entertaining story of a girl who’s just a little bit different. Ok, make that a lot different.
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|summary=''If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or, more to the point, about to discover the real world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908754575</amazonuk>
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You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you?  We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled' rather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, has no intention of slowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B08CHJLNBS
|title=Revenge
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|title=Capturing Emilia
|author=Yoko Ogawa and Stephen Snyder (translator)
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|author=Brooke Adams
|rating=5
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|rating=3
|genre=Short Stories
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|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=A woman waits for a long time at a village bakery, her mind only on the strawberry shortcakes she wants to buy, and the strange reasons that make the purchase so important to herA boy is invited by a girl at school to a posh French restaurant – with strawberry shortcakes on the menu – in order for him to provide moral support as she meets her estranged father for the first timeNearby, a woman enjoys an unusual relationship with her elderly landlady, who keeps finding unusually-shaped carrots in her vegetable garden. A man reflects on an unusual relationship with a writer who for a couple of years at least was a step-mum to him, even as she went dotty in talking to herself. Unusual relationships, vegetables, motives – and strawberry shortcakes – are prevalent in this fascinating look at a sunlit yet dark world, which makes for a superlatively clever read.
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|summary=He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents.  She's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the heritage library next door.  Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, which leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, to something a little deeperCharles is more of a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''.  They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind?  She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friendsAnd given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him?  The relationship's obviously a non-starter, isn't it?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553937</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)
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|title=Cursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales
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|rating=4.5
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|genre=Fantasy
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|summary=Curses. They're there throughout tales of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, or not to be able to do that. Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the verge of marrying, and older people too. It seems in a way there's no escaping it. Which is why the theme of this book of short stories is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, that demonised place, and that other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.
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|isbn=1789091500
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Stibbe_Xmas
|title=Dead Man's Hand
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|title=An Almost Perfect Christmas
|author=John Joseph Adams (editor)
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|author=Nina Stibbe
|rating=5
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
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|genre=Humour
|summary=''Dead Man's Hand'' features short stories with themes ranging from time travel and vampires to theology; at first glance it definitely appears to be an eclectic mix. These stories are linked by the genre of the weird west, which is defined by its elasticity. John Joseph Adams' helpful introduction outlines the main features of the weird west and provides a clear, insightful guide to this little-known genre. Far from being mismatched, the eclectic nature of this collection is in fact the greatest strength of the weird west genre. Unconstrained by narrow generic conventions, the authors in this collection have plundered the deepest depths of their imaginations. The result? A colourful, memorable and, above all, ''imaginative'' collection of fiction.
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|summary=Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons. It's cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of the year?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783295465</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0954899520
|title=The Listener
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|title=A Winter Book
 
|author=Tove Jansson
 
|author=Tove Jansson
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Short Stories
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|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Until very recently Jansson was probably only known in the English-speaking world for her Moomin stories.  Then along came ''Sort of'' books and their wonderful translators, foremost among them: Thomas Teal. And we started to understand what it was about the woman…
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|summary=Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of the simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745363</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview <!-- 19/5 -->
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|isbn=1911115847
|author=Lightfall Literary Agency (Editor)
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|title=Nights of the Creaking Bed
|title=The Obsidian Poplar and Other Stories
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|author=Toni Kan
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
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|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=I'll confess that I was a little nervous about ''The Obsidian Poplar and Other Stories''.  There's a common misconception that short stories are easy - something run off quickly before the author gets on with doing the proper job of a full-length work, but the truth is rather different.  A short story has none of the luxuries of a longer work: plot development has to be done quickly, characters have to come off the page. Every word must earn its keep. A book can be written - a short story must be ''crafted''. But what made me particularly nervous here was that all the authors are students - and the editor was convinced that there are ten of them who are good enough to be included in the book.
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|summary=''Nights of the Creaking Bed'' is a collection of short stories by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the lives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in and around Lagos, Nigeria. Nigeria, in this collection, is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with a vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to achieve a glimmer of hope.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00JH1B94E</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529014484
|author=Andrea Camilleri, Carlo Lucarelli and Giancarlo De Cataldo
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|title=Exhalation
|title=Judges
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|author=Ted Chiang
|rating=4.5
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|rating=5
|genre=Short Stories
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|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=I'll confess that it was the name of [[:Category:Andrea Camilleri|Andrea Camilleri]] which brought me to this book.  I'm a long-time fan of his Inspector Montalbano series and a recent reading of a spin-off [[Montalbano's First Case by Andrea Camilleri|novella]] had proved to me that the concise nature of his full-length novels was no fluke. In ''Judges'' we had another novella - worth buying for its own sake - and the bonus of two more stories from better-than-decent Italian authors. All that was needed was a glass of wine and a comfortable chair. Did the book live up to expectation?
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|summary=Over the past twenty-eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of the work by Ted Chiang. If you haven't then take this opportunity to do so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052977</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1794467440
|title=Lying Under the Apple Tree
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|title=Watchwords
|author=Alice Munro
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|author=Philip Neal
|rating=4.5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Munro packs an extraordinary amount into a short story. Some of them are quite long for short stories, and they are not the sorts of stories that might suit reading on your daily commute; they demand more attention than that. Her observations of human behaviour are acute, and the most innocuous of them will set you thinking a great deal. Most of the stories warrant a pause for thought and need a little time for absorption of detail.
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|summary=This satisfying collection of short stories has a provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of the antique watches that inspired it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593777</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
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Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of and had been told was like a 1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's how he became a watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. The eBay purchase was a fake, but the friendship that grew between the buyer and the repairer of watches was not and the seed of an idea for a book was born.
|title=Stories of World War One
 
|author=Tony Bradman
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=World War One, or the Great War as it was known at the time, was a cataclysmic war. Millions died and life was changed forever for the survivors - for the women of Britain, and for the working classes and ruling classes alike. 2014 is the centenary of its outbreak and the redoubtable Tony Bradman has gathered together a dozen of our best writers for young people to create an anthology of short stories to commemorate the anniversary.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408330350</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529006031
|title=Something Like Happy
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|title=Return to Wonderland
|author=John Burnside
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|author=Various Authors
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|summary=How do you pick a name for a short story collection?  It seems to me the ''...and other stories'' add-on is like picking a favourite child, a promotion of one portion of the content above the rest.  [[:Category:John Burnside|John Burnside]] has got a title story here, but such is the mood of the book that he seems to have nailed the matter, and picked the most apposite name.  ''Something Like Happy'' could in a way be the title for practically every piece here.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099575590</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Brief Loves That Live Forever
 
|author=Andrei Makine
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Our unnamed narrator is inspired to think back through his life on the girls and women he has been in love with, partly because of a time spent with an associate – a time marked by a seemingly most unremarkable encounter with a further woman – whom he deemed had never been loved.  The associate, you see, had spent half his adult life in Soviet camps for political instruction – our narrator himself was an orphan in the 1960s' Soviet UnionThis snappy volume takes us through episodes in several lives at different points during and since the second half of communist rule and finally explains the import of that unremarkable encounter…
+
|summary=In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book she was in [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it.  The wacky-for-the-sake-of-it did not gel, and I don't remember loving it more as a child.  But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book.  I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the core from a tangent, that show the benefits of the oblique glanceI've always preferred coming to an author's output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and it's the same with franchises I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons).  For another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love in mind could only provide for success after success?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780870493</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1846974658
|author=Elizabeth Haynes
+
|title=The Long Path To Wisdom
|title=Promises to Keep: A Short Story
+
|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Jo is haunted by the death of a teenage asylum seeker whilst in police custody and she only hangs on to her fragile sanity by running.  Whilst she's out in the woods (where she'd been warned that she ''really'' shouldn't go) she discovered a young boy living rough and she knew that she had to do everything in her power to keep him safe.  There were complications.  Her partner was DS Sam Hollands who had a direct involvement with asylum seekers - and the boy living rough in the woods was the younger brother of the dead teenagerSam wanted to get her relationship with Jo back onto an even keel, but one  night she returned from work to find a stranger in her house.
+
|summary=On my travels around the world, I have a tendency to end up in any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the next person, what I'm really looking for is the 'local' the cookbook maybe, the maps definitely, but above all: the folk talesIf I ever get to Burma, I won't need to hunt, I can read before I go.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00I9GXP2M</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B077969HN8
|title=The Rental Heart and other Fairytales
+
|title=Alternative Medicine
|author=Kirsty Logan
+
|author=Laura Solomon
|rating=3.5
+
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=To start with, are these stories strictly fairytales? On the evidence of this collection, it is at times a distinction that seems open to debate, a category that lies waiting for definition.  But at the same time, such is the genre-switching (and at times gender-switching), that it is a subtitle that serves better than most. The title story examines a life's romantic history via a twist on the idea that we give our heart away to every lover – what do we have when they are gone and a new one takes their place?  Elsewhere, a landed lady takes advantage of her servant, and another cultured madam hires a clockwork companion to shrug off the suitors, with obvious, narratively logical resultsA medical worker and her pregnant partner share a caravan together, all the while knowing a different circumstance might be closer than first thought.  We have the beginnings of love lives, the end of hatred, and the end of the world in these pages.
+
|summary=Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories in ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of surrealism''. I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a fan of either, but I've come to two conclusions about the book: what the publisher says is correct - and I really enjoyed it.   The comedy is not ''too'' black and the surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a twist or flick of reality when you were least expecting itYour comfort zones are going to be invaded in the nicest possible way.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773754</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=9386897504
|title=Further Encounters of Sherlock Holmes
+
|title=Tales of Love and Disability
|author=George Mann (Editor)
+
|author=Laura Solomon
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Hot on the heels of [[Encounters of Sherlock Holmes by George Mann (Editor)|Encounters of Sherlock Holmes]] comes another collection of brand-new tales written by some of the brightest creative minds from the genres of science fiction and crime. In this anthology, Holmes and Watson are pitched headlong into twelve different mysterious scenarios and invited to unravel secrets and unmask villains as only they know how. During their adventures they come face to face with a mountain monster, take a murderous boat trip, meet Moriarty’s siblings and even indulge in a little space travel. The game is afoot!
+
|summary=I've always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of skill and talent to write a short story which holds the reader and keeps them coming back for more.  There are far too many collections of short stories which are all too easy to put down and forget after you've read a couple of pieces.  I've recently read a couple of novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell's Unveiling]] and enjoyed them, so I was intrigued to see what she could do with an even shorter form.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178116004X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1986586898
|author=David Rose (writer of short stories)
+
|title=Going To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing
|title=Posthumous Stories
+
|author=K D Knight
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=These sixteen short stories have one thing in common: lives, and plenty of themWe jump from the earthy banter of a road crew building speed humps to an interview pre-broadcast of a classical piece where the interviewer isn't getting the kind of answers for which he hopesOn the way we meet the least-mentioned Beatle, visit a world where people are paid to read for the many that don't and the man trying to remember his father through art to name but a fewFor good measure there are a couple of Kafka-esque experiments that also work as ripping good yarns.
+
|summary=In the opening story, a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket - and his wifeIn ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the problem of whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him.  My favourite was ''The Story of H'', the story of FoinavonH is depicted as a kind horse who only wanted to please people.  After changing hands on various occasions he came to the yard of John Kempton.  H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a no-hoperIn one of the most dramatic runnings of the race, a pile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, winning the race at odds of 100/1.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773576</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=9386897296
|title=Doctor Who: 11 Doctors, 11 Stories
+
|title=Hell's Unveiling
|author=Eoin Colfer, Michael Scott and others
+
|author=Laura Solomon
|rating=5
+
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=It's basic knowledge that Doctor Who has changed a lot since first being seen fifty years ago – and I don't mean the title character, but the nature of the programmeIt has gone from black and white, and cheaply produced, and declared disposable, to being an essential part of the BBC, full-gloss digital, and accessed in all manner of waysSo with the celebratory programme still ringing in our ears, and leaving people pressing a red button to see a programme about three Doctors, er, pressing a red button, we turn to other aspects of the birthday bonanzaSuch as this book, which has also mutated in its much shorter lifespan, from being a loose collection of eleven short e-book novellas written by the blazing lights of YA writing, to a huge and brilliant paperback collecting everything within one set of covers.
+
|summary=A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''.  It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the devil is not one to take defeat lying downHe's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell)Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned.  Daniel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with Marsha.  Then, of course, there are all the other children who are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to the devil's evil endsHe's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, their self-esteem is very fragile.  This is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Hell.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141348941</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move to [[Newest Spirituality and Religion Reviews]]
|title=Of Lions and Unicorns: A Lifetime of Tales from the Master Storyteller
 
|author=Michael Morpurgo
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=''Of Lions and Unicorns'' is a collection of short stories and extracts from Morpurgo’s most popular books. The book is split into five sections, which focus on recurring themes in his writing.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007395353</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Rags and Bones
 
|author=Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt (Editors)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Anthologies
 
|summary=Some of today's top authors have come together to retell classic tales - from fairy stories to Victorian-era fiction. As usual with this kind of anthology, it's a fairly hit-or-miss affair, but the hits here are so strong that they're well worth picking up the book for.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472210522</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Science of Herself
 
|author=Karen Joy Fowler
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|summary=I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  The most fun when facing a new author, especially a big name one, is to come through the underground, tackling the smaller works, the quirkier output, the less representative sections of her or his oeuvre.  And for those who have or haven't read ''The Jane Austen Book Club'', there is plenty of potential for that with the rest of [[The Case of the Imaginary Detective by Karen Joy Fowler|Karen Joy Fowler]], for her output includes almost as many selections of short stories as it does very successful novels, and what's more they carry the science fictional banner.  A long time ago there was a teenage me very happy to be reading ''Lord of the Flies'' and writing an essay about how sci-fi it was, and I do relish the mainstream author entering a genre, or the inverse of that.  But boy, I normally come away a lot happier than I did here.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1604868252</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Revision as of 17:19, 25 March 2024

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Review of

All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt by Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

5star.jpg Science Fiction

Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.

I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand. Full Review

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Review of

Super Short Stories: Flash Fiction by Mark C Wallfisch

4.5star.jpg Short Stories

Got a minute to be amused, entertained, or challenged? These 100 stories are super short. None is more than 300 words. You can read one in a flash. Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short.

Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of a fully rounded little story if that story is told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to draw out themes from all the flash fictions in a book of them? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn't a fixed definition of flash fiction but that for this collection, author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. That's about a single page in your average paperback. Full Review

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Review of

Bad Dolls by Rachel Harrison

4star.jpg Short Stories

It's been some time since I've read any horror. I had a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the books from a boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them to the point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of the vampires outside! Don't worry - this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, and I didn't have to read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, and I found most of that feeling came from the fact that these are stories about women, living normal lives, and that at least in part, the horrors arises from very normal situations such as a breakup, trying a new dieting app, going to a hen party and a coping with grief. Full Review

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Review of

Stories 2 by Richard F Walker

4star.jpg Short Stories

This is Richard F Walker's second volume of short stories. There are thirteen in all and I took something from each of them. There isn't a single one that doesn't deserve to be among the others or brings down the overall quality. It can be tricky to review short stories without giving too much away, so I'll just pick two to talk about and I think they give a general flavour. Full Review

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Review of

22 Ideas About The Future by Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

5star.jpg Science Fiction

Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.

I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the book. There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it. Full Review

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Review of

Stories: 13 tantalising tales by Richard F Walker

4star.jpg Short Stories

A news vendor is crying out the headlines in the middle of the night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; a stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the ideal person to have around in a lawless village; the new boy on the pub football team is very useful with his feet, and awfully familiar…

This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the eclectic reader. Tying them together is the idea that remarkable and strange, even miraculous, things can happen to ordinary people. And that ordinary doesn't mean boring or uninteresting. Form and tone varies so this little treasury of short fiction is never boring and you're never quite sure what's coming next. Full Review

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Review of

Bag O'Goodies by Jolly Walker Bittick

4star.jpg Anthologies

Sometimes, you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's Bag O'Goodies. I first encountered his writing about a year ago, when I read his Cape Henry House, a rollicking tale of what happens when five young men find a base for their partying. Right now, I didn't want a full-length novel, so I turned to this anthology of verse and short stories. Bittick's writing has matured - and so have his characters. Well... most of them! Full Review

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Review of

Bruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales by Martin Walker

4star.jpg Short Stories

I'm not usually a fan of short stories - I find it all too easy to put the book down between stories and forget to pick it up again - but I am a fan of Martin Walker's Bruno Courreges Mysteries so the temptation to read Bruno's Challenge was hard to resist and I'm rather glad that I didn't even try. For those new to the series, there's an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to know about who's who and the background to why Bruno is in St Denis. Full Review

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Review of

Cherry Blossom Boutique by Brooke Adams

3star.jpg Women's Fiction

Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. She's delighted and the two people she's brought with her to the event couldn't be more pleased. Sonja, her mother, is an ex-model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, Charles and their four-year-old daughter, Ava. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in her life. Full Review

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Review of

But Never For Lunch by Sandra Aragona

4star.jpg Short Stories

If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or, more to the point, about to discover the real world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills.

You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in Sorting the Priorities and we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled' rather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, has no intention of slowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf. Full Review

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Review of

Capturing Emilia by Brooke Adams

3star.jpg Women's Fiction

He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. She's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the heritage library next door. Emilia has read The Secret but she's moved on from new age books like that, which leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, to something a little deeper. Charles is more of a Jack Reacher man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads The Guardian. They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friends. And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a non-starter, isn't it? Full Review

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Review of

Cursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)

4.5star.jpg Fantasy

Curses. They're there throughout tales of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, or not to be able to do that. Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the verge of marrying, and older people too. It seems in a way there's no escaping it. Which is why the theme of this book of short stories is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, that demonised place, and that other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong. Full Review

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Review of

An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe

4.5star.jpg Humour

Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons. It's cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of the year? Full Review

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Review of

A Winter Book by Tove Jansson

5star.jpg Literary Fiction

Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of the simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be. Full Review

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Review of

Nights of the Creaking Bed by Toni Kan

4star.jpg Literary Fiction

Nights of the Creaking Bed is a collection of short stories by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the lives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in and around Lagos, Nigeria. Nigeria, in this collection, is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with a vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to achieve a glimmer of hope. Full Review

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Review of

Exhalation by Ted Chiang

5star.jpg Science Fiction

Over the past twenty-eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of the work by Ted Chiang. If you haven't then take this opportunity to do so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful. Full Review

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Review of

Watchwords by Philip Neal

4star.jpg Short Stories

This satisfying collection of short stories has a provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of the antique watches that inspired it.

Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of and had been told was like a 1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's how he became a watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. The eBay purchase was a fake, but the friendship that grew between the buyer and the repairer of watches was not and the seed of an idea for a book was born. Full Review

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Review of

Return to Wonderland by Various Authors

4.5star.jpg Short Stories

In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book she was in hit 150 years of age, I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the-sake-of-it did not gel, and I don't remember loving it more as a child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the core from a tangent, that show the benefits of the oblique glance. I've always preferred coming to an author's output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and it's the same with franchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons). For another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love in mind could only provide for success after success? Full Review

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Review of

The Long Path To Wisdom by Jan-Philipp Sendker

4star.jpg Short Stories

On my travels around the world, I have a tendency to end up in any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the next person, what I'm really looking for is the 'local' – the cookbook maybe, the maps definitely, but above all: the folk tales. If I ever get to Burma, I won't need to hunt, I can read before I go. Full Review

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Review of

Alternative Medicine by Laura Solomon

4.5star.jpg Short Stories

Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories in Alternative Medicine as black comedy with a twist of surrealism. I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until after I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a fan of either, but I've come to two conclusions about the book: what the publisher says is correct - and I really enjoyed it. The comedy is not too black and the surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a twist or flick of reality when you were least expecting it. Your comfort zones are going to be invaded in the nicest possible way. Full Review

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Review of

Tales of Love and Disability by Laura Solomon

4star.jpg Short Stories

I've always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of skill and talent to write a short story which holds the reader and keeps them coming back for more. There are far too many collections of short stories which are all too easy to put down and forget after you've read a couple of pieces. I've recently read a couple of novellas by Laura Solomon - Marsha's Deal and Hell's Unveiling and enjoyed them, so I was intrigued to see what she could do with an even shorter form. Full Review

1986586898.jpg

Review of

Going To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing by K D Knight

4.5star.jpg Short Stories

In the opening story, a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket - and his wife. In A Grey Day an owner struggles with the problem of whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. My favourite was The Story of H, the story of Foinavon. H is depicted as a kind horse who only wanted to please people. After changing hands on various occasions he came to the yard of John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a no-hoper. In one of the most dramatic runnings of the race, a pile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, winning the race at odds of 100/1. Full Review

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Review of

Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon

3.5star.jpg Short Stories

A little while ago I really enjoyed Marsha's Deal and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, Hell's Unveiling. It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in Marsha's Deal, but the devil is not one to take defeat lying down. He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell). Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with Marsha. Then, of course, there are all the other children who are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to the devil's evil ends. He's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, their self-esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Hell. Full Review

Move to Newest Spirituality and Religion Reviews