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The cover and summary were misleading for this book. I expected stories that were related to different interesting meetings and occurrences, screwy relationships, typical teen drama.

Instead I got a very strange and rather awkward mix of sex-addicts, homosexuals, transgender, and native Americans.

I'm not saying I don't like those stories, I'm just saying I wasn't expecting it.

The above reasons are not why I didn't like the stories: those are just facts about the characters. The stories themselves just didn't seem to connect to me, I couldn't relate to any of them. Maybe it's because I'm one of those weird girls with a completely functional romantic relationship, but a lot of the content in this book was just like "uh… why are they acting like that?"

Anyway, it felt awkward. that's the only word I can use to describe it. Some of them were good, some of them sucked. Most of the writing was mediocre.

I guess all I can say is… this is probably the worst short story collection I've ever read. Sorry, I wanted to like it… It was just awkward.

*This review is copyright Haley Mathiot and Amazon Vine*
  
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
H.P. Lovecraft | 2008 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
8.7 (9 Ratings)
Book Rating
Dang-near essential for anyone interested in the 20th century horror story, this volume does what it says on the front and collects the most significant fiction of H.P. Lovecraft's career. Lovecraft has a unique and idiosyncratic writing style (and that's putting it mildly) and he's not afraid to insert his deeply unpleasant racist views into his stories. However, no single figure has been more influential in the development of the fantasy-horror genre in the last century.

Lovecraft's best stories take the scientific discoveries of his time and use them to summon up an extraordinary sense of cosmic dread: the vastness of the universe and the primordial origins of the human race become the stuff of genuine nightmare. All the key stories are here - the famous Call of Cthulhu, of course, along with others that are still massively influential, such as The Colour Out of Space and At the Mountains of Madness. Lovecraft wrote the book on a certain kind of horror, and this volume is pretty much it. Some of the stories are minor works, but the best ones here are epochal.
  
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ClareR (5879 KP) rated Folk in Books

Jan 24, 2018 (Updated Jan 24, 2018)  
Folk
Folk
Zoe Gilbert | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
An atmosphere that draws you in (2 more)
Beautiful prose
Interconnected short stories
Fairy tales for grown ups
This collection of short stories is set on the island of Neverness. All of the stories are interconnected and characters reoccur as adults after they were in a story as children. We see how an experience in one story then becomes a cautionary tale or a fairytale in another. I loved the atmosphere in this book: menacing, dreamlike, happy, sad - like a fairytale really.
The language used was really very poetic. If you're attracted to this as a Fantasy reader, the language is weighted more on the 'Literary Fiction' side. I like both, and this didn't even occur to me until I read another review on Goodreads! There are plenty of Fantasy writers out there whose prose can be lyrical!
I also liked how the beginning and the end of the book were connected. Very clever, original writing, this is a short story collection that didn't feel to me as though they were short stories. Well worth a read!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this gorgeous book!
  
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Dana (24 KP) rated Shards and Ashes in Books

Mar 23, 2018  
SA
Shards and Ashes
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I am keeping this review short because I was not a fan of the book, so I don't want to spend a lot of time on it.

I did not really like this book, but I have read most of these authors and I have loved their books before, so I think it may have been the subject matter or something, because this was not my cup of tea.

For starters, all the stories were grossly depressing. I can take sad stories, we all know that, but this was to another level of sad. It was like there was no hope in most of these and I just couldn't get behind it.

I understand if people like these stories, I won't hold it against you if you do, but I am not a fan.

Even the worlds of these stories were under-developed. The rules of the worlds were not explained, so there was no reasoning for why these characters did what they did. It was disappointing to say the least.

I am not giving up on these authors, especially since I like quite a few of them.
  
    UnFictional

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