DeadWeight’s Reviews > Shadows & Tall Trees, Issue 6, Spring 2014 > Status Update

Was pretty sure this anthology was international, but it seems to be overwhelmingly British.

appropriate milestone

Was pretty sure this anthology was international, but it seems to be overwhelmingly British.

this seems the opportune point to begin listing out this anthology's respective hits and misses.

HITS
"It Flows from the Mouth" (and WHAT a HIT this story is -- read it TODAY)
"Hidden in the Alphabet"

MIDS (these, I find, just have really lopsided structure issues)
"Death's Door Cafe"
"The Golem of Leopoldstadt"
"Road Dead"

MISSES
"Onanon" (and not because of the weird incest/body horror shit, that was fine)

"Hidden in the Alphabet" had some really wonderful prose, though the ending felt a little hammy and sudden. It's a shame this collection begins with "Onanon," which contains such hilariously shitty writing as "they steeped themselves in drink and weed." Jesus f*cking Christ, did Patrick Rothfuss ghostwrite this???

*need to remind to return to intro after finishing

second story was f*cking incredible. funny, scary, weird, page-turner. like what if dave eggers wrote the shining

Finished the first story "Onanon" and felt a little underwhelmed at first. The story definitely gets "weird" in a really good way by the end, but the prose was just so... "her prose read like it burned in her blood and spattered out of her." Gratuitous, I think might be the word. It doesn't help that the protagonist is a *sigh* writer.

reading this after having read a super glowing review of the series in the LA Review of Books.