Tales from Pleasant Grove

by Steven L. Peck

"At times, however, in certain eras and epochs, the great astral typhoons bend toward the earth as they reinforce and leverage our planet’s own placid airy streams into new configurations and confrontations. Beware! Or, Rejoice! For impossibilities become certainties, and chance and necessity begin their awkward and riotous dance, the outcome of which no choreographer can presage." — “Prologue”

Steven L. Peck has created a breathtaking collection of short stories, harnessing the winds of a wild creativity with gale-force unpredictability. This book is a wonder and a marvel.

The imaginative breadth and speculative depth available here brings to life dragons, fairies, witches, demons, and ghost, all set within a western landscape that in its own way proves just as amazing and other worldly as the fantastic elements at play within Peck's work.

Genres: Short Stories, Mormonism

430 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 1, 2018

Reviews

[Ashley Haug · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like any of the following:
-dragons
-Inception
-imagining an angry Stake President locked in a closet
-quantum physics
-essential oils drama
-labyrinths
-E.T.
-Westworld
...there is something for you in this collection of short stories.

Pleasant Grove is a real medium-smallish sized town in Utah County. My family happens to live on its border and I drive through often. But even if you aren't personally familiar with the old 84062, you can still appreciate these stories that mingle real life with fantasy, sci-fi, the absurd, and the profound. A bit Ray Bradbury, a bit Lake Wobegon, some irony, plenty of humor, avid descriptions, and the best Pinewood Derby ever, this book is like your best imaginative daydreams actually put to paper by a talented hand. Love, love, love.

[Haydn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate collections of short stories so I'm not sure why I purchased and then proceeded to select and grind my way through this and so this is partly my fault BUT:

2.5 | 2/3 complete

Flat. Grey. Dull.

I was reading in this sort of malaise, plodding through the pages, hoping for a bit of excitement in the next story, which never really arrived.

[Ally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these were amazing! Obsessed. Loved.

And Some of them were way too Mormon.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm constantly in awe of Mr Peck's amazing capability to weave words. His short stories about PG were my first introduction to his writing, and his screepy, delicious rewrite of the world is both dark and beautiful. You will enjoy all of it, I promise!

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed these magical tales of Pleasant Grove, a real Utah town turned into the location of modern folktales. William Morris may call it folk realism but these stories went beyond the bounds of normal realism and into the realm of weird suburban/western fantasy. The style reminded me of Magic for Beginners, but slightly less disturbing. I found myself retelling my friends these Pleasant Grove stories, because they were so bizarre and funny and I wanted to share them.

My favorite was the story where the refugee healed the rift between warring essential oil companies in her Relief Society. I laughed out loud at the story about the near-future Utah park director. I didn't love the Life of Pi one about striblings, but it still had a really interesting premise. And I still think about the story about the river dragon and the story about creepy crows. Steven Peck captures some true things about Utah and Mormon culture when describing survival of the fittest as "Darwin's Tithe" or describing the (fictional) violent terrorist organization known as the "RSTL (Relief Society Temperance League)". And the pinewood derby story at the end is just pure fun: "...if you got desperate, you could always find pinewood derby designs among the ads found in the "Pleasant Grove Soldier of Fortune Monthly" or "The Feel'n Groovy Beat" and other rags of ill repute."

[Andrew Heiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There is magic here"

This collection is further proof that Steve Peck is the modern Mormon Ray Bradbury. The stories in this collection are delightful and dark. Each contains a wonderful new magical universe. Some will make you laugh; others powerfully pull at your heart.

Read this.

[Daniel Bride · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. There are some five star stories in this collection (most notably "Sister Carvalho’s Excellent Sunday School Lesson"). But they are mixed in with some that just feel like they shouldn't have made the cut. I think that's the real shortcoming of this book—it really needed a judicious editor to make the good stories great and trim the fat of the stories that are just there. Even short of that, the book just needs more careful proofreading, which distracts unnecessarily from the stories.

The stories themselves, when they are good, are good because they make the mundanity of Mormonism wild and unpredictable. They look beyond the dour outer shell of some standard Mormon characters to imagine the reckless, unruly, shocking realities that are buried just deep enough to go unnoticed. And it's a strength of these stories that they can be profound without each needing to have a direct allegorical interpretation. Sometimes the feeling they inspire is enough.

There is a lot to like in this book, it just should have been better.

[Dan Call · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume was so fun to read. Peck's imagination goes all over the place, playing with a dizzying variety of stories. Although some simply use Pleasant Grove as the backdrop for some good storytelling (a young woman on a hike befriends a magical beast; a mysterious device is discovered to reveal a sinister faction), my favorites are the ones that play with Mormon culture and church practices (a shocking Relief Society lesson delivered by an unlikely teacher; a bishop going waaaay out of his comfort zone to help a suffering member of his fold).
The way Peck fleshes out these ultra-local stories of possible Mormonisms made me think an evolutionary tree, with branches reaching out all over the place, some dying out too fast, others carrying on and opening up new possibilities. The net effect hints at how a faith tradition that invests a great deal of effort in creating a standardized experience among its adherents can still live comfortably with peculiar, unplanned reality.

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Steve Peck's writing. He pushes boundaries, both in the concepts he explores and in his writing craft.

I simply adored some of the stories in this collection, and a couple of them have stayed with me. I want to distribute "Sister Carvalho's Excellent Sunday School Lesson" to everyone I know, despite its sort of ridiculous premise. I think my favorite is a two-page story called "The Whales of Summer," just for the sense of wonder and beauty it evokes. I enjoyed the otherworldly feel of all of the stories.

Some stories are entirely creepy, others were violent, and others I didn't quite understand. As some of the stories came together in the end, I felt like I was missing something.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun. Entertaining.

Delightful! An author who pokes fun at the oddities of the (especially Wasatch front) Mormon experience. Clever. Quirky. Human.

I found “Wanderings,” another short story anthology by Peck, yet more entertaining and worthy of 5 stars. This is 4 stars by comparison.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peck's my favorite living author.

I stayed in an Airbnb in Pleasant Grove earlier this year, not far from Big Baldy. This book would have been a fun read during that stay.

My favorite tale in this collection was "Sister Carvalho's Excellent Sunday School Lesson."

[Courtney Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a little biased because I have the honor of being the authors daughter-in-law, but I really think this is a fantastic book! It has a lot going on in a god way and is enjoyable start to finish!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some real bangers in this one.

[Aeon Renn · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/10

[Sem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not all of the stories were 5 star quality but given how much I loved the ones that were I can't bring myself to give this collection fewer than 5 stars.

[Bennett Graff · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

4.5/5
While I am LDS I didn't grow up in Utah, so I can't say that I have the same emotional appreciation for all the stories that someone who is from there (LDS or not) might. It's a solid collection with some good stories, worth the read.

[Vaughn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting collection of stories about a unique place, people, and culture, written by a very unique author