Magic for Beginners in Reading with Style

Feb 15, 2008 Joanna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: rws-2015-winter, 2015-read, fantasy-sci-fi, kindle, short-stories

I loved several of these stories. I'm probably a target reader for these stories; I love bizarre twists and stories that don't quite make sense. From a short story, I don't need a complete ending; I'm happy with a cool idea explored briefly, perhaps to reappear in a related but different story. I think I liked the previous collection Stranger Things Happen a bit more than this one, but both were entertaining. I will definitely read more of Link's books. ...more

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Sep 12, 2021 Elle rated it liked it

Some stories were delightfully quirky other were a fever dream.

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Sep 16, 2016 Sam rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-of-2016, borrowed-books

I'm glad that I decided to give Kelly Link another try! I wasn't a big fan of Stranger Things Happen, but I really enjoyed most of the stories in this collection. The stories in this collection all have a surreal, dreamlike quality to them that I really enjoyed.

First, the negatives: I didn't care much for The Hortlak, The Cannon, or The Great Divorce. The Hortlak and The Great Divorce were both just a little too strange and surreal for me. It went past that interesting dreamlike area and into g I'm glad that I decided to give Kelly Link another try! I wasn't a big fan of Stranger Things Happen, but I really enjoyed most of the stories in this collection. The stories in this collection all have a surreal, dreamlike quality to them that I really enjoyed.

First, the negatives: I didn't care much for The Hortlak, The Cannon, or The Great Divorce. The Hortlak and The Great Divorce were both just a little too strange and surreal for me. It went past that interesting dreamlike area and into gimmicky. The Cannon just felt insubstantial. Then in the middle you've got Some Zombie Contingency Plans, which was kind of just okay. Not very memorable, but not bad either.

That said, most of the stories in this collection are very strong. The Faery Handbag is a fun opener. Not too serious, not too surreal, but very whimsical. I love the idea of the grandmother using words from her maybe, maybe not, made-up homeland to win at Scrabble.
Stone Animals is creepy and unsettling but in a way you just can't quite put your finger on; it's surrealism at its finest. Everything is realistic but just off...from the pregnant mother eating paint, to the slowly creeping haunting of their new house, beginning with a toddler's toothbrush, to the army of rabbits that grows as the story continues, the whole thing is just odd and makes you uncomfortable but in a way that makes it impossible to stop reading.
Catskin is basically The Little Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe: The Golden Years, if the old lady were a witch with an army of cat servants. Again, it's weird and whimsical and has all the qualities of a good fairy tale, but with completely fucked up details.
Lull was interesting, a story within a story within a story. Not my favorite of the collection, but certainly a unique idea and well-executed.

Then, you have the title story, Magic For Beginners. This may possibly be my new favorite short fiction. I don't know that I even had one before this, but this story blew me out of the water. It's the longest of the collection, at about 50 pages, but I would have gladly read another 300 pages about Jeremy Mars and his dysfunctional family, his high school love triangle and friend issues, and, most of all, the adventures of Fox on the pirate TV show The Librarians. This story is completely brilliant. It meshes coming of age, surrealism, horror, drama...I knew Kelly Link liked to play with genres, but this has to be one of the best, most successful examples of genre-bending fiction I've ever read. Absolutely phenomenal!

This collection is a bit of a mixed bag, but I think that the good stories are just so damned GOOD that it more than makes up for the weaker stories in the collection. ...more

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Sep 01, 2014 Karen Michele Burns rated it it was amazing

Shelves: my-5-star-books

Being a librarian, she has a particular fondness for “The Library”. p 192, Magic for Beginners

And I, being a librarian, couldn’t help but have a fondness for the title story in this collection since it was about a librarian and a magical TV show about a library! I loved the subtle use of fantasy and magical realism in all of the stories. My favorites were “Catskin”, although it made me squeamish at times, and “Stone Animals”. These stories fit well into the Slipstream genre that I recently learn ...more

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Mar 11, 2015 Kme_17 rated it liked it

Shelves: 2015, first-reads, anthology

I received this as a first read. I enjoyed this short story collection. This is the first time I have read this author and I hope to read her again soon. I really like magical realism which this author does wonderfully. Some stories were better then others as to be expected. However, all in all a solid collection of fun stories.

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Sep 10, 2022 Kathleen (itpdx) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: rws-2022-fall

Be ready for different! Kelly Link bends your mind. I enjoyed Lull—a story within a story within a story; time traveling back in your own life and the All Night Convenience in Hortlack but some stories like The Cannon I just didn’t get at all.

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