Customer Reviews

Stranger Things Happen: Stories

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Kelly Link makes everything magical. Her words have lived inside my head since the day I opened this book. I don't care if you're a half-dead tweaker or a Head of State in a facist regime or a normal person who's just looking for something that'll make a plane ride less cramped and smelly...this is your book. It's for you. Waiting right here. The stories are spectacular in their breadth and their whimsy and their wonder. And then you can come back and re-read them, and they've changed a little, because you've changed a little...and the reading process becomes so pleasant and sublime that the other books on your shelves are going to get jealous.

"Stranger Things Happen" is Kelly Link's freshman work of fiction. Within it are eleven exquisitely crafted short stories which range from weird to the truly bizarre. It is difficult to catogorise Link's writing, as it seems to straddle science fiction and fantasy, narrative and fiction, real and unreal.

"The Specialist's Hat" is really one of the spookiest stories I have ever read. It is loosely written (as are many of the stories), which - rather than impeding the text - makes it easier to adapt. Her writing seems to permeate right into one's head, letting the reader formulate each story by themselves while being gently urged on by Link. She guides, but does not dictate, the reader. As a result, one makes each story one's own: This compounds how generally creepy her writing is.

The stories are also puncutated with truly odd characters. In "Water off a Black Dog's Back," the boy's girlfriend's father is a bizarre character. He is lacking a nose, and therefore replaces it with a prosthesis according to circumstnace -- sometimes a wooden one, sometimes a steel one. Link again keeps her writing somewhat vague, but defined enough to paint a rather striking - and oddly frightening - picture of rural life under her twisted pen.

The fact that this is Link's first book shows, however. While her writing is strong (she shows remarkable talant), there are immature aspects to it, as well. Her stories can be somewhat "plotless" - they are more like literary sketches of disturbing scenarios. Although, this is also what renders her writing so captivating: She makes a story out of some strange event. She does not present a problem to be solved, a climax, a resolution. It's almost as if she leaves that to the reader, choosing instead to lay the groundwork for one's mind to grind away at -- as a reader, we torment ourselves thinking more of what Link has written than what is actually on the page.

Kudos to Link for her uncanny ability to turn the familiar into the frightening. Her writing conveys a sense of uneasiness, she manages to make the most normal circumstances into the most disturbing. She is an excellent, captivating writer.

Kelly Link writes sort of like Neil Gaiman and sort of like Karen Joy Fowler and very much like no one but herself. The stories are spooky and sad and strange and funny and fine, and the book itself is gorgeously produced. My favorites are probably "The Specialist's Hat", "The Girl Detective", and "Flying Lessons": love and joy and going down into the Underworld, up into the shadows, out into Faerie, in search of the lost. But there isn't a bad story in the lot; the worst I can say about any of them is that the early "Water Off a Black Dog's Back" doesn't quite achieve either the tenderness or the chill it needs to work, and falls flat. (I'm rather sorry I read this when it came out, in retrospect, because it put me off trying the rest of her stories for a while.) But the rest of them are indescribably strange and incredibly good.

Several of the stories are available online. Check 'em out.

I was astonished by most of the stories in this book- literal: dropped jaw, that was amazing, how can i become friends with this woman so she can tell me stories at night before I go to bed?

Kelly Link manages to weave fairy tales, the paranormal, modern relationships, aliens and other bizzarities (I know that's not a word, but it should be) into some of the freshest, coolest fiction I've read in a long time.

If you're looking for unsettling ghost stories, cousins who make themselves disappear, women that travel the underworld Orpheus style with twist on top of twist. This IS the book for you. (Even if you didn't know you were looking for those things.)

I'd hate to go into great detail. It would ruin the magic of these incredible stories.

If you like Aimee Bender, Stacey Richter, and/or Neil Gaiman during his Sandman days. Read no further, buy this book.

Though I typically struggle with short story collections (Adam Haslett's "You Are Not A Stranger Here" excluded), this grouping is a phenomenal and delightfully surprising read.

The stories in Kelly Link's collection really touch on the elements of human life (more specifically--human suffering) and a quirky twist is added to each to take the ideas to a new level. While the ideas are a tad extreme/odd (i.e. man has voluntary amputation to identify with the idea of loss) there is nothing here that should scare off more mainstream readers. Fans of Jonathan Lethem will like this collection.

Most notable stories include: Louise's Ghost,Most of My Friends are Two-Thirds Water, and Water Off a Black Dog's Back. Keep an eye on this author for a full length novel. Should Link be able to expand her story-telling to novels, you'll be looking at some seriously popular books.

Grab Stanger Things Happen. Definitely worth the cover price.

...but I'd rather they didn't to me! This very odd collection of very odd stories was presented to me by a student who knows my weakness for the weird because she "wanted to know what I thought of it". Well. I don't regret reading the book, but I fear I may have nightmares about some of the chapters for a while to come. Some of these stories are quite funny, others almost heartbreaking, all of them have a real "edge" to them that keeps you turning pages while at the same time feeling that you probably don't want to be caught with this book. Who will like this? Fans of Roald Dahl almost certainly, there is the same use of a "kicker" at the end of several stories that makes you say "OmiGosh, I can't believe an author would do THAT to his/her characters..." Who else? There is more than a hint of a sort of modern "film noir" tone, I can see these stories very easily in black & white rather than in colour. Beyond that, it is hard to say. IF you get into the book it will be easy to finish it, but there may be a threshold of weirdness here that will shut out a lot of people. DON'T read this late at night and at home alone, there is a sort of horror attached that is much more effective than that found in more popular authors.

This is the best short story collection to be published in years....

Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link is that rare book that is perfect and sad and happy and crazy and real and funny and serious and everything you would hope a book of short stories. All are perfect. The Girl Detective is better than you think it is ( and you think it's great), while stories like The Specialist's Hat become part of your psyche.

Kelly Link is one to watch, one to read, and one to pass on to friends you want to keep forever.

Threads of humor and self-awareness run through these clever tales. I'm not usually a fan of horror fiction but I found these stories engaging and challenging. There are echoes of fable and myth throughout.

The Specialist's Hat is atmospheric and spooky. Flying Lessons and Travels with the Snow Queen are clever and have a sweetness that offsets their darkness. Louise's Ghost skillfully carries off the difficult feat of having two distinct characters named Louise. The final story, The Girl Detective, is a smoky blend of several of these attributes and I can relate to her appreciation for the genre.

As with any collection, I liked some stories more than others but overall it was a very enjoyable read.

This book has stayed with me. I am now convinced that this is one of the best fiction debuts of the past five years. Buy it.

...is to try to be as imaginative and unusual as the book itself. However, it would take me a week and about fifty revisions, and I'm very sleepy. So:

Kelly Link is really good. Read this book. Buy it first.