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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Sara TaylorBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|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=The ShoreSuper Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch

|summary=The first story we hear from the Shore, ''Got a group of isolated islands off the coast of Virginiaminute to be amused, is from Chloeentertained, whoor challenged?'''s telling her sister about what she overheard in the store'These 100 stories are super short. She'd been there buying chicken necks so that they could go crabbingNone is more than 300 words. Normally they used bacon rinds, but they'd already eaten thoseYou can read one in a flash. Cabel Bloxom had been murdered and ''they done cut his thang clean off''Some are funny. The girls Some are motherless and Chloe is fiercely protective poignant. All are short.'' Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of her a fully rounded little sister Renee. She's story if that story is told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to draw out themes from all the first flash fictions in a book of the strong women them? I don't know! Perhaps wecould start by explaining that there really isn'll encounter in these storiest a fixed definition of flash fiction but that for this collection, which interlink to give author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. That's about a greater picturesingle page in your average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009959188X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mary Higgins ClarkRachel Harrison|title=Death Wears a Beauty MaskBad Dolls

|summary=In 1972It's been some time since I've read any horror. I had a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, Mary Higgins Clark began writing borrowing the books from a novella entitled 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'Death Wears a Beauty Mask.t worry - this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn' She struggled with the story t have those jump scares, and put I didn't have to read it during daylight hours only! But it asideis creepy, where it lay forgotton for several decades. When and I found most of that feeling came from the author rediscovered the manuscript amongst some old filesfact that these are stories about women, living normal lives, she decided and that she liked it and was ready to complete at least in part, the long-awaited ending. ''Death Wears horrors arises from very normal situations such as a Beauty Mask'' joins some of her other worksbreakup, both old and trying a newdieting app, in an entertaining collection of short stories full of mystery going to a hen party and suspensea coping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471143228</amazonuk>1803363932

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Danielle McLaughlinB0CCCVRSGX|title=Dinosaurs on Other PlanetsStories 2|author=Richard F Walker|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories |summary=Seeing as this book This is clearly a talented author hitting the ground running, I will dispense with any major preamble. We start with a tale of a daughter affected by the emotions of her parents as they separate – and the influence of a certain school-teacher – from the motherRichard F Walker's point second volume of viewshort stories. An ancient input shows how alien, There are thirteen in all and the modern day domesticity how regular, the isolation of a woman can feel, as events are peppered by minor acts I took something from each of destructionthem. But men can be alienated too – especially one, There isn't a reluctant guest at a party for children hosted by someone he once had an affair with – he feels the new form of this influence in the light of another single one he has had to try and abandon. 'All About Alice' – thatdoesn's what t deserve to be among the title character wants to say but has nobody to speak it to, but is it her – mid-40s and single, living with her father – that is most removed from her dreams others or her old friend and now child factory, Marian? And we complete a lap of brings down the calendar with the wintry tale of a man unable overall quality. It can be tricky to tell his work superiors of the problems he faces at home – a new homereview short stories without giving too much away, recently built like so many one sees while driving round IrelandI'll just pick two to talk about and I think they give a general flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473613701</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Christopher Fowler1739593901|title= Bryant and May - London's Glory|rating= 4|genre= Crime|summary=In the depths of the last [[Bryant and May – 22 Ideas About The Burning Man by Christopher Fowler|B&M review I wrote]] I said '' Of course, it's unbelievable, farcical. But then you don't come to a Bryant and May story for realism. You come for absurdity.'' Naturally, I stand by that comment. Fowler has concocted his characters and has no shame in shunting them up and down the time-line of British history as he sees fit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857523457</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFuture|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=Chance Developments: Unexpected Love StoriesBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

|genre=General Science Fiction|summary=Sometimes''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, if 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 in not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a cafe by myself, I like few stories and then forget to return to watch the people around me and imagine stories about their livesbook. Just There's got to be a single sentence, overheard, can lead very compelling hook to wonderous tales of mystery and intrigue whilst I sip my cappuccino! keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. So I was delighted to sit down to read It's human beings who fascinate me: the latest offering from AMS, not only because he wrote it, but because he wrote it after looking at 5 different black and white photographs, technology and then imagining the stories behind themworld scape are purely incidental. Who are all these peopleSo, and what are their did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Each story is uniqueWell, and yet they all have one abiding link..I loved it.love.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973295</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joannah YacoubB09XZMCDVF|title=When Mr Putin Stole My PaintingStories: Ten Short Stories13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker|rating=3.54

|summary=Put yourself, if necessary, ''A news vendor is crying out the headlines in the mind middle of someone wanting 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 publish their first 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 storiesby Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the eclectic reader. What do you choose as the contents – besides just saying Tying them together is the best available? Do you try idea that remarkable and find a themestrange, or connecting happenstance or styleeven miraculous, things can happen to pin them together? Are they based on you now, someone else somewhen else, ordinary people. And that ordinary doesn't mean boring or all the diverse people uninteresting. Form and tone varies so this little treasury of short fiction is never boring and places you have once met? Joannah Yacoub seems to have gone for the latter're never quite sure what's coming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373971</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eoin Colfer (editor)1737030942|title=Once Upon a PlaceBag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick|rating=3.54|genre=Confident Readers Anthologies|summary=You know the bit of the blurb on every Sometimes, you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Artemis FowlBag O'Goodies' book, where Eoin Colfer had it said about how you pronounce his name? That wasn't the intention of an up-and-coming author to be recognisable; rather, it was pride. Pride in the difference of itI 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 the Irishness of itwhat happens when five young men find a base for their partying. IrelandRight now, it seems I didn't want a full-length novel, so I turned to me, is more full than usual this anthology of people, things verse and ideas, and places that are different by dint of their singular nationality – short stories. Bittick's writing has matured - and so many deserve to have pride attached to themhis characters. The places might not be the famous ones, but they can be the source Well... most 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 it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>191041137X</amazonuk>them!

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sophie Hannah1529418100|title=The Visitors BookBruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker|rating=3.54|genre=ParanormalShort Stories|summary= Sophie HannahI's The Visitors Book is m not usually a fan of short anthology of modern stories with a supernatural twist. There is not a hammy gothic turret in sight as her characters experience their mundane, day-I find it all too easy to put the book down between stories and forget topick it up again -day, 21st century business -- but I am a childrenfan of Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the temptation to read ''Bruno's birthday party, a visit Challenge'' was hard to resist and I'm rather glad that I didn't even try. For those new to a boyfriend, neck pain, the school run. Nowseries, ghost stories based on ordinary people leading ordinary lives can be very unsettling indeed, making overly imaginative readers look over their shoulder at there's an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to know about who's who and the bus stop, or giving them goosebumps for no apparent reason. So I was curious background to see what Sophie Hannah, a writer I much admire, would make of this particular materialwhy Bruno is in St Denis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745525</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marina WarnerB08NF79QXT|title=Fly Away HomeCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams

|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=How would you subvert a fairy tale? You know enough of them Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and enough about them to do it, so think on itwins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. Would you give a mermaid a smartphone? Would you pepper them with pop stars, She's delighted and perhaps let them be witness to the Schadenfreude caused by a cave thattwo people she's sacred brought with her to native Canadians? the event couldn't be more pleased. Would youSonja, in the light of their characters usually being routineher mother, interchangeable tropes, give them a closelyis an ex-model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica's thirty-observed personality – as seen here in a teacherfour and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's interior thoughts when faced with a piece of East Anglian lore? Would you take the exoticism of the easthusband, Charles and Egypt in particulartheir four-year-old daughter, and see Ava. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it in the light of a musical teacher on wasn't for one thing: she misses having a zero-hours contract who ends up muttering to himself, directing traffic in the middle of the road, or from the remove of an elderly man with ''swollen feet in orthopaedic sandals'' with a message from the past? Certainly these two are not the standard Arabian Nights-styled pieces…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784630381</amazonuk>her life.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rose TremainB08KKQ85FN|title= The American Lover|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories |summary= Having never read a Rose Tremain book before, I was interested to start this collection of short stories. I wasn't disappointed, and it quickly became clear why she has won so many literary awards for her work.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548445</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewBut Never For Lunch|author= Ursula K Le Guin|title= The Wind'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 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 you're looking to build up your collection.|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 a brand new collection of Maeve Binchy short stories and I wasn't disappointed. As her widower states in the introduction, Binchy had an extraordinary talent 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 StoriesSandra Aragona

|genre=CrimeShort Stories|summary=Six authors''If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, known collectively as 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.''The Murder Squad You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and their six accomplices were given twelve photographs of The Ambassador's Wife in [[Sorting the remote landscape of Pembrokeshire Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by acclaimed photographer David Wilson Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and asked we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the time has come up with a short story inspired by what they sawfor HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Some of Well 'settled' rather overstates the stories will be more to your taste than otherssituation and their dog, Beagle, as is only to be expected in such a varied anthologyhas no intention of slowing down any time soon, but none are weak despite being sixteen and if you enjoy crime short stories then this book could be a real treatdeaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909823740</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Walter M Miller JrB08CHJLNBS|title= Dark BenedictionCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating= 53|genre= Science Women's Fiction|summary= Walter M. Miller Jr is rightly placed among He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the science fiction giants HMayfair letting agents.G. Wells She's Emilia, Michael Moorcocktwenty-nine, librarian and Philip K. Dick 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'Masterworks'' seriess philosophies, to something a large selection of genre-defining writers and works at the centre little deeper. Charles is more of what is now such a popular and diverse range of literatures[[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, filmsbut, and television productions. Miller is considered one of the finest science fiction writers of the 1950sabove all, and in he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian'Dark Benediction'. They're obviously not at all compatible, fourteen so why can Charles not get this woman out of this authorhis mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's best short stories are brought together in one collectionobvious to his friends.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473211948</amazonuk> 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?

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Elizabeth McCrackenMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title= ThunderstruckCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating= 4.5|genre=Short StoriesFantasy|summary= I chose to review this collection Curses. They're there throughout tales of short stories with no prior knowledge of the author's work faery and other fantastical folk – often the best way people being cursed to do itthis, though I am aware or not to be able to do that McCracken. Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the verge of marrying, and older people too. It seems in a way there's work comes highly commendedno escaping it. After reading these Which is why the theme of this book of short storiesis such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, that demonised place, I can see why and I am already looking forward to reading more of her workthat other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099592975</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Pete BellotteStibbe_Xmas|title= The Unround CircleAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating= 24.5|genre= Short StoriesHumour|summary= As short story collections 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 goand visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, this is of course also a fairly ambitious bundle, some 22 stories running to a total time of nearly four hundred pagesgreat boons. YouIt'll gather from the fact that I'm starting 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 statistics thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that I didn't instantly fall your parents made you write out in love with Bellotte's writing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910533092</amazonuk>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?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Mary Higgins Clark (editor)0954899520|title= Manhattan Mayhem – New Crime Stories from the Mystery Writers of AmericaA Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson|rating= 5|genre= CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary= I was unsure how to open this review. I heart ManhattanTove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, big time. I am always attracted to any work set written in Manhattanthe 1940s and later becoming television characters of the simplicity, but I don’t want to pigeonhole this remarkable collection of stories into a slot that says naivety and sheer 'only for Manhattan loversgoodness'that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, simple goodness. Far from it – it 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 superb collection featuring feeling for the highest standards of both mystery writing natural world and the form simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of short storyhow the world might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>159474761X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ivan Vladislavic1911115847|title=101 Detectives|rating=3.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=101 Detectives had me baffled. The book comprises of a collection of stories which explore multiple themes from the perspective Nights of one person. The stories are as varied as the characters presenting the tale to you. This exquisitely written book leaves you asking many questions and pondering many ideas. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908276568</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewCreaking Bed|author= Laurie R King and Leslie Klinger (editors)|title=In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes CanonToni Kan

|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=Well, that's one way to get a heck 'Nights of the Creaking Bed'' is a lot collection of attention to your short stories by Toni Kan. The series of short story collections, for sure – get stories tell of the estate lives and lusts of an assortment of the author you're respecting to take you to court with the idea that the works cannot be published – the characters are so firmly established living in and entrenchedaround Lagos, but established and entrenched as their property and therefore cannot be artistically reinterpretedNigeria. Nigeria, in this collection, revived or otherwise returned to at all until full and final copyright statutes have expiredis imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Never mind that Danger stalks the characters – one S Holmes shadows and Dr JH Watson – hardly have parallels in how often they already have been mimickedpeople are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Never mind the fact Kan writes with a vitality and passion that the estate allows these cynical stories to achieve a glimmer of Conan Doyle was paid off in order for the first book to releasedhope. Still, the case was won and this sequel is in our hands. Is it worth all the legal documents? What is the important verdict, at the end of the reading day?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329843X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jessie Greengrass 1529014484|title=An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It Exhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating=35|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=The title story, which appears first, is exactly what it says on Over the tin: one hunter's story of travelling to remote islands to take part in massive culls of great aukspast twenty-eight years, until they were simply gone. It's always hard to believe that species that once numbered in their millionsTed Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, such as the passenger pigeon, could go extinct these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so quickly, but when you read about the brutal slaughter tactics here – swinging clubs and boiling birds alive – if you can see how are a flightless bird was a sitting target. The narrator makes no real attempt to defend himself: the birds were there for the taking; science fiction fan it is likely that was that. Still, he regrets their extinction, because 'in any loss you can see a shadow have already come across some of the way that work by Ted Chiang. If you haven't then take this opportunity to do so now. Trust me; your imagination will be lost yourselfgrateful.' (Those interested in the great auk's extinction may also want to read the 2013 novel ''The Collector of Lost Things'' by Jeremy Page.)|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473610850</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Colin Barrett1794467440|title=Young SkinsWatchwords |author=Philip Neal

|summary=We're taken into the lives of the youthful inhabitants This satisfying collection of small town Ireland in seven short stories has a provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of differing styles but the antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a shared settingwatch. Barrett writes It was a watch he was fond of and had been told was like a doorman at 1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's how he became a suburban nightclub, known and respected by all watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the locals, although we only read about a brief affair and his vulnerabilityAntique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. Another tale portrays The eBay purchase was a young rocker and his emotional statefake, years after an incident but the friendship that scarred him both physically grew between the buyer and mentally the repairer of watches was not and made him the talk seed of the town. Other tales all share the same focus on people and small but meaningful personal events in their livesan idea for a book was born.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009959742X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=B Reid1529006031|title=Beyond the Trees of Gulavstadt: A Gothic Short Story|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Amy works for Claralingua, a London education company that runs English schools all over the world, and Amy is travelling to Gulavstadt, a remote town in Eastern Europe, Return to inspect one of the schools. Gulavstadt is a town of myths and the setting of a recent horror film, ''The Thing Behind the Trees'', exploiting them - featuring medieval, flesh-eating ghouls with mouths lined with the sharpest of teeth. But myths don't bother Amy...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00U9I7KNI</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewWonderland|author=Dorthe Nors|title=Karate Chop, and Minna Needs Rehearsal SpaceVarious Authors|rating=34.5

|summary=The reviewer picks up In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book.<br>The book is called ''Minna Needs Rehearsal Spaceshe 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.<br> The book is entirely made out wacky-for-the-sake-of one-sentence paragraphsit did not gel, and I don't remember loving it more as a child.<br>The one-sentence paragraphs are very seldom poetic, but normally are grammatically correct sentences But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book.<br>The one-sentence paragraphs on I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the whole have just one verbcore from a tangent, unless regarding that from reported or unreported speechshow the benefits of the oblique glance.<br>The book concerns a middle I've always preferred coming to an author's output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-aged musician away pieces, and composer who does indeed need rehearsal space.<br>The book concerns a woman who suddenly gets it's the same with franchises – I'd more space than she wants when her boyfriend leaves her.<br>The boyfriendlikely go for Bree Tanner's departure causes short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a lot of people crowding around Minnahunch, which causes a problemfor obvious reasons).<br>The problem might be resolved For another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by a trip away from her city flat.<br>The title of the book might be ironic.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782271198</amazonuk>millions, surely pieces written with that love in mind could only provide for success after success?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Malorie Blackman1846974658|title=Love HurtsThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker

|genre=TeensShort Stories|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 'Love Hurtslocal'' is – the cookbook maybe, the maps definitely, but above all about heartache but it doesn't leave you bereft: the folk tales. Mixed in are enough moments of heartsease (and heart's joy!) to keep you believing in love. And we all want If I ever get to believe in loveBurma, don't we? If you are one of the few who donI won'tneed to hunt, you might as well look away nowI can read before I go. The rest of us are in for a treat. This anthology has been gathered together by Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman, one of our favourite YA authors here at Bookbag, and certainly one who understands exactly how to write about the highs and lows of love as it is experienced by young people.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552573973</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eliza RobertsonB077969HN8|title=WallflowersAlternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon|rating=4.5

|summary=Eliza Robertson won Laura Solomon's publisher describes the Man Booker Scholarship and Curtis Brown Prize while completing her MA short stories in Creative Writing at the University ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of East Angliasurrealism''. I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''Wallflowersafter'' is already I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a bestseller in Robertsonfan of either, but I's native Canadave come to two conclusions about the book: what the publisher says is correct - and I really enjoyed it. There The comedy is quite some variety across not ''too'' black and the seventeen storiessurrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a twist or flick of reality when you were least expecting it. Broadly speaking, though, there Your comfort zones are a few themes: moving on from loss, finding love going to be invaded in the midst of gentle madness, and interactions with the natural world, often on the edge of Canada's British Columbia wildernessnicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408856794</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Edith Pearlman9386897504|title=HoneydewTales of Love and Disability|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=American 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 writer [[:Category:Edith Pearlman|Edith Pearlman]] brings us 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 compilation couple of stories that have only been seen separately in magazines over the yearspieces. This follows on from the huge success I've recently read a couple of novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha'Binocular Visions Deal]] and [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell' (in 2013)s Unveiling]] and enjoyed them, the short story collection that led so I was intrigued to Ms Pearlman being presented see what she could do with the National Critics' Circle Awardan even shorter form. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444797018</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Leslie Charteris and John Telfer (narrator)1986586898|title=Enter the SaintGoing To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight

|summary=Lennon writes In the opening story, a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with a relaxed, easy style cash in his pocket - and his characters are instantly recognisable as people from everyday walks of life, without being in any way stereotypicalwife. Many In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the problem of the people in these stories are dealing with normal frustrations, and Lennon is cleverly detached enough whether or not to make them individuals that you're obviously supposed to root for (the only exception is run his horse in the industrialist in Gold Cup when the eponymous tale, who ground is an archetypal capitalist fat cat)against him. There are some very clever characterisations – in My favourite was ''Weber’s HeadThe Story of H'', for example, the narrator story of Foinavon. H is depicted as a flawed individual whose opinions kind horse who only wanted to please people. After changing hands on various occasions he came to the yard of his housemate are gradually revealed to be unreliable John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and unfairconsidered a no-hoper. For me, In one of the most unsettling story is ''No Life''dramatic runnings of the race, because it portrays a decent couple pile-up occurred at the mercy of people more powerful 23rd fence. Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and influential than them. There is no supernatural or bizarre element at work heregalloped to the line, just ordinary characters winning the race at the mercy odds of social power100/1.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781253358</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rebecca Lee9386897296|title=Bobcat and Other StoriesHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=The first story in A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha'Bobcat'' is s Deal]] and I was delighted by the title story, and this alone is worth opportunity to read the price of admission. Plaster it with prizessequel, put it in anthologies; it deserves every accolade it can get''Hell's Unveiling''. However, the last story echoes the first, and It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the five tales devil 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1922182311</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Kelley Armstrong|title=Otherworld Nights|rating=4|genre=Paranormal|summary=Kelley Armstrong revisits her hugely popular 'Otherworld' series in this collection of short storiesMarsha's Deal'', featuring many of but the prominent characters from the seriesdevil is not one to take defeat lying down.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500667</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Robin Ince He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and Johnny Mains particularly on Marsha (editorswho's thought of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell)|title=Dead Funny|rating=4.5|genre=Horror|summary=In Although a world of nightmaresstrong person, disasters, death and ignominy there she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel is framed for a book called crime he didn''Dead Funny''. Invented purely t commit and sent to satisfy the remit built into its title, it collects some horror stories written by comedians, both household names juvenile detention and those more up-and-comingrefused permission to return to live with Marsha. Like all horror books it comes out at the time Then, of year best suited for horror – Halloweencourse, when we read with there are all the darkest corners in our rooms, with the longest evenings outside – other children who are not only targeted but is only suited for Halloween because it is a worthless, hellish piece - worst of drossall - subverted to the devil's evil ends. It never excitesHe's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, it is the most their self-serving vanity project, and the only funny thing about it esteem is that some idiot ever decided it was worth publishingvery fragile. Now I know you knowThis is no small-scale operation, courtesy of those bright shiny stars alongside this review, that this volume, Dead Funny, is not ''that'' Dead Funny. But just bear in mind either - the horror story this could have beendevil has set up a training complex on earth, if these pages were not so surprisingly adept at taking those said nightmares, disasters, deaths and ignominy and presenting them complete with an elevator to us so competentlyHell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773762</amazonuk>