Title: Callie Meet Happy
Author: Amber Benson
Series: Calliope Reaper-Jones #3.5
In: An Apple for the Creature (Charlaine Harris & Toni L. P. Kelner)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Grim reapers, Paranormal fantasy, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 3rd June 2019
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Ace Books
Year: 2012
5th sentence, 74th page: “Not gonna happen,” Callie said, holding her ground in a pair of dirty Jimmy Choos.

Callie is in a class learning how to create wormholes. But a crabby teacher and judgemental peers seem to keep getting in her way… until she figures out how to go to a Happy place.

This was an easy and enjoyable short story. The teacher kind of reminded me of Umbridge (Harry Potter for those of you who aren’t quite educated on her evilness). This teacher was judgemental, power hungry and kind of a pain. Something that we’ve all had experience with at some point in our lives. And the judging looks from her peers… well, that was a little bit too familiar. Which, in all lead to a completely relatable, and kind of funny storyline that I was sad to see end.

Stories which feature grim reapers and death are something that always fascinates me. Especially when there is a nice dose of black humour interwoven throughout. A level of sass from a female (pretty much any female) which makes such a serious topic (death) so much less… well, serious. Actually, in the case of Callie’s internal monologue, it just made this entire adventure quite funny. And very, very cute.

Many of the fantasy stories that I’ve read with a parallel world or time portals of any kind tend to be insanely complex. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy them. But I tend to find it quite hard to grasp certain aspects of the storyline and then I have to go back and read certain sections again and again until I have a firmer grasp on what is happening. This tale was nothing like that. There is travel to a parallel world, but the storyline and lead character doesn’t get caught up in all of the minutiae detail.

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Image source: Goodreads