Short Stories – Page 68 – Cannonball Read 17

“I am wonderful, I deserve to be wonderful, and I contain multitudes.”

If It Bleeds by Stephen King

June 24, 2020 by scootsa1000 1 Comment

I haven’t been great about reading lately, and have been even worse about reviewing. But as a loyal Constant Reader, I felt like this might be the book to jumpstart my COVID reading habits, and I was mostly right. Similiar to earlier collections like Different Seasons, The Bachman Books, Full Dark No Stars, and Four Past Midnight, If It Bleeds is made up of four long-ish, unrelated stories (or novellas, if you’re feeling fancy): Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, The Life of Chuck, If It Bleeds, and […]

Bunnatine, Immy, Demon Lover, and Ghost Boyfriend walk into a bar…

Get In Trouble by Kelly Link

June 9, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos 2 Comments

Well, sometimes it’s a bar filled with men raised by wolves. Sometimes it’s a space ship. A warehouse full of mysterious sleeping people. A magical house full of “summer people”. A haunted house on a space ship. A lake where a few dozen nudists disappeared in the seventies. The penthouse party at a hotel full of dentists and super heroes. The crumbling remains of a Wizard of Oz theme park. A pocket universe that opened above Florida. Kelly Link writes things that are fantastic and […]

Dreamy but Derivative (also CANNONBALL!)

And I Do Not Forgive You: Stories & Other Revenges by Amber Sparks

May 25, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos 12 Comments

These stories have been told before. Most are fairly clever fairy tales retold, some are veiled retellings of myth and history, and a few are sparkling new. They have been told before in the sense that they are retellings, but they have also been told before in the sense that other authors have done these before, and done them better. It was difficult to find the author’s voice; reading the collection felt less like one author’s work and more like an anthology of the who’s […]

Across the street from their house, in an empty lot between two houses, stood the rockpile.

Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

May 18, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

A great collection of short stories by James Baldwin. Generally (if not all of) these stories are near perfect, and a good reminder of how much I really like listening to short story collections on audiobook. The opening story “The Rockpile” is one of those perfect stories (I think “Sonny’s Blues” and “Going to Meet the Man” are the obvious others), begins us with a boy watching his step-brother defy all order to stay in the house and goes to the neighborhood rockpile where there’s […]

“The monster was the best friend I ever had.” Boris Karloff

House of Fear: Attack of the Killer Snowmen and Other Stories by James Powell

May 11, 2020 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

Book: House of Fear: Attack of the Killer Snowmen and Other Stories Cover: One Scooby Doo rip off to go please. The story: Well now. That was creepy. Enter the world of The House of Fear. These are good, old fashioned spooky stories with a modern take. There are various themes that seem innocent (leaves, teeth, fishing, snowmen, trees) but show the sinister side of the mundane. And our host is a man (maybe; maybe not) named Boyle. They are the caretaker of all the […]

“Whether it is right or advisable to create beings like Heathcliff, I do not know: I scarcely think it is. But this I know: the writer who possesses the creative gift owns something of which he is not always master-something that, at times, strangely wills and works for itself.” – Charlotte Bronte

Heathcliff Redux: A Novella and Stories by Lily Tuck

May 10, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

We have a Heathcliff problem. We fantasize on the regular about a brooding hulk smoldering just out of view. He’s there- he’s part of the nature of the area, and we are going to conquer that nature. We are going to nurture the brutish man. We are going to fix him, and he’s going to rescue us. Except, we know the truth. We are going to ruin ourselves trying to capture him, and it isn’t going to change him in the slightest. Our narrator in Heathcliff […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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