Stone Baby

This was a completely random selection, something attracted me to this collection, I didn't fight the attraction and what a pleasant surprise this turned out to be. Actually pleasant surprise doesn't quite cover it, this stories are terrific and each has one is an emotional powerhouse. Tangentially connected with recurring characters, scenery and themes these tales of love, grief and survival are guaranteed to affect even the most stoic of readers. I enjoy plot driven fiction, so for me the best short stories are essentially novels with less words, traditional narrative form of three (or however many it takes) acts with arcs and resolutions as oppose to something that reads more like a character sketch of a brief glimpse into a fictional life. And so for me this collection was perfect, each one a complete story, original and memorable. Each one exceptionally well written in that the author creates an utterly believable utterly credible authenticity in her characters and situations that are very easy to engage with even for a less emotionally available audience. Stone Baby is the name of one of the stories and a soul of two, representing the strangeness, mystery and beauty of the world around us. In fact, a perfectly apt title for a collection of stories that are sure to leave the readers meditating on those very ideas. Immensely enjoyable book. Enthusiastically recommended. Thanks to Netgalley.

Challenging, often invigorating short stories from a writer I’m previously unaware of. Enjoyed the deftness of her sentence structures, the wild energy barely suppressed in her prose. Some pieces felt more accessible than others, but overall, a promising new talent.