12.

by Lyublyana Atanasova

I believe one should never read about a book before they read the book itself. But, in the interest of managing expectations for what may hide inside, I will say that this particular book contains 12 stories set around Christmas – some might even be called Christmas stories – ranging from the joyful to the tragic and occasionally taking a turn for the frankly weird and absurd. None of them are more than flights of fancy except for that hanged angel – that one is very much real. And, before you potentially move into the bowels of it all, let us all agree that guardian angels exist but it is not our business to know or find them. They prefer it this way.

Genres: Short Stories

162 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 22, 2018

About the author

Lyublyana is an English Literature graduate with too many ideas in her head and too few hours in a day.

Reviews

[Katerina Stankovska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beware! Should you choose to open the covers of this book, be advised - there is a chance you will be possessed by the Christmas spirit and the smile won't leave your face! This collection reveals the stories of characters who are infinitely good, loving and sharing, reminding the reader that the only true and real happiness is other people and that Christmas is about being kind and doing good. Each story deals with a small human miracle like overcoming your pride to ask for help or falling in love or putting your whole being into the making of an angel figurine. To me, these stories were reminiscent of the optimism coming from O.Henry's stories for example - the sheer joy and hope that overcomes you when you read a story with a happy ending. However, not only the author's imagination should be praised but also her writing style and her rich idiom. Beautiful examples of good style are The Legend of Decaris, Symmetry, In December (we move on), the latter being my personal favourite.
To sum up, I would say that all the stories are exquisitely delicate like the angel wings on the cover and I would recommend it to absolutely everyone who needs a tiny ball of reassurance that people are capable of doing good and that miracles are very much real.