Stranger Things Happen: Stories (2001)

by Kelly Link

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
1,687	54	10,410	(3.99)	70
This first collection by award-winning author Kelly Link takes fairy tales and cautionary tales, dictators and extraterrestrials, amnesiacs and honeymooners, revenants and readers alike, on a voyage into new, strange, and wonderful territory. The girl detective must go to the underworld to solve the case of the tap-dancing bank robbers. A librarian falls in love with a girl whose father collects artificial noses. A dead man posts letters home to his estranged wife. Two women named Louise begin a series of consecutive love affairs with a string of cellists.… (more)

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I felt like these stories were trying to do something interesting and original, but then they didn't quite make it. (

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amandrake | Apr 17, 2024 |

I usually am pretty opposed to short stories. They tail off just as things get interesting. But Kelly Link is different. Kelly Link doesn't really write stories -- short or otherwise -- her work is something completely different. She operates outside of the usual logic of narrative. Although, to be fair, perhaps my favorite of her works is the most conventional: The Specialists Hat, which I've read in other collections, is just so undeniably spooky. The atmosphere of dread is palpable, and Link sets it up perfectly, you read it thinking that everything might just turn out fine (even though I've read it before) and she gets you just at the last moment.

Her other works in this collection are more atmospheric riddles than stories, per se, but she does them well, with rich atmospheres and a sense of a consistent mythology just beyond the reader's grasp. There's just something really nice about reading someone who's doing something no one else is. (

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settingshadow | Aug 19, 2023 |

I guess technically I should be marking this as DNF, but I didn't despise it enough for that label, so I'll just mark it as Read* . I made it to 25% (first three stories). They were fine, but not genre (or, being kind, not genre enough). Not quite reality-based, either. I think that I'll just have to classify them as "bleh..." (

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KrakenTamer | Oct 23, 2021 |

I was worried for a little while because the first story was by far the one I liked the least, but overall I think the book is a great collection. My favorites: The Specialist's Hat, Flying Lessons, Travels with the Snow Queen, Vanishing Act, Louise's Ghost. (

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misslevel | Sep 22, 2021 |

Kelly Link's collection of short stories take place at various locations around the world, most with a young woman as protagonist. The tales, for the most part, are grounded in reality but contain elements of fantasy, fairy tale, or horror as if each story is haunted by something outside of reality. Some stories are better than others but I didn't find any of them particularly satisfying, if that's even something one can ask of fiction. Still Link has a vivid imagination and as this was her first story collection it could be worth checking out her more recent fiction.

One thing I do need to do is make a note about where I find out of books I add to be reading list. While I didn't particularly enjoy this book, I am glad I read it, and I really wonder what inspired me to put on my TBR list in the first place. (

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Othemts | Aug 5, 2021 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Kelly Link	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Jackson, Shelley	Cover artist	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Jennings, Kathleen	Cover artist	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Publisher Series

Gallimard, Folio SF (398)

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire (Winner – Nouvelle étrangère – 2009)

Salon Book Award (Fiction – 2001)

SF Site Reader's Choice (2001)

World Fantasy Award (Nominee – Collection – 2002)

Distinctions

Village Voice Favorite Books (2001)

Notable Lists

The Most Important Books of the Last Twenty Years

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Original publication date

2001

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Eight Chimneys

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

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Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

For Susie Link and Jenna A. Felice

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Disambiguation notice

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▾Book descriptions

This first collection by award-winning author Kelly Link takes fairy tales and cautionary tales, dictators and extraterrestrials, amnesiacs and honeymooners, revenants and readers alike, on a voyage into new, strange, and wonderful territory. The girl detective must go to the underworld to solve the case of the tap-dancing bank robbers. A librarian falls in love with a girl whose father collects artificial noses. A dead man posts letters home to his estranged wife. Two women named Louise begin a series of consecutive love affairs with a string of cellists.

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Book description

This first collection by award-winning author Kelly Link, takes fairy tales and cautionary tales, dictators and extraterrestrials, amnesiacs and honeymooners, revenants and readers alike, on a voyage into new, strange, and wonderful territory. The girl detective must go to the underworld to solve the case of the tap-dancing bank robbers. A librarian falls in love with a girl whose father collects artificial noses. A dead man posts letters home to his estranged wife. Two women named Louise begin a series of consecutive love affairs with a string of cellists. A newly married couple become participants in an apocalyptic beauty pageant. Sexy blond aliens invade New York City. A young girl learns how to make herself disappear.
These eleven extraordinary stories are quirky, spooky, and smart. They all have happy endings. Every story contains a secret prize. Each story was written especially for you.
Stories from Stranger Things Happen have won the Nebula, Tiptree, and World Fantasy Award. Stranger Things Happen was a Salon Book of the Year, one of the Village Voice's 25 Favorite Books of 2001, and was nominated for the Firecracker Alternative Book Award.

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