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I'll buy anything with M. Rickert's name on it. Indeed, most of these stories are from issues of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction that I bought precisely because... well, you know why. The three or so stories I hadn't read were well worth the price of admission.If I had one quibble, it's that the "holiday" theme seemed a little forced to me. I blame the book's World Fantasy Award for Best Collection this year on the theme (though I'm the first to admit that Karen Joy Fowler's What I Did...
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 n...
Assigned reading from Paolo Bacigalupi at the ArmadilloCon Writer's Workshop! Affecting stories that are both fantastic and realistic. She often employs a more distant voice giving many of these stories a fairy tale feel.
Moving in a way that reminds me of looking into a mirror under water. Plucked from the library display at random for the gorgeous cover, which made me mistakenly suppose it was for children. It is not.
Sometimes melancholy, sweetly tender, or terrifying, M. Rickert's stories cover an astonishing range of emotions.
Outstanding collection of weird holiday themed stories. Two real duds hold me back from five stars but they are at least short. Otherwise the rest are great. It’s difficult to pull off a themed collection in any case. It would be difficult to impossible to categorize the book but suffice it to say it runs the gamut from the real, to sf, to fantasy, to horror. Many of the stories will leave a lasting impression.This is my first exposure to Rickert but I think I have another somewhere if I can onl...
M. Rickert's stories do not take the path you think they will. Stories of transformations, of ghosts, of strange journeys lead you in a way that few other authors can. She is a stunning short story writer who deserves more appreciation both in and out of the fantasy genres.
I’m not really sure what to think of this book. I picked it up because I needed something to read for a readathon challenge that had the word Holiday in the title and because this is supposedly a fantasy book. I wouldn’t say any of the stories in this book are Fantasy, just people with disturbed minds and lives. The stories deal with rape, child molestation, cancer, death, war, murder, etc. None of them correlate with the supposed “holidays” they are connected to. The only story I completely enj...
Rickertian as new literary ambiance. HOLIDAY is a major collection for lovers of dark fantasy or weird fiction. [The holiday titles? I haven’t fathomed their import yet. Perhaps they are, as holidays are, restful pauses in a symphony that are often more important than the actual notes surrounding the pauses.] The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
Holiday is a themed collection of short stories and novellas by Mary Rickert aka M. Rickert, winner of the Nebula, International Horror Guild, World Fantasy and Crawford Awards. Dark fantasy, magical realism, myth and (quiet) horror -- though, I dare you to read Mary's stories and fit them into just one tidy little box. And don't expect simple, literal "holiday" stories; think, Joe Hill's exploration of "ghosts" in 20th Century Ghosts. From the Introduction:Not everyone has happy holidays; the s...
Feverish and full of beauty and death. Gets stronger midway through with a series of spectacular stories, of which the following are standouts: "Don't Ask", "Was She Wicked? Was She Good?", "You Have Never Been Here", "War is Beautiful".