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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Birgul OguzAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title= Hah|rating= 3|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 a collection of short stories, but appearing more in a novel structure. I was, however, rather disappointed with the book. Whilst it does have some very fine examples of prose writing within the stories, I felt disconnected from the narrator, 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 of the narrator relating the conversations they had shared regarding ''revolution'', and the way this had affected the daughterAll Tomorrow's upbringing and childhood. Another '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 to be in love with her. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>9462380740</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFutures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Chuck Palahniuk|title=Make Something UpBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

|genre=Short Stories Science Fiction|summary=What are we to make ''Opening up new ways of that subtitle-seeming writing on thinking about the front cover – shape of things to come.''stories you can I't unreadve heard it said that 'technology'? 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 pagewhat happens after you're eighteen. We'd expect a dramatic approach from anything Palahniuk writesWell, and an added frisson, an extra layer, from which we might be forced to shrink back. But I must confess that there have been more than a lot few decades of the contents don't quite go that fartechnology in my lifetime. Yes, things are dramatic, when society starts attaching defibrillators I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to itself, to create me but I'm left with the perfect, simple, care- (feeling that it''The Price s all getting away from me. Some of it is Right''-, and Kardashianfrankly -) free happinessquite frightening. A man buys a horse for his daughter – but boy is it Of course, I could research the wrong horse to buy. A man falls in love – yes, sometimes possibilities and the plot summaries of these stories probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really are better off for being short (speaking of which, donunderstanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they't turn to re talking about or the three-page entrant here as a taster, it'll put you off by dint of being, almost uniquely here, a nothing story)latest conspiracy theorist. A call centre worker can't convince I needed people he's on the level I knew I could trust and even in their country – until someone starts riffing back to him. A housing estate report conveys bad regulation violations, but not as bad as the happenings at a 'Burning Man'-styled festival, who could deliver information in a very clever couple of tales. But many too are the instances where that extra step has been takenway I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587688</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Edwards (editor)B0CDZRGT1M|title=Murder at the ManorSuper Short Stories: Country House Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics)Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch

|genre=Crime (Historical)Short Stories|summary=I'm not big on short stories'Got a minute to be amused, but two factors nudged me towards this book. Firstlyentertained, itor challenged?''s broadly golden age crime, ''These 100 stories are super short. None is more than 300 words. You can read one of my weaknesses and secondly, the editor is [[in a flash.''''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short.'' Question:Category:Martin Edwards|Martin Edwards]], how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a man whose knowledge flavour of golden age crime a fully rounded little story if that story is probably unsurpassed and he's done us proud, not only with his selection, but with told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to draw out themes from all the half-page biographies flash fictions in a book of the writers, which precede each story. Therethem? I don's just enough t know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there to allow you to place the really isn't a fixed definition of flash fiction but that for this collection, author and to direct you to other works if you're temptedMark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. ItThat's an elegant selection, from the well known and the less well known, all set about a single page in and around the country houseyour average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712309934</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joe AbercrombieRachel Harrison|title=Sharp EndsBad Dolls

|summary=The first story we hear from the Shore, It's been some time since I've read any horror. I had a group couple of isolated islands off misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the coast of Virginia, is books from Chloe, whoa boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them to the point that I couldn's telling her sister about what she overheard in t shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of the store. vampires outside! SheDon't worry - this short story collection isn'd been there buying chicken necks so t like that they could go crabbing. ! Normally they used bacon rinds, but theyIt doesn'd already eaten t have those. Cabel Bloxom had been murdered jump scares, and I didn''they done cut his thang clean off''. The girls are motherless t have to read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, and Chloe is fiercely protective I found most of her little sister Renee. She's that feeling came from the first of the strong fact that these are stories about women we'll encounter , living normal lives, and that at least in these storiespart, the horrors arises from very normal situations such as a breakup, trying a new dieting app, which interlink going to give a greater picturehen party and a coping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009959188X</amazonuk>1803363932

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Higgins ClarkB0CCCVRSGX|title=Death Wears a Beauty MaskStories 2|author=Richard F Walker

|summary=In 1972, Mary Higgins Clark began writing a novella entitled This is Richard F Walker''Death Wears a Beauty Masks second volume of short stories.'' She struggled with the story There are thirteen in all and put it aside, where it lay forgotton for several decadesI took something from each of them. When the author rediscovered the manuscript amongst some old files, she decided There isn't a single one that she liked it and was ready doesn't deserve to complete be among the long-awaited endingothers or brings down the overall quality. ''Death Wears a Beauty Mask'' joins some of her other works, both old and new, in an entertaining collection of It can be tricky to review short stories full of mystery without giving too much away, so I'll just pick two to talk about and suspenseI think they give a general flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471143228</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Danielle McLaughlin1739593901|title=Dinosaurs on Other Planets22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories Science Fiction|summary=Seeing as this book is clearly a talented author hitting the ground running, I ''Our future will dispense with any major preamblebe more complex than we expected. We start with a tale Instead of a daughter affected by the emotions of her parents as they separate – flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and the influence of automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.'' I've got a certain school-teacher – from the mother's point couple of viewconfessions to make. An ancient input shows how alien, I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the modern day domesticity how regular, the isolation of a woman can feel, as events are peppered by minor acts of destructionbook. But men can There's got to be alienated too – especially one, 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 one he has had very compelling hook to try and abandonkeep me engaged. Then there'All About Alice' – thats science fiction: far too often it's what the title character wants to say but has nobody to speak it to, but is it her – midtechnology which takes centre stage along with the world-40s and single, living with her father – that is most removed from her dreams or her old friend and now child factory, Marian? building. And we complete a lap of It's human beings who fascinate me: the calendar with technology and the wintry tale world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a man unable to tell his work superiors book of the problems he faces at home – a new hometwenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, recently built like so many one sees while driving round IrelandI loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473613701</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Christopher FowlerB09XZMCDVF|title= Bryant and May - London's GloryStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker|rating= 4|genre= CrimeShort Stories|summary=In ''A news vendor is crying out the headlines in the depths middle of the last [[Bryant 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 May – The Burning Man by Christopher Fowler|B&M review I wrote]] I said awfully familiar…'' Of course This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the eclectic reader. Tying them together is the idea that remarkable and strange, it's unbelievableeven miraculous, farcicalthings can happen to ordinary people. But then you donAnd that ordinary doesn't come to a Bryant mean boring or uninteresting. Form and tone varies so this little treasury of short fiction is never boring and May story for realism. You come for absurdity.you're never quite sure what' Naturally, I stand by that comments coming next. 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>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith1737030942|title=Chance Developments: Unexpected Love StoriesBag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick|rating=54|genre=General FictionAnthologies|summary=Sometimes, if you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'Goodies''. I'm in first encountered his writing about a cafe year ago, when I read his [[Cape Henry House by myselfJolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], I like to watch the people around me and imagine stories about a rollicking tale of what happens when five young men find a base for their livespartying. Just Right now, I didn't want a single sentencefull-length novel, overheard, can lead so I turned to wonderous tales this anthology of mystery verse and intrigue whilst I sip my cappuccino! So I was delighted to sit down to read 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, and then imagining the short stories behind them. Who are all these people, and what are their stories? Each story is unique, Bittick's writing has matured - and yet they all so have one abiding linkhis characters. Well..love.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973295</amazonuk>most of them!

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joannah Yacoub1529418100|title=When Mr Putin Stole My Painting: Ten Short StoriesBruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker|rating=3.54

|summary=Put yourself, if necessary, in the mind of someone wanting to publish their first collection I'm not usually a fan of short stories. What do you choose as - I find it all too easy to put the contents – besides just saying the best available? Do you try book down between stories and find forget to pick it up again - but I am a theme, or connecting happenstance or style, fan of Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the temptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was hard to pin them together? resist and I'm rather glad that I didn't even try. Are they based on For those new to the series, there's an excellent introduction that will tell you now, someone else somewhen else, or all the diverse people and places you have once met? Joannah Yacoub seems need to have gone for know about who's who and the latterbackground to why Bruno is in St Denis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373971</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eoin Colfer (editor)B08NF79QXT|title=Once Upon a PlaceCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers Women's Fiction|summary=You know the bit of Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the blurb on every ''Artemis Fowl'' bookCherry Blossom Boutique, where Eoin Colfer had it said about how you pronounce his name? That wasnfor just six months when she't the intention of an ups nominated for -andwins -coming author to be recognisable; rather, it was pridethe Retail Best Newcomer Award. Pride in She's delighted and the difference of it, of two people she's brought with her to the Irishness of itevent couldn't be more pleased. IrelandSonja, it seems to meher mother, is more full than usual of people, things 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 ideasLiberty adores Jessica's husband, Charles and places that are different by dint of their singular nationality – and so many deserve to have pride attached to themfour-year-old daughter, Ava. The places might not Life would be the famous ones, but they can be the source of pride, and of stories, which is where this compilation of short works perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for the young comes one thing: she misses having a man in, with the authors invited to select their chosen place and write about ither life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>191041137X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sophie HannahB08KKQ85FN|title=The Visitors BookBut Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona|rating=3.54|genre=ParanormalShort Stories|summary= Sophie Hannah's The Visitors Book is 'If a short anthology of modern stories with a supernatural twist. There is not woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a hammy gothic turret Rottweiler in sight as her characters experience their mundanelipstick, day-an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to-daybe released into the company of carrion crows or, 21st century business -- a children's birthday partymore to the point, a visit about to a boyfriend, neck pain, discover the school runreal world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills. Now'' You don't get many better opening sentences than that, ghost stories based on ordinary people leading ordinary lives can do you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be very unsettling indeed, making overly imaginative readers look over their shoulder at moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the bus stop, or giving them goosebumps time has come for HE to retires and for no apparent reasonSandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in Rome. So I was curious to see what Sophie Hannah Well 'settled' rather overstates the situation and their dog, a writer I much admireBeagle, would make has no intention of this particular materialslowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745525</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marina WarnerB08CHJLNBS|title=Fly Away HomeCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams

|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=How would you subvert He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a fairy tale? You know enough of them and enough about them to do itpartner at Wickham Jones, so think on itthe Mayfair letting agents. Would you give a mermaid a smartphone? Would you pepper them with pop starsShe's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and perhaps let them be witness to archivist in the Schadenfreude caused heritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by a cave thatRhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's sacred to native Canadians? Would moved on from new age books like that, which leave you, in the light of their characters usually being routine, interchangeable tropes, give them a closely-observed personality – as seen here in a teacherdependent on someone else's interior thoughts when faced with philosophies, to something a piece of East Anglian lore? little deeper. Would you take the exoticism of the east, and Egypt in particular, and see it in the light Charles is more of a musical teacher on a zero-hours contract who ends up muttering to [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, directing traffic in the middle of the roadbut, above all, or from the remove of an elderly man with he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian'swollen feet in orthopaedic sandals'. They' with a message from the pastre obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind? Certainly these two are She's not the standard Arabian Nightshis 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-styled pieces…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784630381</amazonuk>starter, isn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Rose TremainMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title= The American LoverCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating= 4.5|genre= Short Stories Fantasy|summary= Having never read a Rose Tremain book beforeCurses. They're there throughout tales of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, I was interested or not to start be able to do that. Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the verge of marrying, and older people too. It seems in a way there's no escaping it. Which is why the theme of this collection 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, and that other bewitched person. I wasnWe't disappointed, and it quickly became clear why she has won so many literary awards for her workd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099548445</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Ursula K Le GuinStibbe_Xmas|title= The Wind's Twelve Quarters and The Compass RoseAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating= 4.5|genre= Science FictionHumour|summary=IChristmas – 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'll start by saying s suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that I think the SF Masterworks series are pretty much always you can go and visit it, and without fail get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also a really interesting readtime of great boons. IIt've bought quite s cash in hand for a few from this publisher now lot of plump people who can hire red suits and I find they will beards, it was always pick interesting titles from a godsend for postmen with all the science fiction genre, making them a great place thank-you letters to start if aunties you are either just dipping saw twice a decade that your toe into science fiction parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and as for the first makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time or if you're looking to build up your collection.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147320576X</amazonuk>of the year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Maeve Binchy0954899520|title= A Few of the GirlsWinter Book|author=Tove Jansson|rating= 5|genre= Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary= I was excited about reviewing a brand new collection Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of Maeve Binchy short stories the simplicity, naivety and I wasnsheer 't disappointedgoodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. As her widower states in the introductionSimple drawings, Binchy had an extraordinary talent for telling powerful and compassionate simple stories, and simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was a true storyteller with an amazing outputserious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409161412</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ann Cleeves (editor)1911115847|title=The Starlings and Other StoriesNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan

|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=Six authors, known collectively as 'The Murder Squad', and their six accomplices were given twelve photographs Nights of the remote landscape Creaking Bed'' is a collection of Pembrokeshire by acclaimed photographer David Wilson and asked to come up with a short story inspired stories by what they sawToni Kan. Some The series of stories tell of the stories will be more to your taste than otherslives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in and around Lagos, Nigeria. Nigeria, as is only to be expected in such a varied anthologythis collection, but none is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the shadows and people are weak killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with a vitality and if you enjoy crime short passion that allows these cynical stories then this book could be to achieve a real treatglimmer of hope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909823740</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Walter M Miller Jr1529014484|title= Dark BenedictionExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating= 5|genre= Science Fiction|summary= Walter M. Miller Jr is rightly placed among Over the past twenty-eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction giants H.G. Wellsshort stories, Michael Moorcock, and Philip K. Dick in the ''Masterworks'' series, a large selection of genrethese magnificent stories have won twenty-defining writers and works at the centre of what is now such seven major science fiction awards so if you are a popular and diverse range of literatures, films, and television productions. Miller is considered one of the finest science fiction writers fan it is likely that you have already come across some of the 1950s, and in ''Dark Benediction'work by Ted Chiang. If you haven', fourteen of t then take this author's best short stories are brought together in one collectionopportunity to do so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473211948</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Elizabeth McCracken1794467440|title= ThunderstruckWatchwords |author=Philip Neal|rating= 54

|summary= I chose to review this This satisfying collection of short stories with no prior knowledge has a provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of the author's work – often the best way 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 do collect vintage watches that resembled it, though I am aware . And that McCracken's work comes highly commendedhow he became a watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. After reading these storiesThe eBay purchase was a fake, I can see why but the friendship that grew between the buyer and the repairer of watches was not and I am already looking forward to reading more the seed of her workan idea for a book was born.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099592975</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Pete Bellotte|title= The Unround Circle|rating= 2.5|genre= Short Stories|summary= As short story collections go, this is a fairly ambitious bundle, some 22 stories running to a total of nearly four hundred pages. You'll gather from 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|authorisbn= Mary Higgins Clark (editor)1529006031|title= Manhattan Mayhem – New Crime Stories from the Mystery Writers of America|rating= 5|genre= Crime|summary= I was unsure how Return to open this review. I heart Manhattan, big time. I am always attracted to any work set in Manhattan, but I don’t want 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 story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>159474761X</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewWonderland|author=Ivan Vladislavic|title=101 DetectivesVarious Authors|rating=34.5

|summary=101 Detectives had me baffledIn following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book she was in [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. The book comprises wacky-for-the-sake-of -it did not gel, and I don't remember loving it more as a collection of child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories which explore multiple themes that come at the core from a tangent, that show the perspective benefits of one personthe oblique glance. The stories are as varied as I've always preferred coming to an author's output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and it's the characters presenting same with franchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the tale whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons). For another thing, there was every reason to you. This exquisitely expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written book leaves you asking many questions and pondering many ideas. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908276568</amazonuk>with that love in mind could only provide for success after success?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Laurie R King and Leslie Klinger (editors)1846974658|title=In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes CanonThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker

|summary=WellOn my travels around the world, that's one way to get a heck of I have a lot of attention tendency to your series of short story collectionsend 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 sure – get is the estate of the author you're respecting to take you to court with local' – the idea that the works cannot be published – cookbook maybe, the characters are so firmly established and entrenchedmaps definitely, but established and entrenched as their property and therefore cannot be artistically reinterpreted, revived or otherwise returned to at above all until full and final copyright statutes have expired. Never mind that : the characters – one S Holmes and Dr JH Watson – hardly have parallels in how often they already have been mimickedfolk tales. Never mind the fact that the estate of Conan Doyle was paid off in order for the first book If I ever get to released. StillBurma, the case was I won and this sequel is in our hands't need to hunt, I can read before I go. 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 B077969HN8|title=An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It Alternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon|rating=34.5

|summary=The title story, which appears first, is exactly what it says on the tin: one hunterLaura Solomon's story of travelling to remote islands to take part publisher describes the short stories in massive culls ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of great auks, until they were simply gonesurrealism''. It I's always hard to believe m rather glad that species that once numbered in their millions, such I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as the passenger pigeon, could go extinct so quicklyI'm not normally a fan of either, but when you read I've come to two conclusions about the brutal slaughter tactics here – swinging clubs book: what the publisher says is correct - and boiling birds alive – you can see how a flightless bird was a sitting targetI really enjoyed it. The narrator makes no real attempt to defend himself: comedy is not ''too'' black and the birds were there for the taking; that was that. Still, he regrets their extinction, because 'in any loss you can see surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a shadow twist or flick of the way that reality when you will were least expecting it. Your comfort zones are going to be lost yourself.' (Those interested invaded in the great auk's extinction may also want to read the 2013 novel ''The Collector of Lost Things'' by Jeremy Pagenicest possible way.)|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473610850</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Colin Barrett9386897504|title=Young SkinsTales of Love and Disability|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=WeI're taken into the lives ve always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of skill and talent to write a short story which holds the youthful inhabitants reader and keeps them coming back for more. There are far too many collections of small town Ireland in seven short stories which are all too easy to put down and forget after you've read a couple of differing styles but pieces. I've recently read a shared setting. Barrett writes couple of a doorman at a suburban nightclub, known novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and respected [[Hell's Unveiling by all the locals, although we only read about a brief affair and his vulnerability. Another tale portrays a young rocker Laura Solomon|Hell's Unveiling]] and his emotional stateenjoyed them, years after so I was intrigued to see what she could do with an incident that scarred him both physically and mentally and made him the talk of the town. Other tales all share the same focus on people and small but meaningful personal events in their liveseven shorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009959742X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=B Reid1986586898|title=Beyond the Trees of GulavstadtGoing To The Last: A Gothic Short StoryStories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyShort Stories|summary=Amy works for ClaralinguaIn the opening story, a London education company that runs English schools all over 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 world, and Amy is travelling problem of whether or not to Gulavstadt, a remote town run his horse in Eastern Europethe Gold Cup when the ground is against him. My favourite was ''The Story of H'', to inspect one the story of the schoolsFoinavon. Gulavstadt H is depicted as a town kind horse who only wanted to please people. After changing hands on various occasions he came to the yard of myths John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a no-hoper. In one of the setting most dramatic runnings of the race, a recent horror filmpile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. Foinavon, ''The Thing Behind who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the Trees''line, exploiting them - featuring medieval, flesh-eating ghouls with mouths lined with winning the sharpest race at odds of teeth. But myths don't bother Amy..100/1.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00U9I7KNI</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dorthe Nors9386897296|title=Karate Chop, and Minna Needs Rehearsal SpaceHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=The reviewer picks up the book.<br>The book is called A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha'Minna Needs Rehearsal Space''.<br>The book is entirely made out of one-sentence paragraphs.<br>The one-sentence paragraphs are very seldom poetic, but normally are grammatically correct sentences.<br>The one-sentence paragraphs on the whole have just one verb, unless regarding that from reported or unreported speech.<br>The book concerns a middle-aged musician s Deal]] and composer who does indeed need rehearsal space.<br>The book concerns a woman who suddenly gets more space than she wants when her boyfriend leaves her.<br>The boyfriend's departure causes a lot of people crowding around Minna, which causes a problem.<br>The problem might be resolved I was delighted by a trip away from her city flat.<br>The title of the book might be ironic.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782271198</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Malorie Blackman|title=Love Hurts|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=opportunity to read the sequel, ''Love HurtsHell's Unveiling' is all about heartache but it doesn't leave you bereft. Mixed in are enough moments of heartsease (and heart It's joy!) probably not much of a spoiler to keep you believing in love. And we all want to believe say that Marsha bested the devil in love, don't we? If you are one of the few who don't, you might as well look away now. The rest of us are in for a treat. This anthology has been gathered together by ChildrenMarsha's Laureate Malorie BlackmanDeal'', but the devil is not 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>}}{{newreview|author=Eliza Robertson|title=Wallflowers|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=Eliza Robertson won the Man Booker Scholarship and Curtis Brown Prize while completing her MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Angliatake defeat lying down. ''Wallflowers'' is already a bestseller in Robertson He's native Canada. There is quite some variety across the seventeen stories. Broadly speaking, though, there are a few themes: moving out to wage war on from loss, finding love in the midst of gentle madness, Planet Earth and interactions with the natural world, often particularly on the edge of CanadaMarsha (who's British Columbia wilderness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408856794</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Edith Pearlman|title=Honeydew|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=American short story writer [[:Category:Edith Pearlman|Edith Pearlman]] brings us thought of as a compilation of stories that have only been seen separately in magazines over the years. This follows on from the huge success of ''Binocular Vision'goody two shoes' (in 2013Hell), the short story collection that led to Ms Pearlman being presented with the National Critics' Circle Award. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444797018</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Leslie Charteris and John Telfer (narrator)|title=Enter the Saint|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=When you think of thrillers written by Although a man in his early twenties therestrong person, she's a temptation to believe that the books might not be, well, top drawer, but that would be a mistakevulnerable where her foster children are concerned. The first of Daniel is framed for a crime he didn''The Saint'' novels was published in 1928 when Leslie Charteris was just twenty one t commit and sent to juvenile detention and this collection of stories is dated 1930refused permission to return to live with Marsha. You might expect the rambunctious adventurer we meetThen, but not the subtleties of course, there are all the slightly worldother children who are not only targeted but -weary man worst of the world, all-knowing about subverted to the evils devil's evil ends. He's out to which men (prey on their fears and weaknesses and women) can sinkas with many foster children, but they're all theretheir self-esteem is very fragile. Admittedly the Saint This is more boisterous and less subtle than he will become no small-scale operation, either - but that speaks more about the later works than this bookdevil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Hell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00OS74GQU</amazonuk>