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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Helen StanceyAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title= The Madonna of the PoolAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 3.5|genre= Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary= In most short story collections, an overarching theme is usually present in each ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the narratives which help each story gently flow in shape of things to the nextcome.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. In this debut collection Helen Stancey explores the quiet disappointmentsWell, achievements, and complications I must confess that each there have been more than a few decades of us experience through everyday lifetechnology in my lifetime. She draws attention 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 small events possibilities and decisions that can both disrupt the probabilities and significantly alter end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the lives of others latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and ourselves, all while maintaining who could deliver information in a delicately poetic tone throughoutway I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1912054000</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joanna WalshB0CDZRGT1M|title=Worlds from the Word's EndSuper Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch|rating=34.5

|summary=We here at The Bookbag liked this author's fairly recent collection of 'Got a minute to be amused, entertained, or challenged?''''These 100 stories are super short stories, [[Vertigo by Joanna Walsh|Vertigo]]. I myself missed out, but that seemed to be vignettes from None is more than 300 words. You can read one characterin a flash.''''s narration – here we get homosexual male narrators and Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short.'' Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a host more, as well as much less 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 sadness prevalent before. Having had flash fictions in a brief encounter with this author courtesy book of her entry into the [[Bookshelf (Object Lessons) by Lydia Pyne|Object Lessons]] series, them? I was intrigued don't know! Perhaps we could start by her name being stamped on explaining that there really isn't a selection fixed definition of shorts. Was it the ideal calling card? Let's face itflash fiction but that for this collection, the very short story itself can be author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a postcard – letthree hundred word limit. That's say, from about a specific hotel or two, as we see heresingle page in your average paperback. Perhaps I should have geared myself up, however, for such intricate writing on said postcards – and for the exotic locations from which they came…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508105</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Helen PhillipsRachel Harrison|title=Some Possible SolutionsBad Dolls

|summary=Picture It's been some time since I've read any horror. I had a world where youcouple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the books from a new mother, move boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them to a town where you slowly start to realise the point that every other woman seems a replica I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of you – dressing the vampires outside! Don't worry - this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, and doing as you do. Consider a place where you I didn't have a perfect other half – most literally – but to read it's during daylight hours only to be found on an alien planet. ! Or how about the woman who suddenly finds she can see everything and everyone else alive as having no skin, just organsBut it is creepy, tissue and bone as if everyone was having a Gunther von Hagens plastination job? A lot I found most of that feeling came from the fact that these are stories are hard to summarise without dropping into the voice of the ''Twilight Zone'' narrationabout women, living normal lives, but they're not specifically genre works – they're just further examples of this author's unsettling look and that at least in part, the bizarre elements of lifehorrors arises from very normal situations such as a breakup, trying a new dieting app, going to a hen party and a coping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782273425</amazonuk>1803363932

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Cixin LiuB0CCCVRSGX|title= The Wandering EarthStories 2|author=Richard F Walker|rating= 54|genre= Science FictionShort Stories|summary= If anyone thought that the short story as a form had been relegated to the pages of womenThis is Richard F Walker's magazines (no disrespect) – think againsecond volume of short stories. One genre that has always been a stalwart supporter There are thirteen in all and encourager I took something from each of the short form is Sci-fithem. So when you pick up There isn't a collection of Sci-fi shorts, you know single one that it will have just as much depth and thought-provoking philosophy as any similar novel. Add doesn't deserve to that be among the intrigue of seeing how others or brings down the concepts are approached by someone from China which – to overall quality. It can be polite – has a somewhat different world-view in many ways tricky to review short stories without giving too much of the rest of the planet…and add away, so I'll just pick two to that an author who is not only talk about and I think they give a best-seller in his home country but has the distinction of having produced the first translated work of SF ever to win the Hugo Award…this has got to be good!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784978493</amazonuk>general flavour.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Fleur Jaeggy and Gini Alhadeff (translator)1739593901|title= I Am 22 Ideas About The Brother Of XXFuture|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 45|genre= Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=''I Am The Brother Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of XXflying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.'' is  I've got a collection couple of twenty one confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories from Fleur Jaeggy, who expertly wields malevolence as I find it easy to read a few stories and spite throughout, from then forget to return to the evil done between husband and wife in book. There''The Aviary'', s got to be a nasty tale of Oedipal menace and vicious, although admittedly, artful cruelty, very compelling hook to senseless annihilation and immolation in keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it'The Heir''. Jaeggy also appears to have a particular fascination s the technology which takes centre stage along with religion, from the nun receiving a rather special sort of communion in world-building. It''The Visitor'' to general references to s human beings who fascinate me: the Church technology and religious devotion throughout many of her storiesthe world scape are purely incidental. Family is also a recurrent theme; whether focused on the distance between siblings in the titular story So, told from the point what did I think of view a book of a brother filled with longing and loneliness trying to create a bond with his distant older sistertwenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, or the primal need to protect the bond between mother and son, regardless of the cost in ''Adelaide''I loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508024</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Malcolm DevlinB09XZMCDVF|title= You Will Grow Into ThemStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker|rating= 54|genre= Short Stories|summary=''You Will Grow Into ThemA 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…'' is a thrilling  This collection of ten thirteen short stories all centred on by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the eclectic reader. Tying them together is the nature of transition idea that remarkable and changestrange, even miraculous, things can happen to ordinary people. The often grisly, macabre And that ordinary doesn't mean boring or uninteresting. Form and ghoulish nature tone varies so this little treasury of the stories included in Devlinshort fiction is never boring and you're never quite sure what's debut collection are intoxicatingly illicit and the darkness within each tale is deviously addictivecoming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907389431</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Tove Jansson1737030942|title= Letters From KlaraBag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick|rating= 54|genre= Literary FictionAnthologies|summary= Famed in the UK for her creation of the Moomin familySometimes, Jansson is rather belatedly beginning to gather the richly deserved esteem for her adult writings. For that I offer my heart-felt thanks to publishers you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'Sort of booksGoodies'' and Thomas Teal. I first encountered his writing about a year ago, when I read his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], who has been responsible a rollicking tale of what happens when five young men find a base for most of the translationstheir partying. Receiving this one Right now, I didn't want a full-length novel, two things strike: firstly so I somehow seem turned to have missed one this anthology of the series, verse and secondly thereshort stories. Bittick'll come a time sooner rather than later when there'll be no more to be hads writing has matured - and so have his characters. The former will be rectified, the latter is a sad thoughtWell...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745614</amazonuk>most of them!

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Lee Child1529418100|title= No Middle NameBruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker|rating= 4|genre= Crime Short Stories|summary= There is I'm not usually a theory, fan of short stories - I find it all too easy to which those who regularly read my reviews will know I sometimes subscribe, which says that put the short story's heyday has passed book down between stories and forget to pick it has now put itself out to grass. This is particularly true, some say, and up again - but I have been known to concur, am a fan of Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the crime temptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was hard to resist and thriller genres. Tosh! I can only apologise to all authors involved and own up: 'm rather glad that I simply havendidn't been paying attention. Not even to shorter offerings my by favourite authorstry. So: big thanks For those new to Lee Child and publishers Bantam Press for putting me straight with the series, there's an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to know about who'No Middle Name'' : a collection of short stories about my favourite latter-day, American-style, Robin Hood by s who and the name of ''Jack Reacher''background to why Bruno is in St Denis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593079019</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08NF79QXT|title=Cherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B08KKQ85FN|title=A Fanfare of TalesBut Never For Lunch|author=Patrick C ReidySandra Aragona

|summary=I love 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, so Ido you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador'm always happy when a new collection arrives 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 reviewSandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador. .. They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled'A Fanfare rather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, has no intention of Talesslowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B08CHJLNBS|title=Capturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|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 Patrick C Reidy promises me 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 compilation little deeper. Charles is more of short stories a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that highlight the adventures Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of diverse characters as each encounters unforeseen challengeshis 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?}}{{Frontpage|author=Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title=Cursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating=4. I like 5|genre=Fantasy|summary=Curses. They're there throughout tales of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this premise, 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. So how does Which is why the theme of this book shape up? 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.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524665983</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia RomeroStibbe_Xmas|title=Children of Lucifer: Modesty BlaiseAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating=34.5|genre=Graphic Novels Humour|summary=Out Christmas – the time of ninety-five diverse comic strip stories, traditional trauma. You only have to think about the publication of this book leaves just turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the last three yet downstairs loo to be presented in these fabulous large format paperbacksdefrost overnight, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. So if Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you haven’t yet met with the sassy brunette with her curves can go and her great crime-solving mindvisit 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 her Willie, this is all the last-butthank-one chance for you letters to do so. And if aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you have any interest write out in quick little action tales, or even dated kitschlong-hand as a child, and as for both apply herethe makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, then you should eagerly be on board…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329860X</amazonuk>did they even try and sell them any other time of the year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Edwards (editor)0954899520|title= Miraculous Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics)A Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson|rating= 5|genre= CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=Consider Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the following scenario: a policeman hears someone screaming and runs to a house on a particular streetMoomin books, number 13, from where written in the noise is emanating. When he peeps through 1940s and later becoming television characters of the letterbox he discovers a dead man in the hallway with a knife in his throatsimplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. He goes to fetch helpSimple drawings, but upon returningsimple stories, finds simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that the street does not have she was a number 13 and serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the body natural world and the room he saw have both mysteriously vanished.simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356738</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Michael R Lane1911115847|title= UFOs and GOD: A Collection Nights of Short Storiesthe Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan|rating= 4|genre= Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=From stories ''Nights of young people caught up in a Robin Hood style operation gone wrong, to a believer in God having her faith shaken by the arrival of aliens, author Michael R Lane has compiled Creaking Bed'' is a collection of fascinating and clever short stories hereby Toni Kan. From farm to urban, from World War II to The series of stories tell of the Digital Agelives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in and around Lagos, the places and timesNigeria. Nigeria, people and events in ''UFOs and God'' spotlight the tender underbelly this collection, is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the human condition in all its glory shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with a vitality and despair on passion that allows these varied stages cynical stories to achieve a glimmer of fictionhope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>163491712X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rick Bass1529014484|title= For a Little WhileExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating= 45|genre= Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=''For a Little While'' is a collection of Over the past twenty-five eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories from Rick Bass, 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. As someone previously unacquainted with BassIf you haven' work t then take this new collection was a wonderful introduction opportunity to his quirky, unusual style which focuses on stripped back, simple fables featuring often mundane situations, mysterious characters and magical experiencesdo so now. The characters in each tale are beautifully crafted and the stories are dreamy, loose narratives covering everything from love to death to choices made and chances takenTrust me; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273042</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 25/1 -->Frontpage|isbn=1794467440|title=A Collection of Short StoriesWatchwords |author=Gillian Fletcher-EdwardsPhilip Neal

|summary=Marged Evans allowed This satisfying collection of short stories has a break-up with 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 lover 1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, he began to affect everything in her lifecollect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's how he became a watch collector. Osian wanted An eBay purchase led him to invest the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. The eBay purchase was a fake, but the friendship that grew between the buyer and the present but Marged loved repairer of watches was not and the pastseed of an idea for a book was born. Since they drifted apart}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529006031|title=Return to Wonderland|author=Various Authors|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, Margedwhen the first book she was in [[Alice's life has been carefulAdventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], orderedI found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the-sake-of-it did not gel, unadventurousand I don't remember loving it more as a child. But then Osian sends her 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 Christmas card and everything changestangent, that show the benefits of the oblique glance. I've always preferred coming to an author'Marged Evanss output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and it's the same with franchises – I' is the first and longest in this collection of short stories from Gillian Fletcher-Edwards. Itd more likely go for Bree Tanner's almost a short novella and its initially slow pace sets off quite than the masterclass 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 how one event can throw everything into unexpected - but lovely - chaos.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524662445</amazonuk>mind could only provide for success after success?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sybil Marshall and John Lawrence1846974658|title= The Book of English Folk TalesLong Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker|rating= 4|genre= AnthologiesShort Stories|summary= From ghosts On my travels around the world, I have a tendency to witchesend up in any bookshop that is selling English-language books, to giants and fairieswhile I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the next person, what I'm really looking for is the 'The Book of English Folk Taleslocal'' is a fascinating collection of stories retold by social historian and folklorist Sybil Marshall– the cookbook maybe, the maps definitely, but above all: the folk tales. Out of print for over three decades If I ever get to Burma, this beautiful new clothbound edition is complete with wood engraved illustrations by John Lawrence and is sure I won't need to capture the attention of a new generation of lovers of folklorehunt, I can read before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1468313177</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley McKayB077969HN8|title=1588: A Calendar of Crime (A Hew Cullan Mystery)Alternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon

|genre=Crime (Historical)Short Stories|summary=A lot of crime happens Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories in St Andrews during 1588 and therefore in the life ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of law lecturer and local investigator Hew Cullen toosurrealism''. As we travel through 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 year with him, his recently wedded English wife Frances, doctor brother in law Giles publisher says is correct - and I really enjoyed it. The comedy is not ''too'' black and his sister Meg, the wise woman, we also encounter some surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a twist or flick of his most interesting casesreality when you were least expecting it. In fact there's one Your comfort zones are going to match each of be invaded in the year's big festivals: Candlemas, Whitsun, Lammas, Martinmas and Yulenicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973635</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=9386897504|title=Mary Telford Tales of Love and Louise VerityDisability|titleauthor=SinsLaura Solomon

|summary=Is there enough new to say about the seven deadly sins? WeI've seen them all shown to us, from school age always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of skill and up talent to write a short story which holds the movie ''Se7en'', which we sincerely hope was NOT shown to anyone at school agereader and keeps them coming back for more. We can each recount them There are far too many collections of short stories which are all, having been long familiar with them, even if we probably cantoo easy to put down and forget after you't pin down when they were actually set in stone without helpve read a couple of pieces. Similarly, is there anything new in the world I've recently read a couple of fairy tale? We know the tropes novellas by Laura Solomon - characters identified [[Marsha's Deal by their status or gender (the woman, the husband), a clear set of rules to obey, Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and a moral as strong as, if not stronger than, the formulae involved. Well, this volume demands we decide the answer to those questions as being positive ones, and if it[[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell's not always definitive in the writing here that there is something newUnveiling]] and enjoyed them, rest assured there will be something in the imagery that will definitely strike one as freshso I was intrigued to see what she could do with an even shorter form...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843516624</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Carys Bray and others1986586898|title=How Much the Heart Can HoldGoing To The Last: Seven Short Stories on LoveAbout Horse Racing|author=K D Knight|rating=34.5

|summary=This Sceptre collection does 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 have 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 simple a remit as it might appear; these are 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 straightforward love stories-hoper. Instead, they each take In one aspect of love – often one the most dramatic runnings of the ancient Greek classifications – and provide race, a whole new way of thinking about itpile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. After all Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, winning the heart holds a lot race at odds of metaphorical weight100/1.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473649420</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen Simpson9386897296|title=CockfostersHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=This was a belated reunion for me, having been introduced to the author's snappy short story collections courtesy the very first one A little while at uni. Mind, it was a much more gentle and placid reunion than the one that starts this book – Julie and Philippa have had a shop-bought curry together, but have had to forsake a cultural chat for a trip haring along the London Underground chasing after a pair of glasses one of them left behind. The piece is definitely about the subject of ageing – about time passed and 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. Can anyone, let alone Helen Simpson, sustain such a vaguely morbid topic over a full collection?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178470198X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=David Beckler|title= The Road More Travelled: Tales of those seeking refuge|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary= ''The Road More Travelled'' 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, the language used by many was aggressive and dehumanising, describing this mass of desperate people as a swarm or a horde. The stories together form a response to this othering.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993147224</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Ransom Riggs|title= Tales of the Peculiar|rating= 5|genre= Teens|summary= A fork-tongued princess. A boy who can control the currents of the sea. Cannibals who feast on the limbs of a village of peculiars. These are just a few of the brilliant stories to be found in ''Tales of the Peculiar'', all of which hold mystical information about the peculiar world - a place familiar to many of us since its first introduction by Ransom Riggs in ago I really enjoyed [[Miss PeregrineMarsha's Home for Peculiar Children Deal by Ransom RiggsLaura Solomon|Miss PeregrineMarsha's Home for Peculiar ChildrenDeal]]. The stories in this collection explore peculiar history and folklore in a wonderfully imaginative way, and also include some beautiful illustrations to accompany each of the tales.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141373407</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=I'll Be Home For Christmas|author=Benjamin Zephaniah and Others|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Publisher Little Tiger and homelessness charity Crisis have got together and produced ''I'll Be Home For Christmas'' - an anthology of short stories from some of the most popular writers on the UK YA scene. The stories are connected was delighted by the theme of home. What does home mean opportunity to you? Is it your house, read the physical place where you live? Is it your family? Your friends? Home can mean different things to different peoplesequel, can't it? The book opens with a powerful poem by Bookbag favourite, Benjamin Zephaniah. The following stories are disparate - some telling tales of hardship and fear, some warming the cockles of your heart. But all of them are about 'Hell'homes Unveiling''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847157726</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Rebecca Schiff|title= The Bed Moved|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories |summary= Rebecca Schiff It's collection probably not much of short stories was a revelation. It has everything I want from a collection: humour, (often of spoiler to say that Marsha bested the black variety), heartbreaking sadness, and moments of shocking clarity. These stories feel like the revealing of the inner workings of a young American womandevil in 's psyche. In fact, in the last short piece, entitled 'Marsha'Write What You Knows Deal'', it feels that but the narrator/author devil is telling us the experiences which have led not one to this collectiontake defeat lying down. He''I only know about parent death s out to wage war on Planet Earth and sluttiness', she tells us. She goes particularly on to talk about her knowledge of Jewish people Marsha (who are assimilated, liberal and sexual guilt, and I think it is no exaggeration to say that these are the underlying themes to practically all 's thought of the stories here.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147363184X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Simon Van Booy|title= Tales of Accidental Genius|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary=A diverse, haunting and humorous collection of short fiction, Simon Van Booy offers a collection of stories highlighting how human genius can emerge through acts of compassion. With characters ranging from an eccentric film director, an aging Cockney bodyguard, the teenage child of Nigerian immigrants, a divorced amateur magician and as a Beijing street vendor, 'goody two shoes'Tales of Accidental Genius'' takes the reader on many, incredible journeys, and conveys more in a few pages than many authors would struggle to do in a whole novelHell). |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780749716</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Amnesty International|title= Here I Stand|rating= 5|genre= Teens|summary= Every so often Amnesty International gets together Although a number of great authors and produces an anthology of writing. This timestrong person, they've done it for younger readers with ''Here I Stand''. Twenty-five contributions explore where we are with human rights in todayshe's society: the sacrifices many made to win them; the sacrifices that still need to be made to spread them; how, vulnerable where and why these rights her foster children are under attack and how deep is the need to defend themconcerned. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140635838X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Anna Metcalfe|title= Blind Water Pass and other stories|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary= Anna Metcalfe's debut collection of short stories Daniel is framed for a treasure trove of language, cultures, and beautifully written prose. The stories are bound together with a loose theme of communication, or miscommunication, across characters and cultures, and the narrators of these stories are as different as human beings themselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473631815</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Wendy Brandmark|title= He Runs the Moon|rating= 3.5|genre= Short Stories |summary= This is the first time I had read any of Wendy Brandmarkcrime he didn's fiction, t commit and I was intrigued at the theme of the stories. She sets out writing short stories about different cities in the US, Denver, Bronx, New York, Cambridge sent to juvenile detention and Boston, but also weaves in setting the stories in different eras. So we have a collection of stories ranging from the 1950's refused permission to the 1970's.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907320601</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Birgul Oguz|title= Hah|rating= 3|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= I was interested return to receive this book for review as I knew it was written in a modern, interesting style, being effectively a collection of short stories, but appearing more in a novel structurelive with Marsha. I wasThen, however, rather disappointed with the book. Whilst it does have some very fine examples of prose writing within the storiescourse, I felt disconnected from there are all the narrator, other children who is the daughter of a recently deceased man who was involved in a Turkish military coup in 1980. There is therefore a lot of examples are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to the narrator relating the conversations they had shared regarding ''revolution'', and the way this had affected the daughterdevil's upbringing and childhoodevil ends. Another He'story' then delves into a seemingly disconnected wander through the town, whereby we see the narrator working at gutting fish, and talking about a man she finds repulsive, but who appears s out to be in love with her. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>9462380740</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Chuck Palahniuk|title=Make Something Up|rating=5|genre=Short Stories |summary=What are we to make of that subtitle-seeming writing prey on 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, their fears and the baggage his name brings to the page. We'd expect a dramatic approach from anything Palahniuk writes, weaknesses and an added frissonas with many foster children, an extra layer, from which we might be forced to shrink backtheir self-esteem is very fragile. 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 This is Right''no small-scale operation, and Kardashianeither -) free happiness. A man buys a horse for his daughter – but boy is it the wrong horse to buy. A man falls in love – yes, sometimes the plot summaries of these stories really are better off for being short (speaking of which, don't turn to the three-page entrant here as devil has set up a tastertraining complex on earth, it'll put you off by dint of being, almost uniquely here, a nothing story). A call centre worker can't convince people he's on the level and even in their country – until someone starts riffing back complete with an elevator to him. 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 talesHell. But many too are the instances where that extra step has been taken.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587688</amazonuk>