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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Wendy BrandmarkAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title= He Runs the Moon|rating= 3.5|genre= Short Stories |summary= This is the first time I had read any of Wendy BrandmarkAll Tomorrow's fiction, 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 and Boston, but also weaves in setting the stories in different eras. So we have a collection of stories ranging from the 1950's to the 1970's.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907320601</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFutures: Fictions that Disrupt|author= Birgul Oguz|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 daughter'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, Benjamin Greenaway and talking about a man she finds repulsive, but who appears to be in love with her. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>9462380740</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Chuck Palahniuk|title=Make Something UpStephen 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 Mask.'' She struggled with the story and put it aside, where it lay forgotton for several decades. When the author rediscovered the manuscript amongst some old files, she decided that she liked it and was ready to complete the long-awaited ending. ''Death Wears a Beauty Mask'' joins some of her other works, both old and new, in an entertaining collection s second volume of short stories full of mystery . There are thirteen in all and suspense.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471143228</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Danielle McLaughlin|title=Dinosaurs on Other Planets|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories |summary=Seeing as this book 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 – took something from the mother's point each of viewthem. An ancient input shows how alien, and the modern day domesticity how regular, the isolation of There isn't a woman can feel, as events are peppered by minor acts of destruction. But men can 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 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 Ireland.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473613701</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Christopher Fowler|title= Bryant and May - London's Glory|rating= 4|genre= Crime|summary=In the depths of the last [[Bryant and May – 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 ll just pick two to a Bryant talk about 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 fitthink they give a general flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857523457</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith1739593901|title=Chance Developments: Unexpected Love Stories22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin 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

|summary=How would you subvert ''If a fairy tale? You know enough of them and enough about them woman approaching the menopause can be likened to do ita Rottweiler in lipstick, so think on it. Would you give an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a mermaid a smartphone? Would you pepper them with pop starspampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or, and perhaps let them be witness more to the Schadenfreude caused by a cave that's sacred point, about to native Canadians? Would you, in discover the light real world of their characters usually being routinebus timetables and paying his own gas bills.'' You don't get many better opening sentences than that, interchangeable tropes, give them a closely-observed personality – as seen here in a teacherdo you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's interior thoughts when faced with a piece of East Anglian lore? Would you take Wife in [[Sorting the exoticism of Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the east, and Egypt in particular, Priorities]] and see we learned what it in the light of a musical teacher on a zero-hours contract who ends up muttering was like to himself, directing traffic in be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the middle of Italian Government but the road, or from the remove time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of an elderly man with ''swollen feet Former Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in orthopaedic sandalsRome. Well 'settled' with a message from rather overstates the past? Certainly these two are not the standard Arabian Nights-styled pieces…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784630381</amazonuk>situation and their dog, Beagle, has no intention of slowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rose TremainB08CHJLNBS|title= The American LoverCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating= 53|genre= Short Stories Women's Fiction|summary= Having never He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. She's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the heritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, which leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, to something a Rose Tremain book beforelittle deeper. Charles is more of a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, I was interested to start above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this collection woman out of short storieshis mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friends. I wasnAnd given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles't disappointeds superficiality, and it quickly became clear why does she has won so many literary awards for her work.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548445</amazonuk>feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a non-starter, isn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Ursula K Le GuinMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title= The Wind's Twelve Quarters and The Compass RoseCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating= 4.5|genre= Science FictionFantasy|summary=ICurses. They'll start by saying re there throughout tales of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, or not to be able to do that I think . Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the SF Masterworks series are pretty much always verge of marrying, and without fail older people too. It seems in a really interesting readway there's no escaping it. I've bought quite Which is why the theme of this book of short stories is such a few from standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this publisher now and I find they will always pick interesting titles from the science fiction genreaccursed character, making them a great that demonised place to start if you are either just dipping your toe into science fiction for the first time or if you, and that other bewitched person. We're looking to build up your collectiond be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>147320576X</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Maeve BinchyStibbe_Xmas|title= A Few of the GirlsAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating= 4.5|genre= Short StoriesHumour|summary= I was excited Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about reviewing the turkey for that – once upon a brand new collection of Maeve Binchy short stories time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and I wasnif that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it't disappointeds suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. As her widower states Christmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons. It's cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the introductionthank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, Binchy had an extraordinary talent and as for telling powerful the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of the year?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0954899520|title=A Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of the simplicity, naivety and compassionate sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, 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 A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the book.<br>The book is called sequel, ''Hell'Minna Needs Rehearsal Spaces Unveiling''.<br>The book is entirely made out It's probably not much of one-sentence paragraphs.<br>The one-sentence paragraphs are very seldom poetica spoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but normally are grammatically correct sentences.<br>The one-sentence paragraphs on the whole have just devil is not one verb, unless regarding that from reported or unreported speechto take defeat lying down.<br>The book concerns a middle-aged musician He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and composer particularly on Marsha (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 thought of people crowding around Minna, which causes a problem.<br>The problem might be resolved by as 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='goody two shoes'Love Hurts'' is all about heartache but it doesn't leave you bereft. Mixed in are enough moments of heartsease (and heart's joy!Hell) to keep you believing in love. And we all want to believe in love Although a strong person, donshe't we? If you s vulnerable where her foster children are one of the few who don't, you might as well look away nowconcerned. The rest of us are in Daniel is framed for a treat. This anthology has been gathered together by Childrencrime he didn's Laureate Malorie Blackman, one of our favourite YA authors here at Bookbag, t commit and certainly one who understands exactly how sent to write about the highs juvenile detention and lows of love as it is experienced by young peoplerefused permission to return to live with Marsha.|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 Then, of East Anglia. ''Wallflowers'' is already a bestseller in Robertson's native Canada. There is quite some variety across the seventeen stories. Broadly speaking, thoughcourse, there are a few themes: moving on from loss, finding love in all the midst other children who are not only targeted but - worst of gentle madness, and interactions with the natural world, often on all - subverted to the edge of Canadadevil's British Columbia wildernessevil ends.|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 a compilation of stories that have only been seen separately in magazines over the years He's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, their self-esteem is very fragile. This follows is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a training complex on from the huge success of ''Binocular Vision'' (in 2013)earth, the short story collection that led complete with an elevator to Ms Pearlman being presented with the National Critics' Circle AwardHell. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444797018</amazonuk>