Category Archives: Short Stories/Essays

If It Bleeds

Posted on June 13, 2021 by Teresa

Stephen King’s newest book, If It Bleeds, is a collection of three stories and one novella. Two of the stories are dark wish-fulfillment fantasies, in the vein of “The Monkey’s Paw.” The first, “Mr Harrigan’s Phone,” is set in the early … Continue reading →

Posted in Short Stories/Essays, Speculative Fiction | 7 Comments

The Department of Historical Corrections

Posted on March 26, 2021 by Teresa

The first story in this collection by Danielle Evans begins: When Lyssa was seven, her mother took her to see the movie where the mermaid wants legs, and when it ended Lyssa shook her head and squinted at the prince and … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Short Stories/Essays | 4 Comments

Her Body and Other Parties

Posted on February 18, 2021 by Teresa

I have a much higher tolerance for weirdness and experimentation in short stories than in novels. In fact, I tend to prefer my short stories to be a little weird, whether in the story itself or in the way the … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Short Stories/Essays | 2 Comments

Stories of Your Life and Others

Posted on December 14, 2019 by Teresa

The stories in this collection by Ted Chiang all deal with our perceptions of the world and how those perceptions may be off or incomplete or … just not the only way to see the world. Sometimes that’s a source … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Short Stories/Essays, Speculative Fiction | 6 Comments

Don’t Look Now

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Teresa

The nine short stories in this collection by Daphne du Maurier are wonderfully dark, some of them downright terrifying. Two of them — “Don’t Look Now” and “The Birds”— have been made into classic horror films, and the stories are … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Short Stories/Essays | 16 Comments

The Puttermesser Papers

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Teresa

Ruth Puttermesser is a single, Jewish New Yorker in her 30s who, despite being a well-read intellectual, is stuck in a dull civil service job. In fact, her intellect got in her way, causing her to be demoted from a … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Short Stories/Essays | 4 Comments

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Posted on August 26, 2018 by Teresa

I became interested Sherlock Holmes mostly through Laurie King’s Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. Prior to reading those books, I’d read maybe a handful of Conan Doyles’s short stories and The Hound of the Baskervilles. But I’m enjoying slowly working through the originals. … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Fiction, Mysteries/Crime, Short Stories/Essays | 4 Comments

We Others

Posted on August 2, 2018 by Jenny

Steven Millhauser has been working for a long time in the strange, the disturbing, and the fantastic. I’ve read several books of his short stories and novellas, my favorite of which is The King in the Tree, with its wonderful … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Short Stories/Essays, Speculative Fiction | Leave a comment

Nothing That Meets the Eye

Posted on July 31, 2018 by Jenny

I read Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels (there are five of them, starting with The Talented Mr. Ripley, and they go by the collective name of the Ripliad) years and years ago, before I started this blog. Ever since, I’ve wanted … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Mysteries/Crime, Short Stories/Essays | 10 Comments

Pastoralia

Posted on July 30, 2018 by Jenny

This is the third book of George Saunders’s short stories I’ve read, and the fourth of his books I’ve read overall, and to be honest I think he might be one of my top five favorite authors. I don’t tend … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Short Stories/Essays, Speculative Fiction | 8 Comments