There are several excellent stories here—and they'd be stronger if divorced from the burden of living up to the anthology's...
An anthology of speculative fiction through the lens of mental illness—stories of people whose mental quirks make them “outcasts and underdogs,” edited by Forest (Immunity to Strange Tales, 2012) and Law (Sword and Sorceress X, 1993).
The collection walks a difficult line, as the characters ostensibly all display some form of mental illness. Ostensibly—for in stories such as “The Culling,” by Kelley Armstrong, our protagonist reads as neurotypical save for the occasional mention of "hearing voices," but these voices aren't differentiated from your average internal narrative. Similarly, the lead of Rich Larson's “Carnivores” (an excellent story, otherwise) seems perfectly mentally healthy in a world of futuristic cruelty. James Alan Gardner's charming “The Dog and the Sleepwalker” also follows a man defined by superb common sense. If there is mental illness here, it lies with the twisted societies surrounding our heroes. Perhaps that's the point? Other stories present heroes whose mental illnesses really aren’t—the fanciful things they see turn out to be actually there, as in A.M. Dellamonica's rich “Tribes” and Sherry Peters' “Troubles,” which portrays a girl who's really a druid capable of seeing the fey rather than schizophrenic. These stories dodge the issue in a disingenuous fashion: certainly it's more uplifting to be a destined hero than delusional, but is this really mental illness? However, other stories do a masterful job of knitting legitimate and painful mental illnesses to characters who still retain agency and power: two standouts are Amanda Sun's “What Harm,” a poignant exploration of autism in a fairy-tale setting, and Hayden Trenholm's “Marion's War,” examining PTSD and the mental cost of war.
There are several excellent stories here—and they'd be stronger if divorced from the burden of living up to the anthology's theme.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-993-96964-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Laksa Media
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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