Reviews

McSweeney's #51 by Dave Eggers

colinbischoff's review

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3.0

Some good stories, but felt a bit long. I enjoyed Ernie Wang's "Stay Brave, My Hercules" and the last two stories, Hadley Moore's "Ordinary Circumstances" and Xavier Navarro Aquino's "Caníbal the Real Deal" were both pretty heartbreaking.

emilyinherhead's review

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4.0

Having read other literary journals before that I wasn’t super impressed with, I was pleasantly surprised by this issue of McSweeney’s. I’m a new subscriber, and while everything I read wasn’t my favorite, I feel like I found at least something to like in each of these pieces. Standouts for me were: “The Interview” (Nick Arvin), “Crazy” (Mia McKenzie), “The Summer Father” (Laura Adamczyk), “The Rite of Baptism” (Michael Andreasen), “This Everything” (Emma Hooper), and “Ordinary Circumstances” (Hadley Moore).

kawai's review

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4.0

I didn't love every story/poem/piece in this issue, but that's rarely the case; but the best pieces I loved, along with the physical construction of the issue itself.

questingnotcoasting's review

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medium-paced
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I'd never heard of McSweeney's before I found this in a charity shop. I picked it up because the cover was interesting but after looking into it further I was a lot more intrigued. While I skipped a few stories which weren't holding my attention, generally I really enjoyed it. It includes a wide range of writing styles and genres and my favourites were by Mia Mckenzie and Hadley Moore.
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