Unaccustomed to Grace

by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne

The stories in Unaccustomed to Grace are often set in a slant version of reality where the extraordinary can exist side-by-side with the ordinary. In “Waiting for Ivy” a woman grieving the loss of her infant daughter discovers a listserv of parents whose dead children have been returned, as if the tragedy were a clerical error. In “Corpse Walks Into a Bar” an indigent loner agrees to bury a reanimated corpse, not realizing what it takes to find a resting place when the dead are as self-serving as the living. Characters throughout the collection act on impulses, quixotic to ferocious: a suburban dad leads a violent riot against his neighbor; an eleven-year-old boy puts himself at the nexus of a manhunt for the Boston Marathon bomber. Ultimately, the book plumbs the messiness we bring on ourselves with the best of intentions, and how we find connection and work to build a world we can survive.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

162 pages, Paperback

Published March 8, 2022

About the author

Lesley Bannatyne is an American author who writes extensively on Halloween, especially its history, literature, and contemporary celebration. She also writes short stories, many of which are included in her debut collection _Unaccustomed to Grace_, out from Kallisto Gaia Press in March, 2022. iN 2024, her Lake Song. A Novel in Stories won the Grace Paley Prize and is published by Mad Creek Books in September 2025.

Bannatyne has shared her knowledge on television specials for the History Channel ("The Haunted History of Halloween," "The Real Story of Halloween"), with Time Magazine, Slate, National Geographic, and contributed the Halloween article to World Book Encyclopedia. Her Halloween books range from a children's book, Witches Night Before Halloween, to Halloween Nation, which examines the holiday through the eyes of its celebrants. The book was nominated for a 2011 Bram Stoker Award. Her other titles are A Halloween How-To. Costumes, Parties, Destinations, Decorations (2001); A Halloween Reader. Poems, Stories, and Plays from Halloweens Past (2004), and Halloween. An American Holiday, An American History, which celebrated 30 years in print in 2020.

Her fiction and essays have been published in the Boston Globe, Smithsonian, Christian Science Monitor, and Zone 3, Pangyrus, Shooter, Craft, Ocotillo Review, Fish, and Bosque Literary Magazines. She won the 2018 Bosque fiction prize and received the 2019 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award for fiction, the 2020 Ghoststory.com fiction prize, and the 2024 Grace Paley Prize for short fiction. As a freelance journalist, she covered stories ranging from druids in Massachusetts to relief workers in Bolivia.

Lesley lives and works in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Krista · Rating 5 out of 5]

When they cut down the border trees to make the new deck we had a full view of a one-hundred year-old oak we’d hardly noticed before. It was a magnificent tree with branches that exploded into dozens of new branches, as if the end goal of an oak tree — unlike us with our solitary focus on more, better — was possibility at every juncture; more and more and more so that where you begin — an acorn, insignificant — has not one ending but thousands, each one green and reaching for the sun. We never understood how unaccustomed to grace we’d been until that day. ~OMG Winn Handler Moved Next Door!

The only thing I knew about author Lesley Pratt Bannatyne was that she is referred to as the “Queen of Halloween” (for her expertise on the history, literature, and celebration of that hallowed day), so I thought that this short story collection would be spooky and weird. And it’s really not. Despite the first story involving a reanimated corpse (and a later one featuring dishevelled angels that interfere in human affairs), the plots are complex but recognisable, the characters are fully fleshed out and relatable, and each story mounts to a moment of growth or catharsis; moments of unaccustomed grace. I was consistently intrigued by the premises and often moved by the emotional connections that I had forged with the characters; I thought I was going to have a campy good time but found a thoroughly satisfying literary experience instead. Who could ask for more? (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)

I don’t want to go through all the stories, but will note that many of them are about mothers and their particular heartbreaks: mothers who lost children, who gave up children; even one birth mother who has the baby she gave away come looking for her as an adult:

Who am I, what will I become, who will love me? Meredith recognized this twenty-four-ness, when you’re sure there’s some kind of greatness inside you but you don’t know yet what it is. Meredith remembered this from her own young self when she was so vulnerable that everything — people, cities, skies — could be so beautiful they hurt. ~Martin is Missing

What could be more heart-breaking than, at eighty-one, knowing that your grandson’s murderer is set to be released from jail:

A drunken college boy stabbed my grandson Nelson to death at a party because of a chubby brunette named Wendy. The boy who did it served eight years in prison. He ruined my daughter’s life, he emptied mine. When he gets out of prison on Tuesday, I will kill him. ~On Tuesday I Will Kill Him

There are heartwarming stories of new love, frightening stories of random violence, and touching stories from the POV of children when they finally discover their worth:

His heart was pierced with shots of joy as if everyone, everywhere could see right inside him, could feel his worth, understand all the magnificent things he would do. He waved to them all, jubilant — this side of the street, that side. He and the grandmother walked, like a king and queen, past the gray house, the white one, past the house next door, where the cat Penelope sat watching in the front window, to where the grandfather waited and where the boy could, for the first time, hear the sidewalks whisper home. ~The Boy in the Boat

There’s a faith healer and a fortune teller and, perhaps, astral projection; but as Bannatyne writes, these are not fairy tales and I believed in the absolute reality of every situation she creates. Simply a very fine collection of stories that capture something true of people and the world we have made.

[N.N. Heaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are you looking for a short story collection that’ll take you into a universe not seen by many, where the paranormal and normal converge? You’ll meet an undead corpse hanging out in a bar wanting to be buried. You’ll meet a dad who leads a rampage against his neighbor. You’ll meet a grieving mom who discovers an online forum of parents who have had their dead children returned to them. You’ll meet a kid who involves himself in a manhunt for a bomber. All of these stories have equal parts creepiness and the inspiring nature of humans. Are you ready to launch into the Grace Zone?

Unaccustomed to Grace is not what I expected… it’s even better! If you take a glance at the title, you don’t think of zombies, do you? I didn’t either but when you delve into the bizarre, you realize how relevant this title is. I love dark humor stories and in Unaccustomed to Grace, you’ll read some inexplicable circumstances and characters. Each story is a complete story in short form with characters, plot, conflict, and resolution. The situations may be different, but the theme remains true. My favorite story is, “The Corpse Walks Into a Bar”. Its tongue-in-cheek humor is perfect for those who enjoy reading about zombies. Lesley Bannatyne is a very talented writer with a firm grasp of dark humor, paranormal, short stories. I connected with the characters and thoroughly enjoyed reading the stories. I think Rod S. from The Twilight Zone would find Unaccustomed to Grace fascinating and so would his fans. If you enjoy genuinely bizarre paranormal short stories with a dash of humor, you’ll want to read Unaccustomed to Grace. Horror fans would also enjoy this collection of stories. I look forward to reading more from Lesley Bannatyne. Highly recommend!

My Rating: 5 stars

Reviewed by: Mrs. N

This review first appeared: https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/po...

[Bronte Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy for free via book sirens and I am leaving this honest review voluntarily.

Sometimes you start a book and within a few sentences you feel like you're sinking into a huge comfortable chair and entering a private world. Regardless of the subject or content, you feel "safe." The author is going to lead you through their book/stories and whatever happens, everything's going to be ok. It doesn't happen often but when it does it's the most wonderful feeling and I just know I'm going to enjoy what comes next. That's what I got from this collection of stories. This writer knows exactly what they're doing. No waffle, no jarring dialogue, no extraneous explanations. The stories stand up for themselves, confident and unapologetic. There's surrealism and "endings" which aren't all neatly tied up with happy ever afters. However much each story seems set in the world we think we know (or not as the case may be), these are personal tales, personal journeys, snippets of life. Dense with meaning but light to read. Not light in the frivolous sense, but light in that the reader skips along with the writing, barely realising how much information, emotion and subtext is being effortlessly absorbed on the way. I loved this book. You should read it. I would happily pay for it. It's the authors first collection of stories, her previous works being exclusively about the tradition of Halloween. I so hope she is generous enough to give us more work like this.

[Florence Osmund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lesley Bannatyne delves deeply into the sometimes murky depths of the minds of several non-stereotypical characters in her series of short stories “Unaccustomed to Grace.” Some of the titles alone are enough to create intrigue--Corpse Walks into a Bar, On Tuesday I Will Kill Him, OMG—Winn Chandler Moved Next Door. Each one is crafted to pull you into the heart of the story right away. Each one depicts a critical moment in someone’s life that has the ability to arouse in us a deep thought or feeling to which most of us can relate.

One of Bannatyne’s most impressive skills is her ability to create a mood throughout the story without using words to describe it, evoking a variety of emotional experiences for readers. Her clear, descriptive language quickly sets up the concept for the story and captures our attention for an engaging read. Her writing style has a high level of fluency with a good balance of dialogue, action, and exposition—not easy to do given the length constraint of short stories. Creative, compelling, and beautifully written.

[Tony Burnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories in this book delve into the perversity of the human psyche in ways that are both terrifying and reassuring. Characters are dependent on each other even when they don't want to be. That interaction is displayed in the most beautiful prose imaginable. A true masterpiece that I can highly recommend.

[Kristiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unaccustomed to Grace by lesley bannatyne is a superb collection of short stories which are beautifully human, dark and complex. As stated in the blurb, bannatyne presents the reader, each time, with a slant reality in which we can recognise ourselves and our ordinary lives alongside the darkest thoughts, feelings and sometimes our perverse desires. At no point does bannatyne shy away from exposing what it means to be human - to be gloriously forward-thinking and yet animalistic and base in the same breath. 

In particular, I enjoyed the anonymity of the narrators in the majority of the stories. We might be given a name but these narrators were ours to imagine and to become. That was the sheer joy of reading this; bannatyne makes you the narrator, you do not sit in the role of the observer, you become the very human bannatyne seeks to explore, celebrate and question.

bannatyne also demonstrates a stunning talent for creating atmosphere; surroundings which are both alive and frighteningly devoid which encapsulate the bare bones of trauma, family, love, grief and death. bannatyne's characters embody us as a race and as individuals - a balance kept perfectly by bannatyne's pace and sharp use of imagery and dialogue. 

These stories are easy to devour as each story is unique, traversing gritty realities, the ethereal and the quiet of existence. The collection itself is structured brilliantly; nothing felt repetitive or as if stories grew in intensity, instead everything felt balanced - a harmony found in the discordance of humanity. 

Ultimately, Unaccustomed to Grace is a collection I would highly recommend. I thoroughly enjoyed both the content and bannatyne's style. It was the first I've read of bannatyne but it will not be the last - I was left wholly impressed and I continue to ruminate over the people I met through bannatyne's words along the way.

[Ilana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t even find the words to describe how incredible I found these stories. I want to thank the publisher for for the free copy I read in return for an honest review. The writing is perfect, the stories tightly controlled. The imagination driving them is powerful. This is the work of a highly talented writer, and I eagerly await further work from her.

[Nora Mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection was a joy to read. At a certain point, I purposefully slowed down to titrate.. not wanting the stories to end. The characters are fully formed, evoking emotions familiar and nes. The language is crisp and tense, moving the reader forward and into the stories.

[Lisa Morton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've long been a fan of Lesley Bannatyne's non-fiction, but after this collection I've realized she may be an even more gifted fiction writer. These stories are eerie, funny, moving, surprising, deeply felt and beautifully told, and I can't recommend this book highly enough!

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much love for this book, truly!
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
𝐍𝐚𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐮𝐧-𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐰𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬.
This collection of stories blew me away with terrible aches from the first tale, Corpse Walks Into A Bar. It grabbed my stony heart (I don’t know about the rest of you, but mine seemed to me to be hardening with too much feeling these past few years of worldwide brutalities and personal pains) and managed to squeeze more blood out of the old organ. In the story, a man must bury an animated corpse, one he has no connection with, but you must honor the requests of the dead, right? Maybe it will buy him some good karma? It is about people trying to remember those who are gone, like trying to cup light into your hands, girls escaping mean stories, women fighting back or looking for gravity to anchor them, settling into their troubles or swimming away from them, longing to move forward, some forgotten and left behind, struggling to do what’s right by the living, the dying, the dead. It is a voice for girls in trouble, girls that ‘things happen to’, a phrase as loaded as a gun. Here are lives defined by shocking moments, left out to dry, facing unbearable disappointments alone, when those who promised to come through never show up. Wow! I love it when I find a gem of a book and often think, some of the best writers sneak up on you! Don’t you just love when that happens?

These stories are short but powerful, loaded with emotional struggles. Haunting cries of stillborn babies and stillborn dreams takes over with the hunger of a mother’s grief. The balm sounds more like the devil’s trickery than anything godly to me in Waiting For Ivy. How did the writer conjure this strange tale? It’s creepy despite the presence of angels. Parents have dead children returned, could the couple have their sweet baby back? Should they, dare they? Hope can be cruel, it can feel like a murder can’t it? Or like slowly poisoning yourself, when you are clinging to optimism, looking for an escape hatch from misery with a mad smile on your face. Loss. Where do we put our collection of losses? It’s so terrible and beautiful being human.

These are ordinary people affected by events that would bring many of us to our knees. The Child That Went, 32 years have passed since Emily’s youngest child, son Peter, was abducted. She returns to the scene of the crime present day, right across from the café where she is speaking to the man who runs it, as she does every June. It is what followed, the inability to be the present, loving mother (to her two daughters) she was before her darling boy was taken and the not knowing what happened to Peter that weighs heavy on the reader. I don’t think it’s just me, my kids are grown adults in their twenties now, but I still have nightmares that they are small again and taken away, or harmed only to wake up in relief. These are anxiety dreams remaining from years of hypervigilance of being a mother. There are people who never get to wake up from nightmares such as these. Grief isn’t like some balloon you just pop, it hides in the little things.

There is so much yearning, in many forms, within these pages. People are worn out, cut down, and so hot to avenge wrongs, even if it means going against their good nature, against god and spilling blood, that they cannot see straight. It isn’t hard to imagine wearing their lives for a while, ponder where the winds of turmoil would land you. The subjects are heavy, so heavy. On Tuesday I Will Kill Him-A grandmother is plotting murder, you can feel the monster of senseless pain howling for release within her old bones. Can you ever even the balance when light is snuffed out in this world? Eye for an eye? I also adore the ending of The Boy In The Boat, what an original idea. Lesley Bannatyne is a hell of a writer! Hoping for a full novel from her, but I would delight in more short stories too. Please don’t keep us waiting too long! Yes, read it!!!!

Publication Date: March 15, 2022

Kallisto Gaia Press

[Peggy Hendry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usually when I read a book of short stories all written by the same author, I begin to lose interest halfway through. The exceptions to this, in the past few years, have been Walter Moseley’s Six Easy Pieces, Seanan McGuire’s Laughter at the Academy, and Lesley Bannatyne’s Unaccustomed to Grace. What’s the difference between these books and the ones I put down without finishing? It’s partly voice, partly wordsmithing, partly experiencing the author’s point of view on life, but mostly it’s the way the stories make me feel.

The humanity of Lesley Bannatyne’s characters is always on vulnerable display, making it impossible not to care about what happens to them. The yearning for connection, the seemingly hopeless loneliness of love lost or never found, the potential for transformation, and the poignant joy of deep needs unexpectedly fulfilled, compelled me to keep reading when I really should have been doing other things….

Bannatyne has a way of weaving seemingly-unrelated storylines into deeper meaning, as she does in “Corpse Walks Into A Bar.” It is the kind of story you expect it to be, until it coalesces and both characters experience a kind of redemption.

My favorite tale in the collection is The Boy In The Boat (Boston Marathon, 2013). On the day of the bombing, a heartbroken, much-fostered boy pursues his own goal with a child’s innocent disregard for the concerns of his elders. His journey has its own very real tragedies and dangers, which are just as vivid and vital as those happening in the adult world. The two realities eventually intersect, but do not merge. It’s a small story in the context of a much larger story, yet its stakes are just as high.

My only quibble with the book is that, in one story, a character is introduced as having webbed toes, but that characteristic has nothing to do with what happens and is never mentioned again. Bannatyne is known for having surreal elements to her work, and I like that. It adds spice. In this case, however, I was left feeling that the detail had been included for no other reason than to be weird. It felt like an unfulfilled promise.

Unaccustomed to Grace is a powerful title. I think most of us have felt a lack of grace in our lives, and our world, at one time or another. The most common definitions of grace involve unearned or undeserved assistance from a divine power. There are many instances of such grace in these stories, and the divine power dispensing it is the author.

[Donna Pavluk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unaccustomed to Grace fulfills the promise of its title with 14 intriguing stories about individuals who find some unexpected redemption in their lives. From a young boy in foster care, to a young American wife on a farm in Russia, to a grandmother grieving a murdered grandson, Ms. Bannatyne presents a cast of characters and situations to draw the reader into each story and leave us both satisfied and wanting more at the conclusion of each carefully drafted tale.

[Paul]

A strong collection of stories. I"m not sure what else to say except that these are great short tales. Recommended.

Thanks very much for the free review copy!!

[Pam Tole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lesley Bannatyne's foray from Halloween history to fiction is very welcome. Her collection of short stories range from creepy cool, to heartbreaking, to surreal, to joyous. A story for everyone. Her writing is crisp and unique and tugged on my soul...to the place where words are deeply embedded but I can't quite express on my own. Lesley does it for me in response to each character's story. Tension is built in the most subtle way and emotions described in a mere sentence, in a conversation, in a character study. There is nothing "in your face" about the author's style, just gentle descriptions that tell the reader everything they need to know.

The stories are easy to read and quite imaginative and I would definitely recommend this book no matter what genre you prefer.

[Tony Burnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories will live with you long after the last redemptive word resonates in your soul. The characters put themselves in harrowing circumstances, often of their own choosing. They achieve a modicum of redemption even when they don't avoid the consequences of their actions. From an unlikely pairing between an activist fortune teller and a struggling probationer to the depressed drunk mourning his dead sister who's coerced into burying a reanimated corpse, these 13 tales will bring the magic back into your daily routine.

[Seher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unaccustomed to Grace is a collection of short stories by Lesley Bannatyne. It published earlier this year in February by Kallisto Gaia Press! At 172 pages, it’s a short read, but with each word carefully chosen you don’t feel like you’re missing anything!

Unaccustomed to Grace is a collection of short stories, each with a different character. When I first started reading the book it was hard for me to see how the title, Unaccustomed to Grace, tied into the stories. After a while, that became clearer.

The characters in the book read as people who have things done to them, instead of taking action themselves, whether they are parents, a pregnant teen, a nurse trying to make friends, or the teenage boy breaking into a house with his buddy. I thought that a moment of action defined these characters, but stories like Corpse walks into a bar, Gravity, Waiting for Ivy, On Tuesday I will kill him, Summerland, and The boy in the boat all make it clear that while the art of letting go, contrary to whatever Elizabeth Bishop says, is fairly hard to master, but it’s only in its practice that these characters can achieve, not peace, but a moment of grace.

While Lesley Bannatyne is known as the ‘Queen of Halloween’, that doesn’t play a huge role in the book. However, it’s easy to think we’ll get something more centred on that day when the opening story is Corpse Walks into a Bar. Despite the presence of the darker side of human nature, I feel as though the characters in these stories, as complicated as they are in their own ways, are fundamentally good. And it’s this assumption of goodness, of grace, that Lesley Bannatyne wants you to take home.

[Lynne Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unaccustomed to Grace is a collection of beautifully written short stories that present people in a variety of unfamiliar circumstances that will keep you reading to get to the outcome of the many improbable and yet compelling situations. The people in these stories grapple with death, and yet again and again, they find life. They long for miracles and miracles occur, but never of the sort they wanted. Bannatyne is a terrific writer whose work rewards readers and should be better known.

[Daniela · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the past year, I've found myself attracted short story collections. So I was excited when my request for this ARC was approved. But, not gonna lie, the eye-catching cover and title were also part of the appeal.

Anyway, I started reading. And after the first couple of stories I felt underwhelmed; not because the stories were bad, quite the opposite, actually. The thing is, they had potential to be great—and longer. But ended before anything more exciting happened. I kept wishing they wouldn't end, which is a good thing and also a bad thing, because they did.

The mundanity of the settings was it for me. Mixed in with the occasional surreal touch, all stories are so real and precious. It's clear that Lesley is a writer who can turn the ordinary and boring into engaging stories. And I love that. If you do too, read this book.

Some stories that stood out:
- The Study and Practice of Astral Projection
- The Boy in the Boat
- Sunbathing in Russia
- OMG Winn Handler Moved Next Door! (beautiful ending for the story and for the collection)

Thank you, NetGalley and Kallisto Gaia Press, for the ARC!

[Laura (auntieyorgareads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advance review copy of this eBook for free from the author and BookSirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily as a courtesy.

Although I am not generally a reader of short story collections, this was one that certainly made me wonder why that is! Unaccustomed to Grace by Leslie Pratt Bannatyne is a fantastic example of how the ordinary and mundane can converge with the extraordinary and unusual to create tales that are engaging enough that you invest fully until the very last word. Bannatyne's characters are real and so relatable that you forget that some of the things they are experiencing can't really be happening... or can they? I highly recommend picking up this excellent assemblage of short stories!

[Judy Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eclectic collection of short stories... yet I ended up reading this book from cover to cover one recent weekend. Bizarre, funny, poignant, intriguing, touching. I’d love to share a drink with Ms. Bannatyne and talk these over. Despite the fiction label, a number of her stories resonated with my own life experiences.

[Cavak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unaccustomed to Grace's hook is it's a short story collection filled with magical realism. Turns out the gooey core of the book is well-phrased melancholy and domestic drama.

Betrayal of expectations that are up my alley.

Oh sure, there are instances of the supernatural and oddities. They're playful and sometimes violent imaginary vices. Interesting hooks that grab my attention by the first paragraph. Essential for any short story. Oftentimes in these collections, the questions of what is that thing, how do the characters act with it, why does it exist consume the plot from beginning to end. Characters are given focus as set pieces, often in regards of deal with that thing, use that thing, etc. Interesting stuff.

Bannatyne addresses my often desired wish for stories to dig deeper. Yes, there is that formula of what is that thing, how do the characters act with it, why does it exist. Majority of the time, however, that's not the true heart of the story. We aren't always told a protagonist's life story in a single go. We're given clues along the way, as their psyche and egos trickle and spill onto the page.

Refreshingly, not all of the stories dig into the textbook supernatural. In which case, the magical realism aspects are weaved into the extraordinary of the ordinary. Those are the ones that perked me up because character voices elicit that effect. How often I felt the drudgery of a heart ignored, a confused wretch abandoned. Bannatyne knows her craft!

Tiny nitpick is all of the stories (I think, I could be mistaken) have the protagonists motivated by death in some shape or form. Perhaps it's the common element that binds the stories together. Death can rock anyone's world. Variety of settings and protagonists prevented redundancy, especially when it came to the endings. Yet I felt like it was a literary shorthand for why this character feels or acts a particular way after the first three or so stories.

Wondering if the male protagonists could be given more layers to their voices as well. Gruff yet wounded or gruff and unrepentant are common among them. I only mentioned it because I felt they got less grey than the women protagonists. They're all kinds of wonderful.

Unaccustomed to Grace entertained me while I read. Here and there, narratives didn't thrill or fascinate me. What kept my interest were those series of private confessions. Those surprising moments of quiet in the crowded room. In the world of short stories where everyone is out of breath to make themselves transparent, Bannatyne presented a collection that people watches in the café with sips of coffee. Not too intimate, not too detached. Enough. Whether I liked the end result of a story or characters actions paled to that well-paced feeling. Enjoyable experience overall.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Jill Rey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Lesley Pratt Bannatyne has created an extraordinary collection of short stories housed within the pages of “Unaccustomed to Grace.” From stories like “The Patron Saint of Bachelors and Toothaches” to “OMG Winn Handler Moved Next Door!” These fourteen stories are thought provoking, moving, and emotionally charged. The beauty of Bannatyne’s work lies in her ability to fully grip the reader in the fifteen or so pages in which she has you wrapped in her story. In that short time, readers let go of reality and fall victim to the captivating drama playing out in her words.

The story “Waiting for Ivy” especially clung me, in a way that will likely stay with me forever. In it, Marianne and Tim are waiting, this time they wait outside of an empty bank building among a throng of other parents praying the angels bring out their child. Tortured by hope they travel to wherever the next location is as they hold out for the possibility that the angels will bring out Ivy, who at twenty-nine weeks was stillborn. Unable to move on, grasping to hope, “Waiting for Ivy” brings to light the desire, trauma, and wait for a baby that many couples dream of.

“Unaccustomed to Grace” begins as a collection of sadness, loss, death, dying, or missing. Each is beautiful, if not for the tragedy and sadness, then for its thought-provoking emotion. Not usually ending on a happy note, but feeling complete all the same, these stories are a perfect compilation. The second half of which are full of vulnerability and again not quite hope, but not quite disparity either.

Unsurprisingly the awards, recognition, and love from both readers and judges alike have poured in for these various stories. For the few pages of which each of these short stories has you, they hold on and make readers fall completely into the characters’ world, their fears, and their thoughts, until they are spit back out on the other side changed by the message within and the feelings they’ve provoked.

[Shaina Seideneck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unaccustomed to Grace by Lesley Bannatyne is a short story collection commenting on the human condition when faced with tragedy and other extraordinary circumstances. Each story seemed to focus on what decisions could be made in a particular situation and how to handle the consequences of that decision.. I did appreciate the uniqueness in the themes of the stories and some of the supernatural elements that really made the character's stories fade into the grey area when choices were made, rather than being totally cut and dry. I feel that this also made the characters more relatable and sucked me into their stories.

This is the first short story collection that I have read and for a debut I feel as though this author did very well. However, overall I gave the book a 3 star rating. Although I was connected to the characters in most of the stories I found myself either wanting more or wanting some kind of twist to the story or more of an impactful statement at the end of these stories. Its hard for me to pinpoint exactly what was missing, though I do feel that my novice in reading such collections as this has impacted my experience. I would recommend this book to lovers of short story collections and the paranormal as well as those who enjoy character study as each character could be analyzed further than can be done in a review.

Content warnings for loss of an infant/child, mentions of child abuse, loss of a limb.

[Cheryl M-M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short stories are islands unto themselves – they differ in execution, possible expansion and style. Some short interludes that exist without the need to be anything than what they purport to be, then there are stories I would place in the category of ideas the author could grow. The ones that have the potential to be a novel. I think it’s fair to say this author has a few growers in this compilation of shorts.

I found quite a few of them have certain elements of connection in regard to reactions to the plight of a fellow human. Do I cross my own boundaries, face my own fears and ignore ingrained societal responses and do what my gut says is the right thing to do? Also what impact do these actions, gestures have on the person themselves, not just the person they have decided to engage with or help.

Written at times with a tongue in cheek nod to certain ironies and contradictive behaviour, they are also stories with depth. If you position yourself just slightly differently, if indeed you are willing to do so, then you might be surprised to find the world, the people around you, and your idea of what constitutes a problem to be solved – it might just look completely different.

I’d love to see some of the these short stories evolve into something longer, the Corpse Walks into a Bar is an excellent example of that – I have so many unanswered questions. Either way I would certainly enjoy reading more by this particular author.

[m · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this short story collection. Though I'm not typically one for short stories, something about this collection truly spoke to me. The stories are connected by the loose thread of loss; each story centers around loss in some way, with loss of sisters, sons, daughters, unborn children, grandchildren, etc. Many of the stories involve some sort of supernatural element - the first story opens with a walking, talking corpse.

I felt this was a beautiful collection. Quick and easy to read, but still wonderfully crafted and meaningful. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a nice, quick read.

[Becky Swales-Blanchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to rate this one because the quality of the stories varied so much.

Waiting for Ivy, Martin is Missing and OMG Winn Handler Moved Next Door! were 5 star reads. They tackled such difficult subjects in such interesting, unique ways and I absolutely loved them.

The rest were... OK? Considering I read them all in one day I can't remember what most of them were about. Bannatyne's writing is really engaging and I loved how the normal and paranormal mixed in the stories. As the stories were so short, there was no time to explain why things were the way they were - you just had to accept it and move on which worked so well in this format.

[Nic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was offered this collection of short stories as an ARC via NetGalley. If I am honest, I have only recently started to read short stories as part of my studies for a creative writing module so I am far from an authority on this tricky artform. 'Unaccustomed to Grace' is a gem of a collection, covering a variety of challenging topics with a deft touch that I can only hope to come close to acquiring! I have already downloaded the Kindle edition so that I can dip back into this collection and make closer readings at a later date.

[Carol Stephan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes a collection of short stories by one author start to take on a lot of similarities. That certainly is not the case here. There are 14 stories, all so different, although the title is apropos to all the characters. These are so well-written and grabbed me from the first sentences. Some are odd, some creepy, some sad, some uplifting. All are worth the read but I particularly enjoyed the ones titled "Gravity," "The Child Who Went," and "The Boy in the Boat." And I loved the cover of this book.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

[Kaye Denny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love short stories and I read a lot of them. This collection from Lesley Bannatyne delighted me. These stories have everything: angst, fear, love, sadness, salvation and yes, so much grace. Sunbathing in Russia, The Boy in the Boat, Corpse Walks Into a Bar - all should be in the next edition of Best American Short Stories. I am reminded of Karen Russell's short stories. Treat yourself and a friend to this book. You will be delighted.
Kaye Denny

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories draw you into worlds where shadows and light play temptingly across the horizons of Bannatyne's troupe of dogged, stumbling seekers. What hits you first is the freshness of the language, phrases and observations that make it clear you are in the hands of a keen witness to the comedy and tragedy of American lives. What lingers is the palpable presence of Bannatyne's characters: flawed, searching, painfully human.