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A review by coffeeandink
Holiday by M. Rickert
I admire these stories more than I like them; I can't escape the feeling that I don't admire them as much as I should. I am put off by the reliance on the unreliable narrator, especially when the unreliability is Is this real?/Is this person delusional? -- when it pivots on more ordinary reliabilities, such as the child protagonist of "The Christmas Witch," I like it much better.
There's something about the way Rickert handles (persistent) themes of molestation/rape/murder that bugs me, but I'm not sure what. So many abuser POVs? That the only child POV we get is people blaming an innocent man? (I am fairly sure. I suppose with Rickert everything is in doubt.)
She's been compared to [a:Shirley Jackson|13388|Shirley Jackson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1196262589p2/13388.jpg], which is fair. Jackson is less sentimental, I think, which makes her paradoxically easier to take.
The framing device is considerably less annoying -- and detracts less (not at all) from the stories -- than the one she used for [b:Map of Dreams|216263|Map of Dreams|M. Rickert|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172782714s/216263.jpg|209373].
There's something about the way Rickert handles (persistent) themes of molestation/rape/murder that bugs me, but I'm not sure what. So many abuser POVs? That the only child POV we get is people blaming an innocent man? (I am fairly sure. I suppose with Rickert everything is in doubt.)
She's been compared to [a:Shirley Jackson|13388|Shirley Jackson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1196262589p2/13388.jpg], which is fair. Jackson is less sentimental, I think, which makes her paradoxically easier to take.
The framing device is considerably less annoying -- and detracts less (not at all) from the stories -- than the one she used for [b:Map of Dreams|216263|Map of Dreams|M. Rickert|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172782714s/216263.jpg|209373].