Monday, July 11, 2022

Review: Touchstones: A Collection by Stephanie Burgis

About the Book
The glass molded to my foot as neatly—and as chillingly—as if it had been made for me.

“This,” I said, “is a most unfortunate coincidence…”


From tongue-in-cheek fairy tale reframings to forbidden Victorian-era romance and contemporary ghosts, dive into an immersive world of magic. Touchstones is a collection of sparkling short fantasy fiction from Stephanie Burgis, including two new stories as well as fourteen short stories and novelettes that have been previously published in magazines and anthologies.

This collection includes The Wrong Foot, Undead Philosophy 101, A Cup of Comfort, Dreaming Harry, Offerings, Dancing in the Dark, The Disastrous Début of Agatha Tremain, The Wildness Inside, The Art of Deception, Midnight, Clasp Hands, Crow, True Names, Good Neighbors, Love, Your Flatmate, and House of Secrets.


MY THOUGHTS

Collections like this one are always hard for me to review. Touchstones contains sixteen short stories written by Stephanie Burgis. There were some stories I enjoyed, but I hate to say it, most of them just weren't my cup of tea. They weren't necessarily bad, but they weren't my kind of thing. I think I've come to the conclusion that I much prefer this author's full-length books over her short stories, so I'll keep that in mind in the future.

I thought I'd go ahead and tell you about the stories I did enjoy. There were two Cinderella retellings, The Wrong Foot, which addressed a plot hole from the original tale that I always questioned, and Midnight, which was extremely short, but entertaining nonetheless. Undead Philosophy 101 featured a college student trying to stop her roommate from becoming a vampire's servant. Dancing in the Dark was a bittersweet, but beautiful story. And A Cup of Comfort takes the reader to a teahouse that holds a surprising secret.

I wanted to add that although this collection wasn't for me, I appreciated the fact that all the stories, even the ones I didn't care for, had some sort of big twist that I never saw coming.

I received a copy of this book and voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and comments are my honest opinion.

2.5 STARS

2 comments:

  1. That's how I always feel about short story collections: I love a few of the stories, but find the others mostly just okay. I think it's because I'm just not a short story reader, even though I keep trying to be. ;D

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    1. Yeah, that's the problem with these kinds of collections. I've found a few over the years that I've enjoyed the majority of the stories, but more often than not, it's a mixed a bag. I keep trying though. LOL! :D

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