Terry Grimwood (1)

This book was not great. I usually like short story collections, but I found myself forcing myself to finish this one solely because I got it through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers and I don't think I can adequately write a review on a book I didn't finish. I think my biggest problem was that most of the stories' premises are things I've read before. These were not really done well enough to be notable or exciting. The few that were somewhat interesting didn't play with it enough, and the show more experience was just kind of "meh." After the first few stories, I went back to the synopsis to see if I had missed the warning that the collection were WWII stories. I hadn't; there was no such announcement. I was confused when the fifth story seemed to have nothing to do with WWII at all. Then the last three stories (plus the sixth) involved space in some way, and I wondered if that was the theme. I think it would have been better if the stories had been better organized, either into clear categories or completely mixed up so there were no seeming similarities. There's also a character who appears in the third story who might also be the main character of the first story. She never came up again. I think it would have been really cool to play with sort of interconnected stories and have characters from other stories in the collection (possibly) reappear, but as it was I couldn't tell if it was even purposeful or if the author had just recreated a woman with the same name and enough generic features/history that they could be the same person. In short, I was unimpressed with this book. A couple of the stories were mildly interesting, but the rest were boring, didn't take the premise far enough, or both. I don't wish I had the time spent reading this back, but I also don't ever need to read this book or anything else by this author again. show less

*I received this book in exchange for an honest review*
By the time I received the book, I had forgotten it was an anthology. It took me 80 pages to realize I would never find cohesion between chapters lol

As with many anthologies, some stories work better than others. I would find myself deep in the trenches with a character or falling in love only to have their story end. Or I would skip entire chapters because the voice didn't speak to me.

I'll admit, anthologies are not normally my show more interest. However, the author does beautifully craft many pieces and I would happily read a novel from them. show less

A free copy from LTER in exchange for an honest review. A collection of horror-adjacent short fiction from Terry Grimwood. As with many anthologies, it's a mixed bag; I thought the WWII stories the strongest. The other stories were less memorable. As the WWII stories were first and seemed thematically linked, I initially thought that would be the anthology's premise, but sadly the other stories didn't follow on. I would have liked to see more in that line. Recommended for the WWII stories.

This anthology of short stories by Terry Grimwood left me feeling underwhelmed. While the WWII tales were notably strong and engaging, the rest of the collection felt disjointed and lacked the same impact, making it hard to find a cohesive theme. Some stories had potential but didn't capitalize on their premises, resulting in a mix of forgettable and mildly interesting reads. Overall, it’s a collection that may appeal to genre enthusiasts, especially for the WWII narratives, but I found it show more largely unmemorable. show less