Pretty monsters : stories (edition 2008)

by Kelly Link, Shaun Tan (Illustrator)

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664	38	13,226	(4.08)	31

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▾Book information

Member:	Sistahluck
Title:	Pretty monsters : stories
Authors:	Kelly Link
Other authors:	Shaun Tan (Illustrator)
Info:	New York : Viking, 2008.
Collections:	Wishlist
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Pretty Monsters: Stories by Kelly Link

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2008 (6) 2009 (12) anthology (14) collection (18) faerie (6) fantasy (115) fiction (86) ghosts (8) horror (32) library (5) magic (15) magical realism (11) paranormal (7) read (10) read in 2009 (7) science fiction (10) sf (7) sff (9) short fiction (6) short stories (134) short story collection (8) signed (7) slipstream (6) speculative fiction (5) stories (11) supernatural (10) to-read (16) unread (9) werewolves (8) young adult (70)

▾LibraryThing recommendations

Stranger Things Happen: Stories by Kelly Link (2001)
Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link (2005)
The Poison Eaters by Holly Black (2010)
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan (2008)
Black Juice by Margo Lanagan (2004)

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell (2006)
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan (2008)
The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet by Kelly Link (2007)
Liar by Justine Larbalestier (1969)
Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente (2009)

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▾Member recommendations

30
The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet by Kelly Link (ahstrick)
10
Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor (snozzberry)
snozzberry: Both are deliciously weird!
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Pumpkin Teeth by Tom Cardamone (GirlMisanthrope)
GirlMisanthrope: Also delightfully odd and weird.
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The Wine-Dark Sea by Robert Aickman (bertilak)

▾Will you like it?

▾Member reviews

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Showing 1-5 of 38 (next | show all)

Mainly stories that have already been collected elsewhere or are available online. Still very much worth a reread, though.
The Wrong Grave
The Faery Handbag
Monster
The Wizards of Perfil
The Constable of Abal
The Specialist’s Hat
The Surfer
Magic for Beginners
Pretty Monsters
The Cinderella Game (added to the paperback edition)

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SChant | Apr 26, 2013 |

Love, love, love these stories. Link is like a more whimsical Neil Gaiman. Her stories are so beautifully written but with a dark and twisted undertone. Excellent. Highly, highly recommend. (

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akmargie | Apr 4, 2013 |

Loved every single story in this collection. Some more than others -- my absolute favorite was "Magic for Beginners" -- but the book as a whole confirmed my affection for Kelly Link. "The Constable of Abal" (also found in a short story collection called The Coyote Road) and the titular story were pretty near perfect, as well. I guess if I had to sum it up I'd say: mostly modern fairy tales with a creepy edge, meant for the YA crowd but not dumbed down.

I'm getting verrrry picky about keeping books due to decreasing storage space, but this one is definitely a keeper. (

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karinnekarinne | Apr 3, 2013 |

I would've given this book 5 stars except for the fact that I wanted to read full-length stories about each of the short stories! (

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FlanneryAC | Mar 31, 2013 |

On your way to grab your copy of Twilight in the Young Adult section, you may have passed Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters, with its haunting cover art by Shaun Tan. Link's been getting major raves and critical acclaim for years for her small-press collections of short stories, and this, her first major-publisher book, is her strongest work yet. Link is one of the most innovative and interesting writers of young adult fiction, with more good ideas in one story than most writers ever have in their whole careers. Tan's dark and beautiful illustrations are just the icing on the cake.

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paperloverevolution | Mar 30, 2013 |

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▾Published reviews

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The stories are wryly funny, spine-chilling and occasionally outright frightening (if I'd read "Monster" at night I'm fairly certain I'd have had nightmares). Perhaps most importantly for such surreal stories, the characters are real, easy to relate to.

added by camillahoel | editReadAndFindOut, Rebekah (Oct 14, 2009)

▾Other authors

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Kelly Link	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Tan, Shaun	Illustrator	main author	all editions	confirmed
Tan, Shaun	Illustrator	secondary author	all editions	confirmed

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Contains

Pretty monsters. Fel grav och andra berättelser by Kelly Link

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Awards and honors

Locus Award Finalist (Novella, 2009)

ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2009)

Locus Award Finalist (Collection, 2009)

World Fantasy Award Nominee (Collection, 2009)

Epigraph

Dedication

for Annabel Jones Link

First words

All of this happened because a boy I once knew named Miles Sperry decided to go into the resurrectionist business and dig up the grave of his girlfriend, Bethany Baldwin, who had been dead for not quite a year.

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▾LibraryThing members' description

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▾Book descriptions

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0670010901, Hardcover)

Kelly Link has lit up adult literary publishing?and Viking is honored to publish her first YA story collection. Through the lens of Link?s vivid imagination, nothing is what it seems, and everything deserves a second look. From the multiple award-winning ?The Faery Handbag,? in which a teenager?s grandmother carries an entire village (or is it a man-eating dog?) in her handbag, to the near-future of ?The Surfer,? whose narrator (a soccer-playing skeptic) waits with a planeload of refugees for the aliens to arrive, Link?s stories are funny and full of unexpected insights and skewed perspectives on the world. Her fans range from Michael Chabon to Peter Buck of R.E.M. to Holly Black of Spiderwick Chronicles fame. Now teens can have their world rocked, too!

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:13:57 -0500)

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▾Library descriptions

Weirdly wonderful and a touch macabre, the nine short stories take readers into worlds with elements of reality but also supply a fantastic twist.

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