"There's no point in spending your life in the pursuit of something that's easy." - Alice Kuipers

Monday, September 23, 2013

Monday Book Review - Pretty Monsters

Welcome to Monday and this week's book recommendation!

PRETTY MONSTERS by Kelly Link

In keeping with our fall spooktacular theme, I bring you PRETTY MONSTERS by Kelly Link. A collection of short stories that are sometimes creepy, sometimes funny, sometimes just plain imaginative and often all three. I'm not usually a short story kind of person, I often find them rather boring (sorry short story writers out there. I'm sure yours are awesome!) but these were fabulous. I was swept away with each story, always surprised and delighted.

The writing is fantastic. Kelly Link is an imaginative writer, who paints vivid stories out of pure fancy. As I said before, short stories often fail to grab my attention but these gripped me immediately. I was struck by how well they were told, the originality of the plots and the beautiful illustrations at the start of each story. They're beautiful. I adored them. I want to put them in frames and hang them around the house. 

Definitely pick this up. If you love short stories and even if you don't, try it anyway. Maybe this will do for you what it did for me. Which is restore my faith in the short story. They're the invention of a fantastically original imagination and fit perfectly with my theme for fall, where monsters and creepiness abound. To give you a little taste, here's a quote from the first page, under the illustration for the first story.

"Anyone might accidentally dig up the wrong grave."

Tell me you don't want to find out what happens next. Read it! 

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