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A review by ang44
Weird Dream Society: An Anthology of the Possible & Unsubstantiated in Support of RAICES by Kathrin Köhler, Nathan Ballingrud, Sofia Samatar, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Michael J. DeLuca, A.C. Wise, Matthew Kressel, Steve Toase, Julie C. Day, Sarah Read, Carina Bissett, Gemma Files, Gregory Norman Bossert, Nin Harris, A.T. Greenblatt, Premee Mohamed, Jordan Kurella, James Patrick Kelly, Emily Cataneo, Christopher Brown, Karen Bovenmyer, Chip Houser, Marianne Kirby
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Overall, I really enjoyed how thought-provoking this collection of stories was, and some of them were in my usual genres but others really pushed me to try to understand different genres of writing. My favorite stories were fantastical and taking interesting characters with interesting qualities and putting them in strange, other-worldly scenarios. I would reread all of my favorite stories in this book again and would love to explore work by those authors.
There are 9 stories that really fulfilled this for me and that I really loved:
Jewels of the Vashwa, Skin like Carapace, Glasswort; Ice, Meat for Skritches, The Pyramid of Amirah, Crossing, Butter-Daughters, They Said the Desert, and The Bricks of Gelecek.
I organized the rest of the stories into 3 other tiers. The following 7 titles all had very interesting concepts or characters to me, but some were difficult to understand fully the message/the meaning in general and some were vague or technical in language or had unlikeable/unrelatable characters:
The ghost who loved a mannequin, The hoof situation, You go where it takes you, Thin places, And sneer of cold command, Into the wood, and Snow as white as snow.
There are 4 stories that I really enjoyed aspects of their creative concepts, but they genuinely just confused me in some ways:
Amanda invades the museum, Flyover country, A girl who comes out of her chamber, and Landscape of lacrimation.
Finally, these last 3 titles were my least favorite, but I absolutely acknowledge that I just do not always comprehend more futuristic stories and am not always able to tell what is happening in them / it is hard for me to make meaning when it is both futuristic and abstract, and I found these 3 just too confusing to identify value:
Higher Works (could not finish or comprehend at all unfortunately), Festival, and Application for the Delegation of First Contact: Questionnaire Part B.
There are 9 stories that really fulfilled this for me and that I really loved:
Jewels of the Vashwa, Skin like Carapace, Glasswort; Ice, Meat for Skritches, The Pyramid of Amirah, Crossing, Butter-Daughters, They Said the Desert, and The Bricks of Gelecek.
I organized the rest of the stories into 3 other tiers. The following 7 titles all had very interesting concepts or characters to me, but some were difficult to understand fully the message/the meaning in general and some were vague or technical in language or had unlikeable/unrelatable characters:
The ghost who loved a mannequin, The hoof situation, You go where it takes you, Thin places, And sneer of cold command, Into the wood, and Snow as white as snow.
There are 4 stories that I really enjoyed aspects of their creative concepts, but they genuinely just confused me in some ways:
Amanda invades the museum, Flyover country, A girl who comes out of her chamber, and Landscape of lacrimation.
Finally, these last 3 titles were my least favorite, but I absolutely acknowledge that I just do not always comprehend more futuristic stories and am not always able to tell what is happening in them / it is hard for me to make meaning when it is both futuristic and abstract, and I found these 3 just too confusing to identify value:
Higher Works (could not finish or comprehend at all unfortunately), Festival, and Application for the Delegation of First Contact: Questionnaire Part B.