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seraphljfh's review
5.0
Bias rating as I am a contributor but can definitely say the other 205 short stories are all excellent reads.
davemusson85's review
4.0
The debut offering from Bag of Bones Press is quite the feast of flash fiction - 206 stories, from 206 different authors, where each one is 206 words long. Why the obsession with 206? Bones, that’s why. This is Bag of Bones Press after all, and there are 206 bones in most human bodies, and so…206.
Credit has to be given for just how representative the lineup for this one; it features authors from quite literally all over the world, and a real range of experiences - from authors with multiple publishing credits to their name already all the way down to those making their debuts here. There is so much to get your teeth stuck into here, and it’s impressive to see just how much can be done with only 206 words. After all, that really isn’t very long at all - heck, some of the author bios in here were probably pushing 200 words themselves! But, using just 206 words there are stories here that are literary, funny, haunting, violent, creepy…even one for kids (sort of)! There were also a couple that made me so unsettled I would genuinely be scared to meet the authors in real life because their stories just made me go…NOPE.
Unsurprisingly from a collection with 206 stories in it, not everything here was a hit for me, but I’d say comfortably more than half I liked plenty. My true standouts were the tales by: Guan Un, Charlie Brigden, R D Doan, Alison Long, M Roanoke, Riley Odell, Andy Spearman, Kathryn Tennison, Jack Harding, Corey Farrenkopf, Cyndi Gradel, Kim King, Julia LaFond, and Rosie Cullen.
My only advice with this collection would be to snack on it lightly - a little nibble here and there so you can really savour a couple of stories at a time. I tackled more like a regular book and powered through it and a couple of days and, with hindsight, it’s an approach I regret taking. Every word has likely been agonised over in this works, and they deserved to be read with the same attention to detail. I’ll definitely pick it up again for a reread and will be taking my damned time when I do.
Overall, this is great - congratulations to Bag of Bones for such a strong first collection…here’s to many more!
Credit has to be given for just how representative the lineup for this one; it features authors from quite literally all over the world, and a real range of experiences - from authors with multiple publishing credits to their name already all the way down to those making their debuts here. There is so much to get your teeth stuck into here, and it’s impressive to see just how much can be done with only 206 words. After all, that really isn’t very long at all - heck, some of the author bios in here were probably pushing 200 words themselves! But, using just 206 words there are stories here that are literary, funny, haunting, violent, creepy…even one for kids (sort of)! There were also a couple that made me so unsettled I would genuinely be scared to meet the authors in real life because their stories just made me go…NOPE.
Unsurprisingly from a collection with 206 stories in it, not everything here was a hit for me, but I’d say comfortably more than half I liked plenty. My true standouts were the tales by: Guan Un, Charlie Brigden, R D Doan, Alison Long, M Roanoke, Riley Odell, Andy Spearman, Kathryn Tennison, Jack Harding, Corey Farrenkopf, Cyndi Gradel, Kim King, Julia LaFond, and Rosie Cullen.
My only advice with this collection would be to snack on it lightly - a little nibble here and there so you can really savour a couple of stories at a time. I tackled more like a regular book and powered through it and a couple of days and, with hindsight, it’s an approach I regret taking. Every word has likely been agonised over in this works, and they deserved to be read with the same attention to detail. I’ll definitely pick it up again for a reread and will be taking my damned time when I do.
Overall, this is great - congratulations to Bag of Bones for such a strong first collection…here’s to many more!
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