Welcome to Litsy!

It is very rare that I find myself loving every short story in a collection but this collection spoke to my soul while reading it. 💚

The writing is superb and each story felt like a magical journey, whether into a fairytale setting or in a library with a character soul searching for answers, I loved them all.

I wish this had made the shortlist for #ToB23, but I'm thankful it was on the longlist or I might have missed out on it.

I felt like I was in a relationship with this book of 8 short stories. The last story is about a goodbye and ending of sorts while realizing there is still beauty in the world and I‘m crying because I felt like the book in the gentlest of ways also broke up with me. All of these stories had a female protagonist. Most if not all were lesbian. All were fantastic. Harlan really loves a fairytale mashup. Just so effing good. There is one about 👇🏼

This is how I feel just having read this short 28 page story. Esther and Cora are on their first vacation together as a couple and Cora is cool enough to let Esther spend 2 days at the Library of Congress looking through boxes of correspondence and works of her favorite gothic writer, Anais Casey. Harlan builds this universe by providing passages from some of Casey‘s books, letters to and from friends and family, end even passages from 👇🏼

I like short stories to surprise me, to be bizarre, unsettling glimpses into human nature. This collection delivered on that. As usual, I liked some stories in the collection better than others, but overall it was very good. My favorites are definitely Take Only What Belongs to You and Fiddler, Fool Pair. Didn‘t make the shortlist, along with many others I‘ve enjoyed. 🤷🏻‍♀️#ToB2023