Tag Archives: Short Story Collections

I Am Heathcliff curated by Kate Mosse

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Overview

Title: I Am Heathcliff
Author: Kate Mosse, Louise Doughty, Grace McCleen, Nikesh Shukla, Erin Kelly, Joanna Cannon, Laurie Penny, Lisa McInerney, Juno Dawson, Hanan al-Shaykh, Alison Case, Louisa Young, Leila Aboulela, Anna James, Dorothy Koomson, Michael Stewart & Sophie Hannah
In: I Am Heathcliff (Kate Mosse)
Rating Out of 5: 3.5 (Liked this)
Bookshelves: Contemporary, Short story collections, Twisted romance
Dates read: 18th February – 16th May 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Anthology
Publisher: Borough Press
Year: 2018
5th sentence, 74th page: Any sound Ellis made was nurtured, grown somehow by the floorboards and the leaded-glass windows, until even the sound of her own breathing seemed to be carried away down the landing, and passed around from room to room.

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Synopsis

16 modern fiction superstars shine a startling light on the romance and pain of the infamous literary pair Heathcliff and Cathy.
Short stories to stir the heart and awaken vital conversation about love.

Sixteen stories inspired by Wuthering Heights.

In Terminus a young woman hides in an empty Brighton hotel; in Thicker Than Blood a man sits in a hot tub stalking his newly-married love on social media; and in A Bird Half-Eaten an amateur boxer prepares for a match.

A woman recalls the Heathcliffs I Have Known and the physical danger she has borne at their hands; in Anima a child and a fox are unified in one startling moment of violence; and in One Letter Different two teenagers walk the moors and face up to their respective buried secrets.

Curated by Kate Mosse and commissioned for Emily Brontë’s bicentenary year in 2018, these fresh, modern stories pulse with the raw beauty and pain of love and are as timely as they are illuminating.

Thoughts

I did enjoy this collection, but not as much as I had hoped. Probably because I bought this before reading Wuthering Heights. Which I then hated. So although this collection went a long way towards helping me to understand just why people love the classic so much. I still didn’t really love the obsessive, twisted romance that really features throughout all of these. The darkness that is completely overwhelming and more than a little difficult to understand.

Taking an incredibly rich classic, one that has stood the tests of time and creating different storylines and modern perspectives on it is an impressive feat. Collecting all of these stories together in one great collection was thoroughly enjoyable. It definitely gave me a whole new perspective on the classic. And made me want to give it a go for a second time… maybe in a year or two when I’m a little more mellow, and less likely to hate on Heathcliff and Cathy so passionately…

 <- Only Joseph ReviewTerminus Review ->
Image source: Harper Collins Publishers

Snow White, Blood Red edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling

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Overview
Image result for snow white, blood red book cover

Title: Snow White, Blood Red
Author: Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, Susan Wade, Charles de Lint, Gahan Wilson, Nancy Kress, Tanith Lee, Wendy Wheeler, Kathe Koja, Gregory Frost, Elizabeth A. Lynn, Harvey Jacobs, Steve Rasnic Tem, Melanie Tem, Caroline Stevermer, Ryan Edmonds, Neil Gaiman, Leonard Rysdyk, Esther M. Friesner, Jack Dann, Jane Yolen, Patricia A. McKillip & Lisa Goldstein
Series: Adult Fairy Tales #1
In: Snow White, Blood Red (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Fairy tales, Retellings,Short story collections
Dates read: 17th December 2018 – 12th April 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Anthology
Publisher: Signet
Year: 1993
5th sentence, 74th page: It’ll still mean that I’m willing to let someone die, just so I can have my own way.

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Synopsis

Snow White, Blood Red is a brand new collection of fairy tales. But be warned. It is not a collection for the faint-hearted. Or even one to lull the innocent towards the sleeping realms of dreams. For Snow White, Blood Red is a modern book of wonders: a boundless expanse of nightmares, lusts and fables for the grown-up child in us all.

Through richly imaginative retellings of existing fairy tales, twenty-one of the world’s top fantasy authors recreate the full mythical, magical, mind-bending power of humankind’s oldest fables. Prepare to be seduced by stories that bite – stories that are frightening, erotic, dark and compelling. Because as Terri Windling reminds us in the introduction: ‘Something still stirs inside us when we hear those old, evocative words: Once upon a time.’ Only this time, in this world, there is no happy ending…

Thoughts

I’ve had this book on my wish list for a very, very long time. So, when I finally managed to find a second hand copy and get it delivered to my door, I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into it. After all, I love fairy tales, I like stories with a dark twist, and I’m fascinated by retellings and the ways in which people are able to twist and turn classic themes to fit a more contemporary or recognisable setting. Which makes this kind of the perfect short story collection to sit on my shelves.

Some of the stories in this collection are kind of dark and twisted. Some are incredibly sexual. And some are just a great, contemporary retelling that makes childish fairy tales far more relatable. I got goosebumps reading some of these stories. While others left a smile on my face. You know it’s a fantastic collection when it takes you through the rollercoaster of emotions and leaves you feeling incredibly happy at the close of the last page.

Anybody who loves fantasy, horror or fairy tales, this is a great collection to add to your shelves. It is one that I won’t be getting out of my head anytime soon, that’s for sure…

<- Taking LoupLike a Red, Red Rose ->

Image source: Amazon

Evolve edited by Nancy Kilpatrick

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Overview
Evolve

Title: Evolve
Author: Nancy Kilpatrick, Sandra Kasturi, Kelley Armstrong, Ronald Hore, Jennifer Greylyn, Mary E. Choo, Rebecca Bradley, Michael Skeet, Victoria Fisher, Kevin Cockle, Heather Clitheroe, Colleen Anderson, Sandra Wickham, Claude Bolduc, Claude Lalumiere, Rhea Rose, Gemma Files, Bev Vincent, Steve Vernon, Rio Youers, Bradley Somer, Natasha Beaulieu, Jerome Stueart, Kevin Nunn & Tanya Huff
In: Evolve (Nancy Kilpatrick)
Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one)
My Bookshelves: Dark fantasy, Short story collections, Vampires
Dates read: 6th November 2018 – 1st April 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Anthology
Publisher: Edge
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: You are never in a hurry.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide
Synopsis

New Vampires have evolved, and they are coming for you! Kelly Armstrong, Tanya Huff and twenty-two other dark fantasy and horror writers come together to re-imagine the future of vampires in this new collection of all-original short fiction – one of the most unusual and original vampire anthologies ever assembled.

Thoughts

This wasn’t my favourite collection of short stories. Maybe I’m not all that much into vampire stories, maybe because these are just the type of vampire stories that I really love. The only two tales I really loved in this were by Kelley Armstrong and Tanya Huff. They weren’t necessarily bad tales, just not ones that I was completely enthralled by.

If you like the more traditional and darker aspect of vampires, I think that this is for you. Some of the stories were a little contemporary, but they weren’t that romanticised, humanised version that we all know and love in modern literature. Maybe if I had have read some of the vampire classics such as Dracula before this, I would have been a little more intently interested. But as things stand, I found this collection quite… meh. Not bad, not great. Definitely worth reading, but not one I’ll be rushing to reread anytime soon.

 <- The Slowing of the World ReviewLet the Night In Review ->
Image source: Goodreads

Mad Hatters and March Hares edited by Ellen Datlow

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Overview
Image result for mad hatters and march hares ellen datlow book cover

Title: Mad Hatters and March Hares
Author: Ellen Datlow, Kris Dikeman, Delia Sherman, C. S. E. Cooney, Jane Yolen, Priya Sharma, Richard Bowes, Stephen Graham Jones, Jeffrey Ford, Angela Slatter, Matthew Kressel, Seanan McGuire, Andy Duncan, Kaaron Warren, Ysabeau S. Wilce, Genevieve Valentine, Catherynne M. Valente & Katherine Vaz
In: Mad Hatters and March Hares (Ellen Datlow)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Retellings, Short story collections, Wordplay
Dates read: 22nd December 2018 – 29th March 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Tor
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: Beyond it were the cells.

Synopsis

From Master Anthologist Ellen Datlow comes an all-original book of weird tales inspired by the strangeness of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.

Between the hallucinogenic, weird, imaginative wordplay and the brilliant mathematical puzzles and social satire, Alice has been read, enjoyed, and savored by every generation since its publication. Datlow asked seventeen of the most brilliant and acclaimed writers working today to dream up stories inspired by all the strange events and surreal characters found in Wonderland.

Thoughts

I began my obsession with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in childhood, but kind of forgot about it until the last year – when I finally got around to reading the original story! And then my obsession began to take a bit of a turn for the… well, obsessive… so I bought this collection as soon as I found it. And opened the page within days of receiving it.

This collection takes all of the many aspects of Alice in Wonderland and turns them around and around until your dizzy. From cute poems, to horrific ideals about Alis and retellings of particular aspects of the original. This collection of short stories and poems has it all. And it is just impossible to put down!

My only piece of advice with this amazing collection is to maybe not read these tales when you’ve been drinking. I tried a few times and it just makes you feel incredibly tripped out. And confused. And just not really sure where reality is situated… kind of like the original.

<- Children of the FangGentle Alice ->

Image source: Bookdepository

Burning Up by Angela Knight, Nalini Singh, Virginia Kantra & Meljean Brook

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Overview
burning-up

Title: Burning Up
Author: Angela Knight, Nalini Singh, Virginia Kantra & Meljean Brook
In: Burning Up (Angela Knight, Nalini Singh, Virginia Kantra & Meljean Brook)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal romance, Short story collections, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 30th January – 4th April 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Anthology
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: Ria opened her mouth to reply but something made her turn to the doorway.

Synopsis

Passion runs as hot as a fever dream in these all-new stories by four New York Times bestselling provocateurs of the paranormal…

In Angela Knight’s Blood and Roses, a vampire warrior and his seductive captor join forces to stop a traitor from unleashing an army of demonic predators on their kingdom.

New in Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling series is Whisper of Sin, in which a woman in lethal danger finds an unlikely protector – and lover – in a volatile member of the DarkRiver pack.

Virginia Kantra continues the haunting tales of the Children of the Sea in Shifting Sea, the story of a wounded soldier rescued by a strange and enigmatic young woman.

Meljean Brook launches a bold new steampunk series with Here There Be Monsters, as a desperate woman strikes a provocative – and terrifying – bargain to gain overseas passage.

Thoughts

I’ve had this collection sitting on my shelf for ages. I just haven’t gotten around to reading it… until now. And now I’m wondering why I took so long to sink my literary teeth in… I already had the Psy-Changeling series, but now I have another three paranormal romance series to obsess over… when they eventually arrive on my doorstep.

The themes and paranormal characters in this collection of four novellas run the gambit. There’s a steampunk tale with pirates, a romance with a leopard shapeshifter and one with vampires and their battles. The romances are instantaneous and involve a lot of running away… the only thing that these four novellas really have in common is the fact that they are all intense, fun and have a good ending. Although, maybe not good stories to read when you have to sleep alone….

 <- Here There Be MonstersWhisper of Sin ->

Image source: Nalini Singh

The Mammoth Book of Scottish Romance edited by Trisha Telep

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Overview
Image result for the mammoth book of scottish romance book cover

Title: The Mammoth Book of Scottish Romance
Author: Trisha Telep, Heather McCollum, Patricia Grasso, Marta Acosta, Jackie Ivie, Elle Jasper, Jacquie D’Alessandro, Debbie Mazzuca, Julianne MacLean, Susan Sizemore, Lois Greiman, Kimberly Killion, Anne Gracie, Leah Marie Brown, Donna Kauffman, Terri Brisbin, Annette Blair, Sandy Blair, Jackie Barbosa, Donna Grant & Connie Brockway
Series: Mammoth Books
In: The Mammoth Book of Scottish Romance (Trisha Telep)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Historical romance, Scottish romance, Short story collections
Dates read: 23rd November 2018 – 16th March 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Anthology
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2011
5th sentence, 74th page: His hair was deep chestnut, a little long and brushed back from a widow’s peak, and his shoulders were wide in an inky black-blue suit.

Synopsis

Real Men Wear Kilts.

Enough to make even the hardiest Highlander blush, here you will find the steamy romantic history of Scotland laid bare. With swords, through sorcery and in the course of some of the hottest nights ever experienced on the Inner Hebrides, Scottish heroes stake their claims, both in the bedroom and out. Dreams come true and legends are born as ancient prophecies are fulfilled by time travellers from the future, in a Scotland where real historical figures exist side by side with pagan magic and werewolves. Dashing lairds and Scottish barbarians fight for love and honour in a wild, magical world.

Thoughts

Oh my gosh. I loved this collection! It had everything in it that I kind of love in the world – romance, Scotsmen and passion. I normally read short story collections because they are easy to put down… that wasn’t the case with this one. It was almost impossible to walk away from it and I now want to find other Scottish-inspired romances that give this same intensity of beautiful feelings.

Whilst the majority of the stories in this collection can be classified as historical romance, there are a sprinkling of contemporary romances scattered throughout. I did buy this collection with the intent of reading historical romances, but it’s kind of nice to have a hint of something a little more modern. It provides a great ability to change the pace of the stories and gives a little more variety.

I’ve read a few Mammoth Books now, and I love the variety of stories they provide under the same umbrella. These collections also run the gambit for story length – the tales in this collection are slightly longer than some other collections and I kind of loved that fact. It meant that I connected to the characters on a deeper level because I got to spend more time with them. And it made my heart skip a beat all the more quickly.

<- The Mammoth Book of Sea BattlesHighland Heart ->

Image source: Hachette Australia

Weddings from Hell by Maggie Shayne, Jeaniene Frost, Terri Garey & Kathryn Smith

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Overview
Image result for weddings from hell book cover

Title: Weddings From Hell
Author: Maggie Shayne, Jeaniene Frost, Terri Garey & Kathryn Smith
In: Weddings From Hell (Maggie Shayne, Jeaniene Frost, Terri Garey & Kathryn Smith)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal romance, Short story collections, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 5th February – 27th March 2019
Pace: Fast
Format: Anthology
Publisher: Harper Fiction
Year: 2008
5th sentence, 74th page: He was Ian.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide
Synopsis

Some marriages are made in heaven… Some are not.

What happens when “the happiest day of your life” turns into a nightmare? Forget the drunken best man or the bridesmaid dresses from the ’80s… none of these wedding day disasters can compare to a cursed bride determined to make it down the aisle, or a vampire who is about to disrupt you wedding.

Thoughts

My best friend is getting married this year. Which made it feel like kind of a fun time to read this collection of four wedding themed novellas. After all, I get to be a bridesmaid, and this collection will definitely put into light the ways in which things can go seriously and drastically wrong. Especially since none of these things are going to happen at her wedding.

I was honestly expecting these to be four novellas about a couple getting married and things going drastically wrong for them. Instead, it was four tales of mayhem and magic where the weddings just happened to be the backdrop event, or, in some cases, the instigating event. It made the storylines so much less predictable and just that much more fun…

 <- The Wedding Knight ReviewTill Death Review ->
Image source: Harper Collins

The Mammoth Book of Steampunk edited by Sean Wallace

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Overview
The Mammoth Book of Steampunk

Title: The Mammoth Book of Steampunk
Author: Sean Wallace, Ekaterina Sedia, Jeff VanderMeer, Caitlin R. Kiernan, E. Catherine Tobler, Jay Lake, Genevieve Valentine, Cat Rambo, Shweta Narayan, Aliette de Bodard, N.K. Jemisin, Peter M. Ball, Sharon Mock, Catherynne M. Valente, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Eileen Gunn, Michael Swanwick, Tobias S. Buckell, Matthew Kressel, Margo Lanagan, Amal El-Mohtar, Barth Anderson, Jeffrey Ford, James Morrow, Cherie Priest, Margaret Ronald, Megan Arkenberg, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Mary Robinette Kowal, Samantha Henderson, Nick Mamatas, Nicole Kornher-Stace & Lavie Tidhar
Series: Mammoth Books
In: The Mammoth Book of Steampunk (Sean Wallace)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Short story collections, Steampunk
Dates read: 3rd October 2018 – 6th March 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Anthology
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2008
5th sentence, 74th page: He was in his library, or so he called it, a small room that smelled of pipe tobacco and old leather, so close that one could barely breathe.

Synopsis

30 anarchic mash-ups of past and future that push the boundaries of steampunk.

Great steampunk stories confront an uneasy history of oppression – of women, other ‘races’ and classes – and the abuse of science, by reimagining the past. The writers represented in this outsatnding collection look to the future through the lens of the past, imagining worlds in which technology is used to uplift rather than to oppress.

Thoughts

I’ve only recently gotten involved in steampunk. It’s a genre that I only started reading late last year and one that I kind of love. Although, as I discovered with this collection of short stories, it is also a genre that I have to concentrate a little more to read (unlike genre such as romance).

This anthology runs the gambit of steampunk stories and brings a number of themes, styles and settings to life. It is a perfect way to completely disappear from the world after a long day. Although, with many of the themes, once you have finished the story you are thrown back into reality ten times more heavily than you were before. After all, most of these stories have a great commentary about the world that we live in today.

From capitalism to feminist movements, every major issue and discussion that seems to be occurring in modern society is touched upon in this collection. Yet, these aren’t all serious commentaries on the world. Some of the stories are kind of hilarious, and some are downright weird. The one thing that they all have in common is that they are thoroughly enjoyable and have helped to give me a new addiction.

<- The TraitorSteampunk: Looking to the Future Through the Lens of the Past ->

Image source: Amazon

Troll’s-Eye View edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling

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Overview
Image result for troll's-eye view book cover

Title: Troll’s-Eye View
Author: Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, Delia Sherman, Garth Nix, Wendy Froud, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Peter S. Beagle, Ellen Kushner, Joseph Stanton, Holly Black, Jane Yolen, Nancy Farmer, Michael Cadnum, Catherynne M. Valente, Midori Snyder, Neil Gaiman & Kelly Link
In: Troll’s-Eye View (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Fairy tales, Retellings, Short story collections, Villains
Dates read: 12th December 2018 – 1st March 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Anthology
Publisher: Firebird Fantasy
Year: 2009
5th sentence, 74th page: I could have wept.

Synopsis

Everyone thinks they know the real story behind the villains in fairy tales – evil, no two ways about it. But the villains themselves beg to differ. In this book you’ll hear from:
the Giant’s wife from “Jack and the Beanstalk”
the oldest of the Twelve Dancing Princesses
Rumpelstiltskin
the witch from “Hansel and Gretel”
someone called Evil Cinderella

Just watch these old stories do new tricks!

Thoughts

This is an incredibly easy, fun and engaging short story collection. It takes some brilliant authors who take you on journeys through well known fairy tales. The fact that these retellings all focus on the villains of the stories just made me love it even more. I always love the highlighting of grey areas and alternate tellings.

Troll’s-Eye View is a collection that is written for a very young age group. It’s simple and quaint. Easily accessible and fun. But, that doesn’t mean that as an adult you can’t enjoy it. There was nothing I enjoyed more than sitting down at the end of a long day and reading one of these short stories or poems. It was a great, fun and quick escape from the real world at a time when I’ve been really quite overwhelmed and stressed.

Most of my anthologies and collections contain only novellas and short stories. Troll’s-Eye View also has poems. They were enough to break up the flow throughout the story and leave you with a smile on your face.

<- Why Light?Wizard’s Apprentice ->

Image source: Amazon

Blood Lite edited by Kevin J. Anderson

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Overview
Blood Lite

Title: Blood Lite
Author: Kevin J. Anderson, Kelley Armstrong, Joe R. Lansdale, Lucien Soulban, Christopher Welch, Matt Venne, Don D’Amassa, Mark Onspaugh, J.A. Konrath, Paul Wilson, Charlaine Harris, Steven Savile, Will Ludwigsen, Janet Berliner, Eric James Stone, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Mike Resnick, D.L. Snell, Nancy Holder, Nancy Kilpatrick, Jeff Strand, Sharyn McCrumb & Jim Butcher
In: Blood Lite (Kevin J. Anderson)
Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one)
My Bookshelves: Comedy, Horror, Short story collections
Pace: Slow
Format: Anthology
Publisher: Edge
Year: 2008
5th sentence, 74th page: Sometimes, especially if I’ve been drinking, and I’m hungry, I revert to my basic nature.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide
Synopsis

The Horror Writers Association Presents Blood Lite…a collection of entertaining tales that puts the fun back into dark fiction, with ironic twists and tongue-in-cheek wit to temper the jagged edge.

Charlaine Harris reveals the dark side of going green, when a quartet of die-hard environmentalists hosts a fundraiser with a gory twist in An Evening with Al Gore…

In an all-new Dresden Files story from Jim Butcher, when it comes to tracking deadly paranormal doings, there’s no such thing as a Harry’s Day Off for the Chicago P.D.’s wizard detective, Harry Dresden…

Sherrilyn Kenyon turns a cubicle-dwelling MBA with no life into a demon-fighting seraph with one hell of an afterlife in Where Angels Fear to Tread. NOTE: This story has been re-released in the Dark Bites anthology.

Celebrity necromancer Jaime Vegas is headlining a sold-out séance tour, but behind the scenes, a disgruntled ghost has a bone to pick, in Kelley Armstrong’s The Ungrateful Dead.

So let the blood flow and laughter reign – because when it comes to facing our deepest, darkest fears, a little humor goes a long way!

Thoughts

I’m kind of on the fence about this collection. Some of the stories in this were brilliant. Some downright weird. But all were enjoyable. Just not memorable. This is the kind of collection you read for a good, light laugh and something that isn’t going to make you think and linger in your mind’s eye after you’ve finished the story.

Although this hasn’t been my favourite collection of short stories that I’ve digested in recent times, it also wasn’t one that I ever considered stopping. I know that a collection or novel is truly horrible when I just can’t seem to pick it up and get through it. Yet I didn’t feel that way with this. I just didn’t want to completely bury my nose in these stories either. The best description I can think of for this series is easy. Easy reading. Easy to forget. But easy to spend some humorous time with.

 <- The Four Horsemen Reunion Tour ReviewThe Ungrateful Dead Review ->
Image source: Goodreads