Status Updates From Shoebox Train Wreck

A dual dose of holy shit. "Sucky" was by turns deeply unsettling and powerfully touching, and "Thirteen Scenes From Your Twenty-Fourth Year"...okay, it moved me to tears. (There, John, ya happy?) Absolutely amazing collection. Official review to come.

"James" was melancholic and mercurial. "Litany" was a breathtaking tragedy.

Creepin' Jesus. "Chicken" suckerpunched me in the feels. Something about it was also familiar enough that got to me even more than the other stories, so far.

Whew. "The Cecilia Paradox" may well become my favorite story in the collection. A possible-postapocalyptic love story that you have to read to comprehend. Sheer beauty, and on a personal note, it perfectly captures my "agnotexactlic" outlook on the nature of faith.

"On the Mountain" was short, rough, and left me a bit wanting, but damn was it good.

Wow. "Saving Doll" was a showcase of just how ugly some people can truly be, but with a fairly positive message wrapped up inside it all.

"Slide" made me realize the appropriate one-word summary of Mantooth's works: melancholia.

Although I found the narrative to be a little uneven, "The Best Part" was a tense but unusually optimistic piece.