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Stranger Things Happen Stories Kelly Link 9781931520003 Books

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Stranger Things Happen Stories Kelly Link 9781931520003 Books

Kelly Link uses a writing strategy that I love, but isn’t for everyone. Typically, when reading a well-written story, the reader wonders what’s going to happen next. But Link takes it so much further than that. You don’t just wonder what happens next, you wonder what’s happening right now. You wonder why on earth the characters would do what they’re doing, and if they’re really what they seem. It’s a treat to read a story and wonder to yourself “Is that person alive or dead? Is that person sane or mentally disturbed? Is that person human or some sort of god or alien or spawn of Satan?”

So when you’re going into this story, be warned that there will be times when you’re perplexed. But the payoff is that Link will lead your imagination to places that it’s probably never gone before.

I thought the middle part lagged, and I particularly did not care for Survivor's Ball and Shoe and Marriage. The quality of the stories picked up again at the end, though -- I enjoyed the last two stories in the collection. Overall, the book was enjoyable, I’m glad I read it, and I intend to read more books by the author. And I'm still going to give it five stars, because I think there were enough gems in the collection for the five stars to be well-earned.


Tags : Stranger Things Happen: Stories [Kelly Link] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <div> “An alchemical mix of Borges, Raymond Chandler and <I>Buffy the Vampire Slayer.</I>”—Salon.com (Best of the Year) “A delightful collection.”—<I>Cleveland Plain Dealer</I> “My favorite fantasy writer.”—Alan Cheuse,Kelly Link,Stranger Things Happen: Stories,Small Beer Press,1931520003,Science Fiction - General,Short Stories (Single Author),Fantasy fiction, American,Fantasy fiction, American.,Science fiction, American,Short stories,Short stories.,Canada,FICTION Fantasy Collections & Anthologies,FICTION Literary,FICTION Science Fiction Collections & Anthologies,FICTION Science Fiction General,FICTION Short Stories (single author),Fiction,Fiction - General,FictionHorror - General,GENERAL,General Adult,Horror - General

Stranger Things Happen Stories Kelly Link 9781931520003 Books Reviews

"Stranger Things Happen" is a brillaint dark fantasy anthology. There's so much derivative, hack writing in dark fiction that one is surprised to encounter an author who can create vivid, macabre worlds and convincingly populate these worlds with emotionally damaged men and women.This is not good writingthis is great writing.

Kelly Link's stories are top tier-- fantastical, dark, dangerous and, at the end, sad. Ms. Link's vivid,tactile and visual writing illuminates the terror,pathos and frustrated longing inherent in being human. Ms. Link creates convincing emotionally damaged characters and plops them into dark,sensual,diabolically dangerous worlds. This is very, very powerful stuff by a fabulist at the top of her game.

Quite frankly, I'm in awe.

Thank-you, Ms. Link.
I read the review of this book on Salon.com and just had to rush out and buy this book. For a book published by an independent press, I was very impressed with the physicality of this book, how it is put together, the cool illustration on the front from "The Girl Detective." Kelly Link is really different from just about every modern writer out there. As well, each story in this collection is different from each other. Her style is really diverse, and impossible to really describe fully, but she always takes you in new directions that you wouldn't expect. Some of the stories affected me more than others, but there was not one in the collection that bored me. And for those of you who grew up on Nancy Drew like I did, the last story will really amuse you. If you are sick of all those books now that all seem as if they've been written by a computer or a room full of random monkeys (...), you should definitely check out Kelly Link.
The best thing about Kelly Link's writing style is what she doesn't tell you. Link has mastered a ephemeral style where she hints and alludes to much more sinister and interesting aspects of her characters and stories. She doesn't hand the reader anything, instead the reader must decode the story and find the characters' motivations, and the more fantastical aspects of her stories truly lend to this style. All the age old tropes and symbols are there, but Link gives more weight to these tried and true devices with well thought structure and allusion. A truly wonderful read.
I've re-read this book a few times...I'm not a literary guru, and so I can't tell you what's good about the actual way that Kelly Link composes her stories. But I *will* say that every book of hers that I've read (short stories), I find myself having to ration the chapters carefully, reading only one or two per night, so that I don't just tear through the whole book in one day. It's like savoring the pieces of chocolate in a bag, instead of scarfing all of it at one sitting.

Her writing is very visually rich, at least to me. I've found the quirky and fun environments have inspired a few sketches that could become artwork in the future.
I like writers who challenge me and whose facility with language allows me moments of admiration. I'm a fan of everything by Heidi Julavits, for example, and very much enjoyed Nicole Barker's Three Button Trick. I'm put off by self-satisfied magical realism, but Link is just plain strange, without a lot of congratulatory back-patting. There is a compelling, bewitching aspect to her stories that balances humor, sharp observation, and intelligent oddity. Weirdly good natured, these stories have me in their thrall.
The early stories in this collection are definitely among the best I've read from Link, "The Specialist's Hat" probably her very best. But Link also seems to create a quickly spiraling time effect with her Donald-Barthelme-meets-Amy-Hempel style. She has a good ear for rhythm and sentence juxtaposition, but some of stories quickly fizzle and left me checking the number of pages left--and when that number was more than ten, I just wanted to flip forward to the next story rather than bear through.
Kelly Link is among the best American writers of her cohort. Her work beautifully illustrates the oblique angle genre writers bring to the usual Big Subjects -- love, death, envy, sex, entropy. (Sorry; the last word is there for euphony.) This doesn't include my favorite of her stories, which I think is called something like "Stone Animals," but all the stories are taut, intriguing, and satisfying in their own ways. And who could resist a writer who names one of her heroines "Bunnitine"? Read her, read her, read her! (And not just this book, all of her.)
Kelly Link uses a writing strategy that I love, but isn’t for everyone. Typically, when reading a well-written story, the reader wonders what’s going to happen next. But Link takes it so much further than that. You don’t just wonder what happens next, you wonder what’s happening right now. You wonder why on earth the characters would do what they’re doing, and if they’re really what they seem. It’s a treat to read a story and wonder to yourself “Is that person alive or dead? Is that person sane or mentally disturbed? Is that person human or some sort of god or alien or spawn of Satan?”

So when you’re going into this story, be warned that there will be times when you’re perplexed. But the payoff is that Link will lead your imagination to places that it’s probably never gone before.

I thought the middle part lagged, and I particularly did not care for Survivor's Ball and Shoe and Marriage. The quality of the stories picked up again at the end, though -- I enjoyed the last two stories in the collection. Overall, the book was enjoyable, I’m glad I read it, and I intend to read more books by the author. And I'm still going to give it five stars, because I think there were enough gems in the collection for the five stars to be well-earned.