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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley McKayAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=1588All Tomorrow's Futures: A Calendar of Crime Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (A Hew Cullan MysteryEditors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0CDZRGT1M|title=Super Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch

|genre=Crime (Historical)Short Stories|summary=A lot ''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 crime happens a fully rounded little story if that story is told in St Andrews during 1588 and therefore fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to draw out themes from all the flash fictions in the life a book of law lecturer and local investigator Hew Cullen too. As we travel through the year with him, his recently wedded English wife Frances, doctor brother in law Giles and his sister Meg, the wise woman, them? I don't know! Perhaps we also encounter some of his most interesting cases. In fact could start by explaining that therereally isn's one to match each t a fixed definition of the yearflash fiction but that for this collection, author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. That's big festivals: Candlemas, Whitsun, Lammas, Martinmas and Yuleabout a single page in your average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973635</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mary Telford and Louise VerityRachel Harrison|title=SinsBad Dolls

|summary=Is there enough new to say about the seven deadly sins? WeIt's been some time since I've seen them all shown to usread any horror. I had a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the books from a boy I fancied at school age and up scaring myself half silly with them to the movie point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of the vampires outside! Don'Se7ent worry - this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, which we sincerely hope was NOT shown to anyone at school age. We can each recount them all, having been long familiar with them, even if we probably canand I didn't pin down when they were actually set in stone without help. have to read it during daylight hours only! SimilarlyBut it is creepy, is there anything new in the world and I found most of fairy tale? We know that feeling came from the tropes - characters identified by their status or gender (the woman, the husband)fact that these are stories about women, a clear set of rules to obeyliving normal lives, and a moral as strong as, if not stronger thanthat at least in part, the formulae involved. Well, this volume demands we decide the answer to those questions horrors arises from very normal situations such as being positive onesa breakup, and if it's not always definitive in the writing here that there is something trying a newdieting app, rest assured there will be something in the imagery that will definitely strike one as fresh..going to a hen party and a coping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843516624</amazonuk>1803363932

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Carys Bray and othersB0CCCVRSGX|title=How Much the Heart Can Hold: Seven Stories on Love2|author=Richard F Walker|rating=3.54

|summary=This Sceptre collection does not have as simple a remit as it might appear; these are no straightforward love is Richard F Walker's second volume of short stories. Instead, they There are thirteen in all and I took something from each take one aspect of love – often 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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1739593901|title=22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of the ancient Greek classifications – flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and provide automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.'' I've got a whole new way couple of thinking about 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. After all It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, the heart holds what did I think of a lot book of metaphorical weighttwenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473649420</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen SimpsonB09XZMCDVF|title=CockfostersStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker|rating=3.54

|summary=This was ''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 belated reunion stickler for me, having been introduced 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 authornew boy on the pub football team is very useful with his feet, and awfully familiar…'s snappy ' This collection of thirteen short story collections courtesy stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the very first one while at unieclectic reader. Mind, it was a much more gentle and placid reunion than Tying them together is the one idea that starts this book – Julie remarkable and Philippa have had a shop-bought curry togetherstrange, even miraculous, but have had things can happen to forsake a cultural chat for a trip haring along the London Underground chasing after a pair ordinary people. And that ordinary doesn't mean boring or uninteresting. Form and tone varies so this little treasury of glasses one of them left behind. The piece short fiction is definitely about the subject of ageing – about time passed never boring and you're never quite sure what might be remaining ahead – but you soon discover that not only do all the pieces here have titles that are unadorned place names, but they all concern that very theme's coming next. Can anyone, let alone Helen Simpson, sustain such a vaguely morbid topic over a full collection?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178470198X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Beckler1737030942|title= The Road More Travelled: Tales of those seeking refugeBag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick|rating= 54|genre= Short StoriesAnthologies|summary= Sometimes, you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'The Road More TravelledGoodies'' is an anthology of short stories - and one poem - written in response to the refugee crisis as it exploded across our TV screens and newspapers throughout 2015. To the horror of the authors I first encountered his writing about a year ago, the language used when I read his [[Cape Henry House by many was aggressive and dehumanisingJolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], describing this mass a rollicking tale of desperate people as what happens when five young men find a swarm or a hordebase for their partying. The stories together form Right now, I didn't want a response full-length novel, so I turned to this otheringanthology of verse and short stories. Bittick's writing has matured - and so have his characters. Well..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993147224</amazonuk>. most of them!

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Ransom Riggs1529418100|title= Bruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales of the Peculiar|author=Martin Walker|rating= 54|genre= TeensShort Stories|summary= A fork-tongued princess. A boy who can control the currents of the sea. Cannibals who feast on the limbs of I'm not usually a village of peculiars. These are just a few fan of short stories - I find it all too easy to put the brilliant book down between stories and forget to be found in ''Tales of the Peculiar'', all of which hold mystical information about the peculiar world pick it up again - but I am a place familiar to many fan of us since its first introduction by Ransom Riggs in Martin Walker's [[Miss PeregrineMartin Walker's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom RiggsCommissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Miss PeregrineBruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the temptation to read ''Bruno's Home for Peculiar Children]]Challenge'' was hard to resist and I'm rather glad that I didn't even try. The stories in this collection explore peculiar history and folklore in a wonderfully imaginative way 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 also include some beautiful illustrations the background to accompany each of the taleswhy Bruno is in St Denis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141373407</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08NF79QXT|title=I'll Be Home For ChristmasCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Benjamin Zephaniah and OthersBrooke Adams|rating=53|genre=TeensWomen's Fiction|summary=Publisher Little Tiger Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and homelessness charity Crisis have got together and produced ''I'll Be Home For Christmas'' wins - an anthology of short stories from some of the most popular writers on the UK YA sceneRetail Best Newcomer Award. The stories are connected by She's delighted and the theme of home. What does home mean two people she's brought with her to you? Is it your house, the physical place where you live? Is it your family? Your friends? Home can mean different things to different people, canevent couldn't it? The book opens with a powerful poem by Bookbag favouritebe more pleased. Sonja, her mother, Benjamin Zephaniahis an ex-model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. The following stories are disparate Jessica's thirty- some telling tales of hardship four and fear, some warming the cockles of your heart. But all of them are about Liberty's best friend: they'homeve 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>1847157726</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rebecca SchiffB08KKQ85FN|title= The Bed MovedBut Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona|rating= 54|genre= Short Stories |summary= Rebecca Schiff's collection of short stories was 'If a revelation. It has everything I want from woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a collection: humourRottweiler in lipstick, (often an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or, more to the black variety)point, heartbreaking sadness, and moments of shocking clarity. These stories feel like about to discover the revealing real world of the inner workings of a young American woman's psychebus timetables and paying his own gas bills. In fact, in the last short piece, entitled ''Write What  You Knowdon'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 feels that was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the narrator/author is telling us Italian Government but the experiences which time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... They have led to this collectionleft The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled'I only know about parent death rather overstates the situation and sluttiness'their dog, Beagle, she tells us. She goes on to talk about her knowledge has no intention of Jewish people who are assimilatedslowing down any time soon, liberal despite being sixteen and sexual guilt, and I think it is no exaggeration to say that these are the underlying themes to practically all of the stories heredeaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147363184X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Simon Van BooyB08CHJLNBS|title= Tales of Accidental GeniusCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating= 53|genre= Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=A diverseHe's Charles Devereaux, haunting thirty-eight and humorous collection of short fictiona partner at Wickham Jones, Simon Van Booy offers a collection of stories highlighting how human genius can emerge through acts of compassionthe Mayfair letting agents. With characters ranging from an eccentric film director She's Emilia, an aging Cockney bodyguardtwenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the teenage child of Nigerian immigrantsheritage 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 divorced amateur magician and little deeper. Charles is more of a Beijing street vendor[[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian'Tales '. They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of Accidental Geniushis mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friends. And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles' takes the reader on many, incredible journeyss superficiality, and conveys more in a few pages than many authors would struggle why does she feel drawn to do in him? The relationship's obviously a whole novel. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780749716</amazonuk>non-starter, isn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Amnesty InternationalMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title= Here I StandCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensFantasy|summary= Every so often Amnesty International gets together a number Curses. They're there throughout tales of great authors faery and produces an anthology 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 writing. This timemarrying, they've done it for younger readers with ''Here I Stand''and older people too. Twenty-five contributions explore where we are with human rights It seems in todaya way there's society: no escaping it. Which is why the sacrifices many made theme of this book of short stories is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to win them; the sacrifices know about this accursed character, that still need to be made to spread them; howdemonised place, where and why these rights are under attack and how deep is the need to defend themthat other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140635838X</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Anna MetcalfeStibbe_Xmas|title= Blind Water Pass and other storiesAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating= 4.5|genre= Short StoriesHumour|summary= Anna MetcalfeChristmas – 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 debut collection 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 short stories is course also a treasure trove time of language, cultures, and beautifully written prosegreat boons. The stories are bound together with It's cash in hand for a loose theme lot of communicationplump people who can hire red suits and beards, or miscommunicationit 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, across characters and culturesas for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of the narrators of these stories are as different as human beings themselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473631815</amazonuk>year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Wendy Brandmark0954899520|title= He Runs the MoonA Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson|rating= 3.5|genre= Short Stories Literary Fiction|summary= This is the first time I had read any of Wendy BrandmarkTove Jansson's fictionworldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and I was intrigued at the theme later becoming television characters of the stories. She sets out writing short stories about different cities in the US, Denver, Bronx, New Yorksimplicity, Cambridge naivety and Bostonsheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, but also weaves in setting the simple stories in different eras, simple goodness. So we have 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 collection feeling for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of stories ranging from how the 1950's to the 1970'sworld might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907320601</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Birgul Oguz1911115847|title= HahNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan|rating= 34|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= I was interested to receive this book for review as I knew it was written in a modern, interesting style, being effectively ''Nights of the Creaking Bed'' is a collection of short stories, but appearing more in a novel structureby Toni Kan. I was, however, rather disappointed with the book. Whilst it does have some very fine examples The series of prose writing within the stories, I felt disconnected from tell of the narrator, who is the daughter lives and lusts of an assortment of a recently deceased man who was involved characters living in a Turkish military coup and around Lagos, Nigeria. Nigeria, in 1980. There this collection, is therefore a lot of examples imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the narrator relating the conversations they had shared regarding ''revolution'', shadows and the way this had affected the daughter's upbringing and childhoodpeople are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Another 'story' then delves into Kan writes with a seemingly disconnected wander through the town, whereby we see the narrator working at gutting fish, vitality and talking about passion that allows these cynical stories to achieve a man she finds repulsive, but who appears to be in love with herglimmer of hope. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>9462380740</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chuck Palahniuk1529014484|title=Make Something UpExhalation |author=Ted Chiang

|genre=Short Stories Science Fiction|summary=What are we to make of that subtitle-seeming writing on Over the front cover – ''stories you can't unread''? Does that not apply to all good fiction? Clearly it is here due to the reputation of the author, and the baggage his name brings to the page. We'd expect a dramatic approach from anything Palahniuk writes, and an added frisson, an extra layer, from which we might be forced to shrink back. But a lot of the contents don't quite go that far. Yes, things are dramatic, when society starts attaching defibrillators to itself, to create the perfect, simple, care- (''The Price is Right''past twenty-eight years, and Kardashian-) free happiness. A man buys a horse for his daughter – but boy is it the wrong horse to buy. A man falls in love – yesTed Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, sometimes the plot summaries of these magnificent stories really have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are better off for being short (speaking of which, don't turn to the three-page entrant here as a taster, science fiction fan it'll put is likely that you off have already come across some of the work by dint of being, almost uniquely here, a nothing story)Ted Chiang. A call centre worker canIf you haven't convince people he's on the level and even in their country – until someone starts riffing back then take this opportunity to himdo so now. A housing estate report conveys bad regulation violations, but not as bad as the happenings at a 'Burning Man'-styled festival, in a very clever couple of tales. But many too are the instances where that extra step has been takenTrust me; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587688</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1794467440|title=Watchwords |author=Martin Edwards (editor)Philip Neal|rating=4|titlegenre=Short Stories|summary=Murder This satisfying collection of short stories has a provenance at least as beguiling as the Manor: Country House Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics)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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529006031|title=Return to Wonderland|author=Various Authors

|genre=Crime (Historical)Short Stories|summary=I'm not big on short storiesIn following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, but two factors nudged me towards this when the first book. Firstly, itshe was in [[Alice's broadly golden age crime, one of my weaknesses Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and secondly, the editor is [[:Category:Martin EdwardsAnthony Browne|Martin Edwardshit 150 years of age]], a man whose knowledge I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the-sake-of golden age crime is probably unsurpassed -it did not gel, and heI don's done us proud, not only with his selectiont 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, but with that show the half-page biographies benefits of the writers, which precede each storyoblique glance. ThereI's just enough there ve always preferred coming to allow you to place the an author 's output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and to direct you to other works if youit's the same with franchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner're tempteds short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons). It's an elegant selectionFor another thing, from the well known and the less well knownthere was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, all set surely pieces written with that love in and around the country house.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712309934</amazonuk>mind could only provide for success after success?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joe Abercrombie1846974658|title=Sharp EndsThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker

|genre=FantasyShort Stories|summary=On my travels around the world, I often feel have a tendency to end up in any bookshop that short stories are an indulgence on is selling English-language books, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the part of the authornext person, they get to write down a lot of their ideas that donwhat I't m really fit into a larger storylooking for is the 'local' – the cookbook maybe, the maps definitely, but above all: the folk tales. The stop/start nature of them never sits well with me, just as If I am starting to ever get to know a character they are gone. One way of solving this would be Burma, I won't need to use characters that a fan will already know; perhaps explore the pasthunt, or the futureI can read before I go. That sounds great for a fan, but how do you do this whilst also catering for a new reader?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575104678</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sara TaylorB077969HN8|title=The ShoreAlternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=The first story we hear from Laura Solomon's publisher describes the Shore, short stories in ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a group twist of isolated islands off the coast of Virginia, is from Chloe, whosurrealism''s telling her sister about what she overheard in the store. SheI'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd been there buying chicken necks so that they could go crabbing. Normally they used bacon rindsfinished reading as I'm not normally a fan of either, but theyI'd already eaten thoseve come to two conclusions about the book: what the publisher says is correct - and I really enjoyed it. Cabel Bloxom had been murdered and The comedy is not ''they done cut his thang clean offtoo''. The girls are motherless black and Chloe the surrealism is fiercely protective gentle and perhaps best described as a twist or flick of her little sister Reneereality when you were least expecting it. She's the first of Your comfort zones are going to be invaded in the strong women we'll encounter in these stories, which interlink to give a greater picturenicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009959188X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Higgins Clark9386897504|title=Death Wears a Beauty MaskTales of Love and Disability|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=In 1972, Mary Higgins Clark began writing I've always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a novella entitled ''Death Wears great deal of skill and talent to write a Beauty Mask.'' She struggled with short story which holds the story reader and put it aside, where it lay forgotton keeps them coming back for several decadesmore. When the author rediscovered the manuscript amongst some old files, she decided that she liked it There are far too many collections of short stories which are all too easy to put down and was ready to complete the longforget after you've read a couple of pieces. I've recently read a couple of novellas by Laura Solomon -awaited ending. [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha'Death Wears a Beauty Masks Deal]] and [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell' joins some of her other works, both old s Unveiling]] and newenjoyed them, in so I was intrigued to see what she could do with an entertaining collection of short stories full of mystery and suspenseeven shorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471143228</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Danielle McLaughlin1986586898|title=Dinosaurs on Other PlanetsGoing To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight

|summary=Put yourself, if necessaryIn 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 mind problem of someone wanting whether or not to publish their first collection run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. My favourite was ''The Story of H'', the story of short storiesFoinavon. What do you choose H is depicted as the contents – besides just saying the best available? Do you try and find a theme, or connecting happenstance or style, kind horse who only wanted to pin them together? please people. Are they based After changing hands on you now, someone else somewhen else, or all the diverse people and places you have once met? Joannah Yacoub seems various occasions he came to have gone for the latteryard of John Kempton.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373971</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Eoin Colfer H (editoror Foinavon)|title=Once Upon a Place|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=You know was entered in the bit of the blurb on every ''Artemis Fowl'' book, where Eoin Colfer had it said about how you pronounce his name? That wasn't the intention of an up-Grand National andconsidered a no-coming author to be recognisable; rather, it was pridehoper. Pride in In one of the difference most dramatic runnings of itthe race, of a pile-up occurred at the Irishness of it23rd fence. IrelandFoinavon, it seems to mewho had been many lengths adrift, is more full than usual of people, things and ideas, and places that are different by dint of their singular nationality – cleared the fence and so many deserve to have pride attached galloped to them. The places might not be the famous onesline, but they can be winning the source race at odds of pride, and of stories, which is where this compilation of short works for the young comes in, with the authors invited to select their chosen place and write about it100/1.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>191041137X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sophie Hannah9386897296|title=The Visitors BookHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=How would you subvert a fairy tale? You know enough of them and enough about them to do it, so think on it. Would you give a mermaid a smartphone? Would you pepper them with pop stars, and perhaps let them be witness to the Schadenfreude caused A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by a cave thatLaura Solomon|Marsha's sacred Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to native Canadians? Would you, in read the light of their characters usually being routinesequel, interchangeable tropes, give them a closely-observed personality – as seen here in a teacher''Hell's interior thoughts when faced with a piece of East Anglian lore? Unveiling''. Would you take the exoticism of the east, and Egypt in particular, and see it in the light It's probably not much of a musical teacher on a zero-hours contract who ends up muttering spoiler to himself, directing traffic say that Marsha bested the devil in the middle of the road, or from the remove of an elderly man with ''swollen feet in orthopaedic sandalsMarsha's Deal'' with a message from , but the past? Certainly these two are devil is not the standard Arabian Nights-styled pieces…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784630381</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Rose Tremain|title= The American Lover|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories |summary= Having never read a Rose Tremain book before, I was interested one to start this collection of short storiestake defeat lying down. I wasnHe't disappointed, s out to wage war on Planet Earth and it quickly became clear why she has won so many literary awards for her work.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548445</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Ursula K Le Guin|title= The Windparticularly on Marsha (who's Twelve Quarters and The Compass Rose|rating= 4|genre= Science Fiction|summary=I'll start by saying that I think the SF Masterworks series are pretty much always and without fail thought of as a really interesting read. I've bought quite a few from this publisher now and I find they will always pick interesting titles from the science fiction genre, making them a great place to start if you are either just dipping your toe into science fiction for the first time or if yougoody two shoes're looking to build up your collectionin Hell).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147320576X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Maeve Binchy|title= A Few of the Girls|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary= I was excited about reviewing Although a brand new collection of Maeve Binchy short stories and I wasnstrong person, she't disappointeds vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. As her widower states in the introduction, Binchy had an extraordinary talent Daniel is framed for telling powerful and compassionate stories, and was a true storyteller with an amazing output. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409161412</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Ann Cleeves (editor)|title=The Starlings and Other Stories|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Six authors, known collectively as crime he didn'The Murder Squad', t commit and their six accomplices were given twelve photographs of the remote landscape of Pembrokeshire by acclaimed photographer David Wilson sent to juvenile detention and asked refused permission to return to come up live with a short story inspired by what they sawMarsha. Some Then, of course, there are all the stories will be more to your taste than others, as is other children who are not only to be expected in such a varied anthology, targeted but none are weak and if you enjoy crime short stories then this book could be a real treat.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909823740</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Walter M Miller Jr|title= Dark Benediction|rating= 5|genre= Science Fiction|summary= Walter M. Miller Jr is rightly placed among the science fiction giants H.G. Wells, Michael Moorcock, and Philip K. Dick in the ''Masterworks'' series, a large selection - worst of genreall -defining writers and works at the centre of what is now such a popular and diverse range of literatures, films, and television productions. Miller is considered one of the finest science fiction writers of subverted to the 1950s, and in ''Dark Benediction'', fourteen of this authordevil's best short stories are brought together in one collectionevil ends.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473211948</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Elizabeth McCracken|title= Thunderstruck|rating= 5|genre=Short Stories|summary= I chose to review this collection of short stories with no prior knowledge of the author He's work – often the best way out to do it, though I am aware that McCracken's work comes highly commended. After reading these stories, I can see why prey on their fears and weaknesses and I am already looking forward to reading more of her work.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099592975</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Pete Bellotte|title= The Unround Circle|rating= 2.5|genre= Short Stories|summary= As short story collections goas with many foster children, this their self-esteem is a fairly ambitious bundle, some 22 stories running to a total of nearly four hundred pagesvery fragile. You'll gather from This is no small-scale operation, either - the fact that I'm starting with the statistics that I didn't instantly fall in love with Bellotte's writing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910533092</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Mary Higgins Clark (editor)|title= Manhattan Mayhem – New Crime Stories from the Mystery Writers of America|rating= 5|genre= Crime|summary= I was unsure how to open this review. I heart Manhattan, big time. I am always attracted to any work devil has set in Manhattanup a training complex on earth, but I don’t want complete with an elevator to pigeonhole this remarkable collection of stories into a slot that says 'only for Manhattan lovers'. Far from it – it is a superb collection featuring the highest standards of both mystery writing and the form of short storyHell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>159474761X</amazonuk>