These are amzing stories. To understand them in the least you have to work at it and be prepared for a few mental jolts. Some of the stories are creepy to an extreeme and others are sweet and teach a bit about love. Actually, I think they all teach a little about love. ( )

Short story master
Lanagan astounds with tales
outlandish yet real.

Merideth says: In her third collection of short stories, Lanagan again presents a challenging set of short stories.

If you're the kind of reader who needs a lot of world building, Lanagan will probably drive you crazy, as she's not much for set up. Her stories just start, and in the space of a few pages, creates a vivid, thought-provoking, occasionally stomach-churning piece of perfection. (cross-posted from MeriJenBen) ( )

Lanagan, Margo. (2007). Red Spikes. New York: Knopf, Random House. 167 pp. ISBN 978-0-375-84320-4 (Hardback); $16.99

Like previous Lanagan short story collections, these stories are not for the reluctant reader or anything less than a patient reader who will work to puzzle out meaning in a world that, as Dorothy might say, isn’t Kansas anymore! I have affectionately labeled these the midwife stories, but they are more likely to be about flying monkeys and evil creatures than something cute and cuddly. For example, “Baby Jane” is about the birth of boogeyman or, in this story, the jibber jabbers. “Monkey Paternoster” deals with the alpha monkey male and how "Our Father" fails to protect but provides the culture for continuing on. “A Good Heart” has that marvelous line about looking babies into her. "I were looking babies into that girl's eyes, even if I weren't putting them into her below." (p.30). But what happens if you really love the stork girl? Can you be happy if the babies aren't yours and she chooses other “fathers”? “Winkie” is a story that features Wee Willie Winkie as a monster that eats babies. Yet for all the grizzly content in these twisted fairy tales, readers will find that hopeful note carefully hidden in the red slipper that bring us home, hinting at the possibility of love.

The darkness of the cover was most compelling. I was very confused and didn’t enjoy the randomness of it. AHS/BA

In her third collection of short stories, Lanagan again presents a challenging set of short stories.

If you're the kind of reader who needs a lot of world building, Lanagan will probably drive you crazy, as she's not much for set up. Her stories just start, and in the space of a few pages, creates a vivid, thought-provoking, occasionally stomach-churning piece of perfection. ( )