Fragile Things

short stories - OK, not great ( )

I'm usually not a fan of short stories, but I read this collection while working out and the shorter format allowed many convenient stopping points. As with many short story collections, some were definitely better than others. "A Study in Emerald" is simply fantastic - the worlds of Arthur Conan Doyle and HP Lovecraft combined! I also really liked "October in the Chair". I'm not sure why, but I've always liked personification of calendars. Growing up, my favorite story from my Hans Christian Andersen treasury was The Days of the Week. The end of "Closing Time" gave me shivers. This book took my awhile to read because it was my gym book and I'm lazy, but I ended up reading "Harlequin Valentine" on February 12th - I absolutely loved it! It's so gory and great :)

On the other side - oh what a mess "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire" was. I didn't get it. "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" is overrated I think. Maybe because it's the one I've seen referred to most that it seemed a little ho hum to me.

The others were somewhere in the middle: Sunbird was better than mediocre and the American Gods novella "Monarch of the Glen" was good, but I didn't like the ending.

PS I skipped all the poems. I really don't like poetry.

All in all, it was good. But there are definitely skippable parts. ( )

Neil Gaiman is wonderful at short stories. I do prefer Smoke & Mirrors to this one, though -- these didn't stick in my head like those first ones do. ( )

I couldn't get into this book. I am not a huge fan of short stories but I like some of Neil Gaiman's other books (Neverwhere, Stardust) so I thought that I would give this one a try. I set it down for now but will try to pick it up again later.

Busy week training overtime=forgettable review. Sorry, guys.

These stories/poetry were pretty dark. But then it's been a while since I read any Gaiman, so maybe I've just forgotten how dark he can be. I would really put this on a dark fantasy/horror lite shelf, but that's fine by me.

As in all short story collections, some of these were winners and some were okay. Some that stood out were

"A Study in Emerald"--A fun take on the classic Sherlock Holmes format.

"October in the Chair"--Memorable more for the framework than the actual story, although that was pretty good too.

"Bitter Grounds"--Pretty creepy

"Other People"--I'm surprised I didn't have nightmares after reading this one. But that really has more to do with my own buttons than the story.

"The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch"--Just might be my favorite. He stops in just the perfect place and tells just enough. Loved it.

"The Problem of Susan"--Should have come with a warning a la Stephen King and [b:The Dark Tower|5091|The Dark Tower (Dark Tower 7)|Stephen King|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165517582s/5091.jpg|6309701]. He has a point, but I will never look at Aslan the same way again.

"Feeders and Eaters"--I hate to pick on The King again, but I really think this one would have done him proud. Super creepy.

"Goliath"--Absolutely perfect for what it was written for

"The Monarch of the Glen"--I can't honestly say that I remember all that much about [b:American Gods|4407|American Gods|Neil Gaiman|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41loovywBdL._SL75_.jpg|1970226], except that I liked it. Still, it was fun to check in on Shadow.

One last thing. There are a few poems scattered throughout the book. I did not care for the earlier ones, but as I continued reading, they improved, and I genuinely enjoyed "The Day the Saucers Came" and a few others.

Highly recommended for Gaiman fans. ( )