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The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories by Brenna Yovanoff, Tessa Gratton, Maggie Stiefvater
abbievillehorror's review against another edition
5.0
Every story in this book is fascinating, magical, and satisfying. Each author has a distinguishable writer-voice that you get to know along with how they curve (or don't) the tops of their Es. What makes the stories even better are the comments by the authors that not only speak of process, but friendship. Possibly (definitely) my favorite short story collection.
pattydsf's review against another edition
3.0
”It is clear to me that, for many readers, the border between reader and writer is a thin, flexible one… Reading and writing are tightly linked pursuits. A story consumed today is a story created tomorrow.”
This book is a collection of stories by three authors. Simple, right? However, it is also a window into how these three women write. Not only are there a bunch of good stories in this volume, but there are notes before and around the text of the stories. This is hard to describe, but if you would pick up this collection you could see how lovely this all is. I found it to be so much fun to see the inner workings of three smart women’s brains. It was also interesting to see how working together on one webpage had helped all three writers improve their craft.
This is the first of two volumes of stories that came from the website: www.merryfates.com. I read them in backwards order. There is no real problem with that, but I think the stories in the second book were a bit stronger.
All in all, this was a satisfying read.
This book is a collection of stories by three authors. Simple, right? However, it is also a window into how these three women write. Not only are there a bunch of good stories in this volume, but there are notes before and around the text of the stories. This is hard to describe, but if you would pick up this collection you could see how lovely this all is. I found it to be so much fun to see the inner workings of three smart women’s brains. It was also interesting to see how working together on one webpage had helped all three writers improve their craft.
This is the first of two volumes of stories that came from the website: www.merryfates.com. I read them in backwards order. There is no real problem with that, but I think the stories in the second book were a bit stronger.
All in all, this was a satisfying read.
nssutton's review against another edition
4.0
A collection of short fiction from Merry Fates, the three authors' collaborative writing website.
I enjoyed the project's playfulness, although a taste of these three storytellers is never enough. Date With a Dragon Slayer was my favorite story.
The digital copy of this ARC was borked on my Nook Touch, though. Part of the beauty of this collection is the handwritten marginal notes, charts and asides -- which showed up as blank boxes here or there or not at all in the formatting. To compensate, I switched back and forth between Adobe Digital Editions and my e-reader, which sounds annoying but was totally worth it for the full effect.
ARC courtesy of NetGalley.
I enjoyed the project's playfulness, although a taste of these three storytellers is never enough. Date With a Dragon Slayer was my favorite story.
The digital copy of this ARC was borked on my Nook Touch, though. Part of the beauty of this collection is the handwritten marginal notes, charts and asides -- which showed up as blank boxes here or there or not at all in the formatting. To compensate, I switched back and forth between Adobe Digital Editions and my e-reader, which sounds annoying but was totally worth it for the full effect.
ARC courtesy of NetGalley.
kristi_starr35's review against another edition
3.0
More like 3.5 stars. I liked some stories better than others, of course, and appreciated the drawings. I'm going to have to start following their blog. I've read Yovanoff and Stiefvater; will need to try some of Gratton's novels. A good choice for the Tayshas reading list for Texas high schoolers.
kielirose's review against another edition
4.0
like always this book amazed me maggie,brenna,and tessa are such amazing authors and need to write many more books together
marisamoo's review against another edition
4.0
Genre: Bizarre short stories
feelings: Plentyyyyy
Happiness: A lot of lines you smile at. Just so pretty
Cuteness: Some
Fast pacing: Most of the stories are quick to read and enjoyable
Series: nope
Read if you like: Short stories, weird characters, weird plots, weird events, fire.
Content: Swearing, some lovey dovey stuff. Nothing icky.
In one sentence... Three amazing writers team together to put together a collection of their own unique stories.
100% lovely, bizarre, dark, unique, and I am inspired to write more.
feelings: Plentyyyyy
Happiness: A lot of lines you smile at. Just so pretty
Cuteness: Some
Fast pacing: Most of the stories are quick to read and enjoyable
Series: nope
Read if you like: Short stories, weird characters, weird plots, weird events, fire.
Content: Swearing, some lovey dovey stuff. Nothing icky.
In one sentence... Three amazing writers team together to put together a collection of their own unique stories.
100% lovely, bizarre, dark, unique, and I am inspired to write more.
moirwyn's review against another edition
5.0
This review originally appeared on my blog, Books Without Any Pictures: https://bookswithoutanypictures.com/2020/06/20/the-curiosities-by-maggie-stiefvater-brenna-yovanoff-tessa-gratton/
I received a review copy of The Curiosities waaaaay back in 2012, when I first was getting into book blogging and went through that phase when advanced reader copies were still a novelty and I acquired a lot of them and only to have to come to terms with the fact that I are human and there are only so many books that I can read at a time. Then covid hit, my social life drastically changed, and one of my friends invited me to a virtual get-together where we’d read excerpts of stories we enjoyed, or short fiction. I perused the collections of short stories on my shelves and pulled out The Curiosities, and discovered something delightful.
The Curiosities is a collection of short stories by three young adult authors, Maggie Stiefvater, Brenna Yovanoff, and Tessa Gratton. Each author contributed unedited short stories to the collection, and then the other authors comment on them in the margins. It’s a really cool exploration of the writing process, and gives you a chance to get into how the authors conceptualize their work. And some of the stories in the collection are all three authors responding to the same prompt (for example, Arthurian legend) but in vastly different ways. And the title The Curiosities is very fitting, as the stories on the whole tend to delve into the fantastical, and straddle the line between fantasy, fairy tale, horror, and contemporary genres. There are stories about dangerous boys and even more dangerous women, about vampires, and high school shenanigans. The stories are dark and whimsical, and I couldn’t get enough.
I never quite know how to review short story collections, even after years of blogging. I’ve shifted from reviewing each individual story to talking about a collection overall. This time I’ll just mention a couple of my favorite stories.
The first story in the collection, The Vampire Box, was the one that sucked me in (vampire pun intended). A girl’s father keeps a vampire imprisoned in their basement. It’s supposed to be lucky, and nobody seems to question it. The girl befriends the vampire, but now she’s finishing high school and is going to be making her own way in the world, so she has to decide whether or not to leave the vampire behind. It’s a story exploring risk and reward, and taking leaps into the unknown.
I also greatly enjoyed the story Puddles. It starts out as a whimsical story about a girl who stares at puddles and a boy who teases her by jumping in them, but as the two characters move from childhood to their teenage years, a normal childhood experience turns somewhat more sinister. It’s the kind of story that sends shivers down your spine, in a good way. This was the story that I ended up reading aloud to the group.
I wish that I had the time and capacity to have read The Curiosities years ago, but I’m glad that I picked it up again when I did. It was the right book for the right moment, and I hope that if you decide to read it, that you enjoy it as much as I did.
I received a review copy of The Curiosities waaaaay back in 2012, when I first was getting into book blogging and went through that phase when advanced reader copies were still a novelty and I acquired a lot of them and only to have to come to terms with the fact that I are human and there are only so many books that I can read at a time. Then covid hit, my social life drastically changed, and one of my friends invited me to a virtual get-together where we’d read excerpts of stories we enjoyed, or short fiction. I perused the collections of short stories on my shelves and pulled out The Curiosities, and discovered something delightful.
The Curiosities is a collection of short stories by three young adult authors, Maggie Stiefvater, Brenna Yovanoff, and Tessa Gratton. Each author contributed unedited short stories to the collection, and then the other authors comment on them in the margins. It’s a really cool exploration of the writing process, and gives you a chance to get into how the authors conceptualize their work. And some of the stories in the collection are all three authors responding to the same prompt (for example, Arthurian legend) but in vastly different ways. And the title The Curiosities is very fitting, as the stories on the whole tend to delve into the fantastical, and straddle the line between fantasy, fairy tale, horror, and contemporary genres. There are stories about dangerous boys and even more dangerous women, about vampires, and high school shenanigans. The stories are dark and whimsical, and I couldn’t get enough.
I never quite know how to review short story collections, even after years of blogging. I’ve shifted from reviewing each individual story to talking about a collection overall. This time I’ll just mention a couple of my favorite stories.
The first story in the collection, The Vampire Box, was the one that sucked me in (vampire pun intended). A girl’s father keeps a vampire imprisoned in their basement. It’s supposed to be lucky, and nobody seems to question it. The girl befriends the vampire, but now she’s finishing high school and is going to be making her own way in the world, so she has to decide whether or not to leave the vampire behind. It’s a story exploring risk and reward, and taking leaps into the unknown.
I also greatly enjoyed the story Puddles. It starts out as a whimsical story about a girl who stares at puddles and a boy who teases her by jumping in them, but as the two characters move from childhood to their teenage years, a normal childhood experience turns somewhat more sinister. It’s the kind of story that sends shivers down your spine, in a good way. This was the story that I ended up reading aloud to the group.
I wish that I had the time and capacity to have read The Curiosities years ago, but I’m glad that I picked it up again when I did. It was the right book for the right moment, and I hope that if you decide to read it, that you enjoy it as much as I did.
rat_girl_'s review against another edition
adventurous
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
kasspierce's review against another edition
5.0
The best thing about the Merry Fates Anthologies: their stories are just so full of creative spark and magic that they make me want to write stories of my own. They inspire as well as entertain.