There are nine short stories in Kelly Link's collection, Pretty Monsters. I picked this up without realizing that I'd actually read two of them before, both offered in other YA short story collections I had loved. Unfortunately, those two stories proved to be the best of the lot. There is one other story I liked. The rest have promise but tend to fall a bit flat. Reviews of each are below. Overall, however, 3 good stories out of 9 is not a great record. It's really frustrating because Link is a

Kelly Link’s writing is gorgeous. These stories don’t all have the same tone or theme or setting or anything like that, but they do have that writing style in common, and it’s great. I’m not actually very good at liking short stories — I like developed characters and longer plots — but these are, for the most part, pretty enjoyable. ‘The Surfer’ was, if anything, a little too long for me, because most of what happens is character development.I was surprised to realise I’d read both ‘The Wizards

One night, I read the first story and thought, "This is fun and original!". I read the second story that same night and thought, "Wow, I may be in love with Kelly Link!". I went to bed, went to work the next day, and recommended this book to everyone who may be interested, antsy to get home and keep reading. My enthusiasm waned a little bit at the beginning of "Magic for Beginners". I thought, "There's a lot of quirk here for the sake of quirk, and this story is not making a lot of sense. These

3.5 stars. I have not read all of the stories in this collection, so this review is only for the following selections:The Faery Handbag: A creative, interesting story about a unique piece of luggage with a mind (and maybe an appetite) of its own. 3.0 starsWinner: Hugo Award Best NoveletteWinner: Nebula Award Best NoveletteWinner: Locus Award Best short story. The Wizards of Perfil: A very good, original story about two children sold to some very "mysterious" wizrds. Good story-telling and a very...

In a series of 9 stories, I liked 7 a whole bunch, 1 a little bit, and 1 not at all. But as the song goes, 7 1/2 outta 9 ain't bad. Even when I didn't like a story or found it ok, I was awed by Kelly Link's writing. I have read a ton of great books by great writers. Link surpasses every single one of those writers by a mile, at least. She's so compelling readable and every one of her words and thoughts are pitch perfect I just don't know how I haven't read anything by her before. In fact, I'm em...

Linked from my blog over at www.consumedbymedia.blogspot.com: Kelly Link writes strange stories. They take all the things you know about genres and twist them up until they become nearly unrecognizable, and suddenly real. Fantastic things: a dead girl’s hair with a mind of its own, a country contained within a handbag, thick, viscous magic, beautiful aliens, a secret television show called The Library—seem plausible, tangible. This is not in a far away land a long time ago. It’s magic, plain and...

Reviewed by Breanna F. for TeensReadToo.comPRETTY MONSTERS is a collection of nine short stories; all of which were quite interesting. Here is a sentence or two about each story...1. The Wrong Grave - Miles Sperry decides to dig up his dead girlfriend, Bethany Baldwin, to get back some poetry that he wrote for her after she died and wasn't smart enough to make copies of. When he opens the grave, he has discovered that it is the wrong one. Now he's got some strange dead girl following him around

She's grown up with the stories: open the handbag one way, and it's an entrance to another world; full of all the refugees from her grandmother's village, long ago. Open it the other way, and beware, because the sinister guardians will be released. She's never believed the stories. But bad things have happened, and boy has she messed up.Merged review:Previously read in Link's 'Pretty Monsters' collection, as well as in 'Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic" and in a Year's Best c...

RAD BUT CAVEATY'know how people will be like, 'I don't really listen to rap stuff, but I really liked that Nas album,' or whatever, and then you know that Nas album is probably not super representative of hip-hop? I don't really read fantasy, or sci-fi, but I fuckin love Kelly Link. I'm like, I guess these count as fantasy stories lots of the time, and that's clearly the community Ms Link is coming from, and about which she tends to talk, but still, her stories engage me in a way that genre stuf...

Kelly Link’s short stories are like other people’s dreams. Except usually when someone pins you down to tell you about a dream they just had because they’re so excited by how weird and meaningful it is, you’re like “…um, okay. Whatever.” Or maybe that’s just me. Other people’s subconsciouses? Boringly impenetrable.But Kelly Link’s stories are like dreams we’ve all had. There’s something really down deep twisty and disturbing she gets at, some common psychological taproot of cultural metaphor thi...

First of all, today's young adults must be made of sterner stuff than I am, because this collection would have scared the crap out of me at just about any age before thirty. OK, actually, some of the stories totally creeped me out even now. I've read a few of them in other collections and anthologies, but they were well worth reading again. I particularly loved "The Wizards of Perfil" (which I had read before) and "The Surfer," which I hadn't. Kelly Link, like the current big thing Karen Russell...

Two words: Meandering Narrative.Which was a disappointment, because I loved Link's kooky voice, and her wonderfully creative description/metaphor. She's obviously a talented writer!But, with every story I read, I found myself wondering when she would get to the point. And when the beauty of the short story form is that it is fast-paced and exciting, having stories that meander around the point and lollygag around becomes extremely frustrating for the reader.

Another winning collection from Kelly Link, as full of wit, charm, and sophisticated storytelling as her others. The stories skew a bit younger here, but Link's trademark surrealism and underlying darkness are still present, which means adults will enjoy the collection as much as young adults. Shaun Tan's illustrations add a nice touch. Choosing a favorite story in a Link collection is always hard, but the title story, "Pretty Monsters," really blew me away. It's a tour de force. The similarly n...

I'll be honest. I only read 6 of the 9 short stories in this book. Usually, I feel obligated to finish a book even if I'm not enjoying it so much, but because these were short stories, there was nothing tying me to it. I enjoyed at least a part of each story. I loved the voice and concept of Magic for Beginners. However, I was ultimately dissatisfied by where each story went and how each story ended. They seemed careless rather than haunting.

I'm not sure I like Link's stories as much as I admire them. I like a linear narrative, and Link is non-linear. I like a strong resolution, preferably happy (yes, I read like a 12 year old girl) while most if not all of Link's stories are open-ended. I like my fantasy grounded in reality, while Link's stories are nothing if not surreal. But though I have only read two of these previously published stories before, I was surprised at how many times I went back to see how she constructed characters...

Shannon MirandaShort Story GenreThis is a book made up of short stories and the continuing theme is either fantasy, horror or science fiction. Unfortunately, the book was disappointing. Many of the stories started out to be so interesting and creative yet, would then end abruptly. It is as if the author had writers block or ran out of steam while writing and decided to make the stores short instead of finishing them. It is a shame because a few had such potential to be more than the way they wer...

Holy shit. That was fantastic.My favorites were the one about the handbag and the one about the surfer and the aliens.But. Wow. A+ for narrative style. A+ for general goodness of writing.Highly recommended

Good shit good shit good shit 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

I read one of Kelly Link's other books, Magic for Beginners, way back in January 2009 and I only gave it three stars. (Complete with bonus debate on the term 'magic-realism' thanks to Caris.) I just couldn't get into it, and I felt bad, because I felt as though something in all of those stories was just waiting for me to grasp. So when I heard about Pretty Monsters, I decided to give Kelly Link another go.Well, it's kind of another go. I think something like 70% of the stories in here were repri...

3 stars for 3 stories that I liked. It's an anthology out of which I could enjoy only this many stories. The rest are scattered in their intention and plot. Ok read.