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A review by winterscape
Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories by Kelly Barnhill
3.0
It's hard to give a short story collection a single star rating, but having added up my I-liked-its and my I-really-liked-its, I think three stars sums it up best.
The first seven stories are good. There's nothing really wrong with them--in fact, they each have unique structure, interesting characters, and some magical or supernatural flavour to entice the fantasy reader. However, I found that the tying theme of all the pieces--magical women--coincided with a strong reliance on either romantic love or a male POV (i.e., many "dreadful young ladies" were being watched through the eyes of a male character), which left me less than fully impressed. I wanted to get to know these women through their own eyes, but often it was a priest, a love interest, a father. As I am not personally moved by romantic arcs, and there was a distance between me and the central character of each story, I ended up caring less than I would have liked.
I think some of this stems from the difficulty in writing short fiction, as those two issues are still somewhat present in the final two stories, but their length gives them time to establish character better and I really liked them.
First of all, The Insect and the Astronomer: A Love Story is fabulous. I love the main character--an insectoid professor who often speaks in Latin (as someone who loves both insects and studying Latin, that's a PB and J combo). (There are some mistakes in the Latin here and there [e.g., quaecumque sunt vera does not include the word for "teach," and totem should be totum], but it's nothing major). He and his world are quirky, the would-be villains are perfect. Personally, I was not emotionally fulfilled by the "A Love Story" ending, but the worldbuilding was A+. However, I do wish that, in keeping with the collection's theme, the professor (or both leads) had been female.
Secondly, The Unlicensed Magician, coming in at over 100 pages I believe, really had time to establish the characters, the dystopian world, and the emotional payoffs, all while keeping the unique structure that this author does really well. This one made me feel, finally! "Each heartbeat is an elegy" captures exactly how it feels to live when those you love do not. I wish the final scene had not been about a random love interest character and instead focused on the family bonds that were so poignant throughout, but I really enjoyed it overall.
Again, the first seven stories are good, the last two just resonated with me more. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the collection to those who might get more out of some of the more romance-focused story arcs.
The first seven stories are good. There's nothing really wrong with them--in fact, they each have unique structure, interesting characters, and some magical or supernatural flavour to entice the fantasy reader. However, I found that the tying theme of all the pieces--magical women--coincided with a strong reliance on either romantic love or a male POV (i.e., many "dreadful young ladies" were being watched through the eyes of a male character), which left me less than fully impressed. I wanted to get to know these women through their own eyes, but often it was a priest, a love interest, a father. As I am not personally moved by romantic arcs, and there was a distance between me and the central character of each story, I ended up caring less than I would have liked.
I think some of this stems from the difficulty in writing short fiction, as those two issues are still somewhat present in the final two stories, but their length gives them time to establish character better and I really liked them.
First of all, The Insect and the Astronomer: A Love Story is fabulous. I love the main character--an insectoid professor who often speaks in Latin (as someone who loves both insects and studying Latin, that's a PB and J combo). (There are some mistakes in the Latin here and there [e.g., quaecumque sunt vera does not include the word for "teach," and totem should be totum], but it's nothing major). He and his world are quirky, the would-be villains are perfect. Personally, I was not emotionally fulfilled by the "A Love Story" ending, but the worldbuilding was A+. However, I do wish that, in keeping with the collection's theme, the professor (or both leads) had been female.
Secondly, The Unlicensed Magician, coming in at over 100 pages I believe, really had time to establish the characters, the dystopian world, and the emotional payoffs, all while keeping the unique structure that this author does really well. This one made me feel, finally! "Each heartbeat is an elegy" captures exactly how it feels to live when those you love do not. I wish the final scene had not been about a random love interest character and instead focused on the family bonds that were so poignant throughout, but I really enjoyed it overall.
Again, the first seven stories are good, the last two just resonated with me more. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the collection to those who might get more out of some of the more romance-focused story arcs.