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Can I just say I love Karen Russell? I fell instantly in love with Swamplandia! Her images, her words, the story arcs, the characters - they were beautiful, and haunting, and human, and other worldly. Vampires started out strong and I was instantly hooked. But by the last two stories, I felt like...
With expansion/experimentation comes some inevitable reach-exceeds-grasp moments - and there are definitely a few moments in this collection that make the stories not fail but just not quite soar to such heights as Ms. Russell's first collection achieved. But I also am so thrilled by the playground...
Overall, a good collection of short stories. My favorites were Reeling for the Empire and The New Veterans. Others were pretty good, but some of the stories were really flat, especially The Seagull Army Descends on Strong Beach, 1979 and Dougbert Shackleton’s Rules For Antarctic Tailgating.
With fantastical features like girls who have been turned into silk worms and magical war tattoos, Karen Russell's Vampires in the Lemon Grove covers a lot of ground. What comes in common with all of the short stories is a sense of being very dedicated to an idea, like a vampire's sobriety of go kee...
Amazing. This collection of short stories are powerful, whimsical, hilarious, profound, creepy and off-kilter. Personally having had read Swamplandia! I think Karen Russell's real strength is in short stories, but for this I will read any novel she rights.Seriously how can you think of this stuff? I...
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