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Rutting Season: Stories
An intimate, sparkling collection of stories by a debut writer about girls behaving badly and families on the brink of collapse.
In these lucid, sharply observant stories, Mandeliene Smith traces the lives of men and women in moments of a woman whose husband has just died, a social worker struggling to escape his own past, a girl caught in a standoff between her mother’s boyfriend and the police. A lively and insightful collection, Rutting Season is dark, humorous, and moving, filled with complex characters who immediately demand our interest and attention.
In “What it Takes,” a teenage girl navigates race and class as the school’s pot dealer. “The Someday Cat” follows a small girl terrified of being given away by her neglectful mother. “Three Views of a Pond” is a meditation on the healing time brings for a college student considering suicide. And in “Animals,” a child wrestles with the contradictions inherent in her family’s relationship with the farm animals they both care for and kill.
In barnyards, office buildings, and dilapidated houses, Smith’s characters fight for happiness and survival, and the choices they make reveal the power of instinct to save or destroy. Whether she’s writing about wives struggling with love, teenage girls resisting authority, or men and women reeling from loss, Smith illuminates her characters with pointed, gorgeous language and searing insight. Rutting Season is an unforgettable, unmissable collection from an exciting new voice in fiction.
In these lucid, sharply observant stories, Mandeliene Smith traces the lives of men and women in moments of a woman whose husband has just died, a social worker struggling to escape his own past, a girl caught in a standoff between her mother’s boyfriend and the police. A lively and insightful collection, Rutting Season is dark, humorous, and moving, filled with complex characters who immediately demand our interest and attention.
In “What it Takes,” a teenage girl navigates race and class as the school’s pot dealer. “The Someday Cat” follows a small girl terrified of being given away by her neglectful mother. “Three Views of a Pond” is a meditation on the healing time brings for a college student considering suicide. And in “Animals,” a child wrestles with the contradictions inherent in her family’s relationship with the farm animals they both care for and kill.
In barnyards, office buildings, and dilapidated houses, Smith’s characters fight for happiness and survival, and the choices they make reveal the power of instinct to save or destroy. Whether she’s writing about wives struggling with love, teenage girls resisting authority, or men and women reeling from loss, Smith illuminates her characters with pointed, gorgeous language and searing insight. Rutting Season is an unforgettable, unmissable collection from an exciting new voice in fiction.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
240 pages, Hardcover
First published February 12, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
February 26, 2019
Thank you to Scribner via Netgalley for my advanced digital copy of this book!
Rutting Season is a collection of nine short stories dealing with people in times of crises. In one a teenage girl finds herself in a standoff between the police and her mom's boyfriend, in another a little girl is trying to keep her mother from selling her off in a money making scheme. My favorite was the first story, "Mercy", about a woman whose husband has recently died. It then seems as though death is following her everywhere because she cannot seem to keep her animals alive either. I did have to skip the final short story, "Animals" because it was about a family's relationship with the animals they slaughter. My stomach simply could not handle it.
Smith is unapologetic and fierce in her prose. She writes with honesty, and many times brutality as well. At moments I could not believe she went where she did, but I think she did it with a tremendous amount of tact. That being said, I am sure she will be getting a lot of heat for the story "What it Takes" about a white girl in a mostly black school who must deal with being bullied because of the color of her skin. It was a difficult story to read and I was never sure that the message was supposed to be.
I love Smith's writing style and I will certainly be looking for more from her. She is a bold voice and does not hold back in her writing.
Rutting Season is a collection of nine short stories dealing with people in times of crises. In one a teenage girl finds herself in a standoff between the police and her mom's boyfriend, in another a little girl is trying to keep her mother from selling her off in a money making scheme. My favorite was the first story, "Mercy", about a woman whose husband has recently died. It then seems as though death is following her everywhere because she cannot seem to keep her animals alive either. I did have to skip the final short story, "Animals" because it was about a family's relationship with the animals they slaughter. My stomach simply could not handle it.
Smith is unapologetic and fierce in her prose. She writes with honesty, and many times brutality as well. At moments I could not believe she went where she did, but I think she did it with a tremendous amount of tact. That being said, I am sure she will be getting a lot of heat for the story "What it Takes" about a white girl in a mostly black school who must deal with being bullied because of the color of her skin. It was a difficult story to read and I was never sure that the message was supposed to be.
I love Smith's writing style and I will certainly be looking for more from her. She is a bold voice and does not hold back in her writing.
February 12, 2019
The blurb mentions "in the vein of Marilynne Robinson."
This is not like Marilynne Robinson.
It's not even in the same universe as Marilynne Robinson.
DNF
The stories are all surface and no depth. In cases where I've encountered this before, like Vampires in the Lemon Grove, there was beautiful prose to keep me entertained. Rutting Season is missing the beautiful and poetic writing. I immediately forgot what the first story was about before starting the second story. Characters are stereotypes more-so than actual, complex people; especially in the title story "Rutting Season". There's nothing here to keep me reading.
I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Stories: 1 stars
Writing/Prose: 2 stars
Overall Theme: ? stars
This is not like Marilynne Robinson.
It's not even in the same universe as Marilynne Robinson.
DNF
The stories are all surface and no depth. In cases where I've encountered this before, like Vampires in the Lemon Grove, there was beautiful prose to keep me entertained. Rutting Season is missing the beautiful and poetic writing. I immediately forgot what the first story was about before starting the second story. Characters are stereotypes more-so than actual, complex people; especially in the title story "Rutting Season". There's nothing here to keep me reading.
I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Stories: 1 stars
Writing/Prose: 2 stars
Overall Theme: ? stars
November 29, 2020
I'm probably not a person to read short stories and I should stop trying to do so. However I thought the premise sounded like something I would enjoy and while it was written well I just didn't gel with the stories
February 24, 2019
Reading the description, I was so excited to read this book. The stories seemed like they would be interesting, poignant takes on life. What I expected was not what I got.
The reviews on here aren’t that great, but I’m disappointed with what’s being left out of them, namely Smith’s handling of race, class, gender, and otherness in her stories, all of which appear numerous times. Each one of Smith’s marginalized characters appears as a classic stereotype, and only fill the role expected of them in our society. Each example of a Black man in her stories is demeaning, insulting, and offensive. One of them is literally called an animal by another character.
Women, who make up the majority of Smith’s main characters are treated no better. “She looked like the kind of girl a man would hit” (162) is a literal description of one of her women.
There’s a difference between “not shying away from discussions of race” (and other controversial topics), as I believe her stories have been described, and just handling the matters poorly, and it’s a bit surprising that even for folks who are critical of this collection, that’s not really a factor as to why.
If that’s not enough, the stories are one dimensional, and often end before they’ve hit the meat of it all.
Don’t pick it up. I kept reading because I wanted to fully formulate what my issues with it were, but truly I regret buying this book. Just don’t do it.
The reviews on here aren’t that great, but I’m disappointed with what’s being left out of them, namely Smith’s handling of race, class, gender, and otherness in her stories, all of which appear numerous times. Each one of Smith’s marginalized characters appears as a classic stereotype, and only fill the role expected of them in our society. Each example of a Black man in her stories is demeaning, insulting, and offensive. One of them is literally called an animal by another character.
Women, who make up the majority of Smith’s main characters are treated no better. “She looked like the kind of girl a man would hit” (162) is a literal description of one of her women.
There’s a difference between “not shying away from discussions of race” (and other controversial topics), as I believe her stories have been described, and just handling the matters poorly, and it’s a bit surprising that even for folks who are critical of this collection, that’s not really a factor as to why.
If that’s not enough, the stories are one dimensional, and often end before they’ve hit the meat of it all.
Don’t pick it up. I kept reading because I wanted to fully formulate what my issues with it were, but truly I regret buying this book. Just don’t do it.
July 27, 2021
I loved this book. Each story was wonderful in its own way and the writing holds nothing back. I hope for more books from this author in the future.
January 20, 2019
Rutting Season is a collection of short stories. I received the book through Goodreads Giveaways. It is about a variety of heavy topics from dealing with the loss of a spouse to the difficulties of working in Child Protective Services.
The topics covered in the stories were, for the most part, interesting. I think there was some real potential in the stories. I would have liked to have read full novels from some of these stories. However, I was rather disappointed in the characters. I didn't find them relatable at all in the way that they reacted to the situations they were in. Additionally, each story seemed to have the same main character. They were different ages and genders, but they had the same thoughts and the same reactions to things. This may have been the author putting herself into these situations and writing about how she would react. That in and of itself is not a problem for any one story, but when you put nine of them back to back in one book it makes for a monotonousness read.
I would recommend, if you read this book, don't read all the stories, at least not consecutively. Break them up, and read something else in between, maybe something lighter. Also, maybe skip the last story (Animals) altogether. It was by far my least favorite and the least realistic.
The topics covered in the stories were, for the most part, interesting. I think there was some real potential in the stories. I would have liked to have read full novels from some of these stories. However, I was rather disappointed in the characters. I didn't find them relatable at all in the way that they reacted to the situations they were in. Additionally, each story seemed to have the same main character. They were different ages and genders, but they had the same thoughts and the same reactions to things. This may have been the author putting herself into these situations and writing about how she would react. That in and of itself is not a problem for any one story, but when you put nine of them back to back in one book it makes for a monotonousness read.
I would recommend, if you read this book, don't read all the stories, at least not consecutively. Break them up, and read something else in between, maybe something lighter. Also, maybe skip the last story (Animals) altogether. It was by far my least favorite and the least realistic.
February 20, 2019
An unpleasant book about unpleasant characters with some questionable race stuff and multiple instances of cruelty to animals and murder of animals.
January 25, 2019
I was the lucky recipient of an advanced uncorrected proof of this title, thanks be to chance.
Regrettably, most of the stories in this collection did not appeal to me as they were all about people dealing with one of the lowest points in their lives up to the point we meet them in. It was too much "down" for me to handle.
That being said, I found the first story, 'Mercy', *very* moving. Centered around a woman whose husband has recently unexpectedly passed away, the manifestations of her sorrow accurately echoed the same I'd seen in a friend's mourning for the death of her marriage a couple of years ago.
The second story, from which the book's title is taken, is a sad-yet-hopeful tale of the constantly shifting moments of self-awareness and perception of oneself through others' eyes (accurately or not). Interesting but, because of the previously mentioned "lowest point of their life" aspect for one of the characters, hard to read.
The third story, 'What It Takes', contained my favorite line of the whole thing. A character speaking with a rare flash of teen girl confidence thinks "But I was cool, too, cooler than him in some ways, if you factored in that I was a girl.". I loved that!
I found the fifth story, 'Friday Night', to be touching as well--a brief moment relating a soon-to-be-widow's denial of her situation cast aside to reconnect with her husband.
The sixth and seventh stories ('The Someday Cat' and 'You The Animal') are actually the same story told from different people's viewpoints. I had the strange experience of wondering what time period the story was set in when reading the first part...it very much had an early 20th century/Flannery O'Connor feel to it, imo....until I read the second story and, because of the life experience of the person telling the tale, the setting became clear.
I'd be interested in reading more from this author, if they wrote something more upbeat but I can't say I'd recommend this particular collection to anyone.
Regrettably, most of the stories in this collection did not appeal to me as they were all about people dealing with one of the lowest points in their lives up to the point we meet them in. It was too much "down" for me to handle.
That being said, I found the first story, 'Mercy', *very* moving. Centered around a woman whose husband has recently unexpectedly passed away, the manifestations of her sorrow accurately echoed the same I'd seen in a friend's mourning for the death of her marriage a couple of years ago.
The second story, from which the book's title is taken, is a sad-yet-hopeful tale of the constantly shifting moments of self-awareness and perception of oneself through others' eyes (accurately or not). Interesting but, because of the previously mentioned "lowest point of their life" aspect for one of the characters, hard to read.
The third story, 'What It Takes', contained my favorite line of the whole thing. A character speaking with a rare flash of teen girl confidence thinks "But I was cool, too, cooler than him in some ways, if you factored in that I was a girl.". I loved that!
I found the fifth story, 'Friday Night', to be touching as well--a brief moment relating a soon-to-be-widow's denial of her situation cast aside to reconnect with her husband.
The sixth and seventh stories ('The Someday Cat' and 'You The Animal') are actually the same story told from different people's viewpoints. I had the strange experience of wondering what time period the story was set in when reading the first part...it very much had an early 20th century/Flannery O'Connor feel to it, imo....until I read the second story and, because of the life experience of the person telling the tale, the setting became clear.
I'd be interested in reading more from this author, if they wrote something more upbeat but I can't say I'd recommend this particular collection to anyone.
January 14, 2023
🌟 4/5
“Every word, every gesture of affection seemed like a betrayal. She was acting what she used to feel.”
“Terrible truths came to her then, truths which, because they came calmly, were irrefutable.”
“For suddenly she saw: He was being taken, bit by bit; he was being taken and he would not come back.”
Rutting Season is a collection of short stories that shows the desperation of each character and their will to survive when placed on the brink of their breaking point in life. So much anger, trauma, tragic, rage, sadness, and heartbreak occurred during their pivotal moments for each story written in the lines of the pages. The writing is simple, but the story is filled with layers and depth. It thrusts you into a whirlwind of unpredictability, pushes you deeply with empathy for the characters as they struggle, then makes you halt your thoughts to make you think and understand the actions and decisions in the ending of each short story. What I truly admire about the writing is the use of metaphors and similes.
I really enjoyed each story; my favourites would be Rutting Season, Seige, Friday Night, and Three Views of a Pond. Rutting Season had me panic-stricken throughout the pages. It’s split into three pov; Lisa, Ray, and Carl, and how each of their actions affects their next actions, which will or will not end in a terrible office tragedy. But the ending slapped a big "LMAO" in my face. Seige was a full on rage for Amber when being tipped on the scale of injustice or disappointments. I keep wondering about what truly happens after the ending. Whether she lived or not, I’ll never know. Friday Night was heartbreakingly sweet, as it made me slightly tear up. It must be hard to continue living while watching someone you love slowly fade from life in the hospital. And Three Views of a Pond shows an interesting way of healing for a melancholic college student.
The writing told these characters' stories, and their stories have very much touched my heart in a funny, tragic, angry, and heartbreaking way.
“Every word, every gesture of affection seemed like a betrayal. She was acting what she used to feel.”
“Terrible truths came to her then, truths which, because they came calmly, were irrefutable.”
“For suddenly she saw: He was being taken, bit by bit; he was being taken and he would not come back.”
Rutting Season is a collection of short stories that shows the desperation of each character and their will to survive when placed on the brink of their breaking point in life. So much anger, trauma, tragic, rage, sadness, and heartbreak occurred during their pivotal moments for each story written in the lines of the pages. The writing is simple, but the story is filled with layers and depth. It thrusts you into a whirlwind of unpredictability, pushes you deeply with empathy for the characters as they struggle, then makes you halt your thoughts to make you think and understand the actions and decisions in the ending of each short story. What I truly admire about the writing is the use of metaphors and similes.
I really enjoyed each story; my favourites would be Rutting Season, Seige, Friday Night, and Three Views of a Pond. Rutting Season had me panic-stricken throughout the pages. It’s split into three pov; Lisa, Ray, and Carl, and how each of their actions affects their next actions, which will or will not end in a terrible office tragedy. But the ending slapped a big "LMAO" in my face. Seige was a full on rage for Amber when being tipped on the scale of injustice or disappointments. I keep wondering about what truly happens after the ending. Whether she lived or not, I’ll never know. Friday Night was heartbreakingly sweet, as it made me slightly tear up. It must be hard to continue living while watching someone you love slowly fade from life in the hospital. And Three Views of a Pond shows an interesting way of healing for a melancholic college student.
The writing told these characters' stories, and their stories have very much touched my heart in a funny, tragic, angry, and heartbreaking way.
September 7, 2019
I really wanted to like this collection of short stories, because I think Smith has plenty of interesting material, language, and personality to offer. But as a collection, this reads like pieces written in a creative fiction class bound together. Some pieces were genuinely interesting (I learned quite a bit about horses in the opening piece, "Mercy"); the ones involving guns felt absolutely absurd (inadequate character development to convincingly match the severity of violence, in "Rutting Season" and "Siege"); and those concerning race left me feeling unsympathetic at best (whether they were written from the white or black perspective, in "What It Takes" and "You the Animal" respectively). My favorite piece was actually the shortest, "Friday Night," because it reveals the many faces of Grief, whom I'm fortunate enough not to know yet. Overall, I'm nervous/concerned about her ability to handle sensitive issues (race, gender based violence, suicide are examples in this work), because she does not make clear whether some problematic views are her characters' or her own. Although I was disappointed, I remain intrigued by what Smith can offer in the future.
April 30, 2020
Although I love short stories, it's rare that I read an entire collection from start to finish - usually I dip in and out, finding the stories I love and discarding the rest. Not so with Mandeliene Smith's Rutting Season. Although this isn't a collection of linked stories -- each character/setting is different -- I found this book really hard to put down. There is an urgency to these stories, a sense of life-or-death importance, that left me actively worried for, and thinking about, the people in them long after I finished each story. I haven't met characters quite like these in fiction before: the young widow and mother of three managing a farm full of animals who keep dying, the siblings who go to visit their dead mother's boyfriend and end up his hostages, the lesbian couple whose relationship waxes and wanes with the seasons, the mother of five who slowly sells off her children and the social workers who deal with the fallout. These stories are filled with characters in dangerous places, making life and death decisions, and don't shy away from exploring the dark corners of maternal ambivalence, our relationship with animals, or race. Highly recommend!
July 7, 2021
*Library Book
I don't want to give this book a terrible review, because the writing wasn't bad or anything like that, it just wasn't for me. Some of the stories were better than others but they were all pretty dreary and depressing overall. I think the best, most interesting stories were Friday Night, Rutting Season and Animals.
Friday Night was really sad. A woman's husband is dying and wasting away before her eyes....it is one of the shorter stories in the collection but no less impactful.
Rutting Season was a story that most can relate to in one way or another about the hierarchy within an office setting....you could relate it to many scenarios though. One decision can snowball/domino into something devastating....or not.
Animals was about life....but mainly about death and sadness which is all around us each & every day....the rawness of it.
It was alright. I can't said I'd recommend anyone go read it though, especially after all of us are coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic. I'm all about dark/twisty/demented stuff but this was a bit to wommmmmmmmmmmmp woooooooommmmp for me lol.
I don't want to give this book a terrible review, because the writing wasn't bad or anything like that, it just wasn't for me. Some of the stories were better than others but they were all pretty dreary and depressing overall. I think the best, most interesting stories were Friday Night, Rutting Season and Animals.
Friday Night was really sad. A woman's husband is dying and wasting away before her eyes....it is one of the shorter stories in the collection but no less impactful.
Rutting Season was a story that most can relate to in one way or another about the hierarchy within an office setting....you could relate it to many scenarios though. One decision can snowball/domino into something devastating....or not.
Animals was about life....but mainly about death and sadness which is all around us each & every day....the rawness of it.
It was alright. I can't said I'd recommend anyone go read it though, especially after all of us are coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic. I'm all about dark/twisty/demented stuff but this was a bit to wommmmmmmmmmmmp woooooooommmmp for me lol.
March 30, 2022
Ultimately I picked up this title at the Dollar Tree because I enjoy short stories and the book itself is very pretty, but now I have it and I don't know what to do with it; I don't even want to toss it in any of the neighborhood little libraries.
I really enjoyed the first story, 'Mercy, and I liked 'Three Views of a Pond' quite a bit as well. I don't mind depressing. I like depressing.
I can rarely stomach animal cruelty and death, and there was sort of a lot of that threaded through some of the stories. So points off for that.
The thing I can't really get past is the frequent, weird racism. Lots of caricatures of black people, descriptions of skin tone as food (you can do better than that). Even if I'm giving the author the grace of inhabiting a narrator who's only focusing on one dimension of their black classmates, like in 'What It Takes.' The story ends with the white narrator having a lightbulb moment about race - sort of. But I keep asking myself, is this a story that needs to be told? I don't think it does.
I really enjoyed the first story, 'Mercy, and I liked 'Three Views of a Pond' quite a bit as well. I don't mind depressing. I like depressing.
I can rarely stomach animal cruelty and death, and there was sort of a lot of that threaded through some of the stories. So points off for that.
The thing I can't really get past is the frequent, weird racism. Lots of caricatures of black people, descriptions of skin tone as food (you can do better than that). Even if I'm giving the author the grace of inhabiting a narrator who's only focusing on one dimension of their black classmates, like in 'What It Takes.' The story ends with the white narrator having a lightbulb moment about race - sort of. But I keep asking myself, is this a story that needs to be told? I don't think it does.
February 1, 2021
If I had to describe “Rutting Season,” Mandeliene Smith’s debut collection of short stories, in one word, I think that word would be “authentic.” There’s a wide variety of characters and experiences in this book but each one feels nuanced and real. Smith is a very perceptive writer with a direct, big-hearted style; her stories have an Anne Patchett-y quality, which is a very good thing to have. I hope Smith releases another collection soon.
FAVORITES:
“Mercy” - A stressed-out widow must reassess her priorities when her beloved horse becomes ill.
“Rutting Season” - Office politics and personal disappointments send a trio of coworkers on a violent collision course.
“You The Animal” - A disillusioned children’s advocate makes a terrible mistake in the heat of the moment.
FAVORITES:
“Mercy” - A stressed-out widow must reassess her priorities when her beloved horse becomes ill.
“Rutting Season” - Office politics and personal disappointments send a trio of coworkers on a violent collision course.
“You The Animal” - A disillusioned children’s advocate makes a terrible mistake in the heat of the moment.
March 7, 2019
By the halfway point of this collection, two stars was about all I could muster for it. However, the last few stories really hit the mark for me. Throughout Rutting Season, I found the subject matter of the stories to be compelling, and in the best instances the author seemed to disappear within the work and let the characters live on the page. When the stories fell short, I got the impression that Mandeliene Smith might have lived among people similar to her characters, but observed their experiences from a safe distance.
March 14, 2019
A strong start for a debut author. Madeleine Smiths writing style is raw and abrasive and I adore it. She waded into topics with gritty underbellies like I’ve rarely seen.
Vaguely reminiscent of “Only the Animals” I found myself thinking about and sharing her short stories with those around me, using them to process what my mind could not fully comprehend on its own.
A book to parade to those whole can stomach the aggressive and slightly off key approach to some of societies more veiled topics.
I look forward to her follow pieces.
Vaguely reminiscent of “Only the Animals” I found myself thinking about and sharing her short stories with those around me, using them to process what my mind could not fully comprehend on its own.
A book to parade to those whole can stomach the aggressive and slightly off key approach to some of societies more veiled topics.
I look forward to her follow pieces.
April 9, 2019
I gave this 3 stars because I think it's my interpretation of the stories that has me not really enjoying them. I loved the way the first one started - and then expected something more at the end which just didn't appear. It's like she's starting you on a path, and then you need to finish the story yourself. Certainly open to interpretation, which for some reason I am not understanding. I don't think it's necessarily the authors fault. I had trouble with this sort of thing in college - I almost always interpret differently than the majority.
March 16, 2022
I’m not sure who wrote the description for this book but I’m glad I read the book first. A more accurate description would tell you that this collection of short stories is macabre, like a modernized Edgar Allen Poe, and it might warn you about violence towards animals in these pages. This book could be a study in how to begin stories, because each time I felt instantly riveted by the new cast of characters. They were intentionally unlikeable characters who showed some of the worst sides of humanity in very genuine human ways.
August 19, 2024
I think Smith is a skilled author, and I moved through this collection very quickly. I do have some concerns regarding some of the racial/gender stereotypes present throughout, as mentioned by other reviewers. Same goes for the excessive animal deaths. Certain stories, like Siege, feel like they could have used a little more development before getting to their final climax -- as it is, we're given certain reasons why the main characters do what they do, but at times it feels like they go from contemplative to full-on attack mode without a well-paced ramp up.
January 31, 2019
Short story fans know that sometimes the best way to read a collection is to dip in and out- not to read the whole book at once. That's true for this slim volume of seven stories. Smith's characters are women (or girls) who are dealing with challenges and loss. Some of this feels detached, which is no doubt due to the writing style. At the same time. however, there are some terrific lines. Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC. Choose this one for a debut by a writer to keep an eye on.
April 22, 2019
Just like the seasons I had my favorite, and then the other ones felt lack-lusting. Some of her details were rooted in some form of racial and class biases; however, some of her details were sharp. She includes a lot of backstory and exposition when the narratives didn't really need them, and most of her endings felt completely out of the blue because she didn't properly present the present characters motivations because they were too much rooted in the past.
October 23, 2021
This is NOT a "sparkling" collection of stories. I found them extremely depressing. There were some descriptions of animal death/cruelty that were disturbing. The characters were interesting and the stories themselves well written. But I want to spend my limited free time being uplifted and inspired.
May 18, 2022
Este es un libro triste. Si quieres leer un libro triste, este es.
Los cuentos abordan historias de luto, dolor y pensares oscuros humanos. El interior es todo lo contrario a su portada.
Si pudiera describirlo en una sensación seria como cuando las nubes oscurecen de repente el cielo, previo a una tormenta. Así se sintió leer Rutting Season.
Los cuentos abordan historias de luto, dolor y pensares oscuros humanos. El interior es todo lo contrario a su portada.
Si pudiera describirlo en una sensación seria como cuando las nubes oscurecen de repente el cielo, previo a una tormenta. Así se sintió leer Rutting Season.
April 13, 2019
Beautiful and savage and real and magical, like the ring you get from a machine when you’re small, then find ten years later and throw away, but something about it having gone from treasure to junk only because you have grown makes you cry.
July 22, 2019
These are all short stories and a few relate to each other. It wasn't my favorite but it was okay and made you think. It might be I just got done with a really good book so this did not measure up to that one.
February 28, 2020
Not quite what I was expecting, though the stories drew me in each time. A quick read with strong racial themes and often left me contemplating the human condition. Even what appears to be mundane has depth under the surface.
May 20, 2020
3.5 stars. As with any collection, some stories are stronger than others. But the book seems to build momentum as it goes, and some are so captivating, I was sad for them to end. Here’s hoping to seeing more of this author soon.
October 14, 2020
When you find yourself holding your breath while reading a story, you know it's good. I'm thinking here of the story titled "Siege." But others too. These shorties are satisfying and filling, easily read in brief sittings. I will look again for Smith's fiction and know it's worth buying.
April 7, 2019
About once a year I read a collection of short stories. In the past week, I have read two collections of short stories. I enjoyed Rutting Season but I don’t understand why short stories are always so depressing.
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