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Stranger Things Happen

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Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link is a collection of short stories that are described as ghost stories without ghosts. The stories are eerie and surreal, blending elements of reality with the supernatural. The book covers a variety of themes and genres, including sci-fi, fantasy, fairy tales, horror, and comedy, creating a unique reading experience that leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

Characters:

The characters in the collection are memorable yet strange, facing personal challenges that make them emotionally relatable to readers, often centering around young women in unusual situations.

Writing/Prose:

The prose is characterized by a dreamlike and surreal quality that weaves humor with horror, utilizing imaginative language and an ethereal tone, often presenting non-linear narratives.

Plot/Storyline:

The collection features a blend of fantasy with modernity, where characters face emotional challenges in surreal settings tied to fairy tales and mythology, often leading to open-ended conclusions.

Setting:

Settings range from contemporary places to fantastical realms, often evoking an eerie and surreal atmosphere where the real world intersects with elements of myth and fairy tales.

Pacing:

The pacing varies greatly among stories, some feel slower due to their complexity, while others keep the reader engaged through an unpredictable rhythm that invites reflection.
Rachel Rook took Carroll home to meet her parents two months after she first slept with him. For a generous girl, a girl who took off her clothes with abandon, she was remarkably close-mouthed about s...

Notes:

Stranger Things Happen is Kelly Link's debut collection of short stories, published in 2001.
The stories blend elements of fantasy and modern reality, often featuring real characters in surreal settings.
Each story carries themes related to fairy tales and mythology, creating an ethereal atmosphere.
The collection includes stories that have won major awards and gained notable acclaim.
Readers often describe Link's writing as dreamlike, filled with imaginative and bizarre elements that provoke thought.
The book contains eleven stories, with notable titles such as 'Travels with the Snow Queen' and 'Carnation Lily Lily Rose.'
'Travels with the Snow Queen' reimagines Hans Christian Andersen’s tale through a contemporary lens, exploring themes of relationships and self-discovery.
'Water Off a Black Dog's Back' features a mix of love and familial secrets set against a Southern Gothic backdrop.
The stories often challenge traditional narrative structures, leaving many conclusions open-ended for readers to interpret.
Readers report feeling unsettled yet emotionally connected to the characters despite the bizarre circumstances they face.
Link’s style has been compared to authors like Neil Gaiman, Angela Carter, and Ursula K. Le Guin, showcasing her unique blend of genres.
The collection received diverse reactions; while some found it evocative and imaginative, others felt that it strayed too far into the surreal without satisfying conclusions.

Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings

Content warnings for the book include themes of death, loss, emotional trauma, and some instances of surreal or bizarre situations.

Has Romance?

The book features a medium level of romance intertwined with its narratives, often exploring the complexity of relationships.

From The Publisher:

"An alchemical mix of Borges, Raymond Chandler and Buffy the Vampire Slayer."-Salon.com (Best of the Year)

"A delightful collection."-Cleveland Plain Dealer

"My favorite fantasy writer."-Alan Cheuse, All Things Considered

Link's stories defy explanation, or at least, brief summary, instead working on the plane between dream and cognitive dissonance. They are true to themselves: witty, beautiful, funny, and startling.-Rain Taxi

Link uses the nonsensical to illuminate truth, blurring the distinctions between the mundane and the fantastic to tease out the underlying meanings of modern life.-Booklist

The 11 fantasies in this first collection from rising star Link are so quirky and exuberantly imagined that one is easily distracted from their surprisingly serious underpinnings of private pain and emotional estrangement.

-Publishers Weekly

Kelly Link's collection of stories, Stranger Things Happen, really scores.

-Daniel Mendelsohn, New York Magazine

A tremendously appealing book, and lovers of short fiction should fall over themselves getting out the door to find a copy.

-Washington Post Book World

Stylistic pyrotechnics light up a bizarre but emotionally truthful landscape. Link's a writer to watch.

-Kirkus Reviews

A set of stories that are by turns dazzling, funny, scary, and sexy, but only when they're not all of these at once. Kelly Link has strangeness, charm and spin to spare. Writers better than this don't happen.

-Karen Joy Fowler

Kelly Link is probably the best short story writer currently out there, in any genre or none. She puts one word after another and makes real magic with them-funny, moving, tender, brave and dangerous. She is unique, and should be declared a national treasure, and possibly surrounded at all times by a cordon of armed marines.

-Neil Gaiman

Kelly Link is the exact best and strangest and funniest short story writer on earth that you have never heard of at the exact moment you are reading these words and making them slightly inexact. Now pay for the book.

-Jonathan Lethem

The eleven stories in Kelly Link's debut collection are funny, spooky, and smart. They all have happy endings. They were all especially written for you. A Best of the Year pick from Salon.com, Locus, The Village Voice, and San Francisco Chronicle. Includes Nebula, World Fantasy, and Tiptree award-winning stories.

Kelly Link is the author of three collections of short fiction Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, and Pretty Monsters. Her short stories have won three Nebula, a Hugo, and a World Fantasy Award. She was born in Miami, Florida, and once won a free trip around the world by answering the question "Why do you want to go through the world?" ("Because you can't go through it.")

Link lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she and her husband, Gavin J. Grant, run Small Beer Press, co-edit the fantasy half of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and play ping-pong. In 1996 they startd the occasional zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet.

Ratings (6)

Incredible (1)
Loved It (3)
It Was OK (2)

Reader Stats (9):

Read It (6)
Want To Read (3)

About the Author:

Kelly Link is the author of two collections, Magic for Beginners (chosen as a 2005 Best Book by Time Magazine, Salon.com, and Book Sense) and Stranger Things Happen. She is the editor of the anthology Trampoline. She and her husband Gavin J. Grant started Small Beer Press in 2000.

 
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