Carlos > Recent Status Updates

The protagonist feels betrayed by something that strikes me as anodyne. Either I or the book have lost the plot.

Just one story left to go, and I'm really struggling with how to feel about this collection. While there are some stories I found just bad (the secret agent one feels like a McSweeney's reject) and some that I really enjoyed, the vast majority seem really mid. Interesting concept, solid writing, but lacking the sort of turn that marks good short stories. May need to reread a few stories before coming to a conclusion.

There's a real "first draft, best draft" quality to some of these stories.

Short story collections are often uneven, but the variance here is almost shocking. Some genuinely good stories alongside ones resemble writing exercises more than actual short fiction.

The titular story is pretty mid.

The best thing going for this collection is the author's dark sense of humor. It doesn't manage to save every story but it does elevate quite a few of them.

"How to Pose the Dead" takes things into an interesting direction. Cartoony characters in something like a short, nasty slasher film.

Two stories, and so far, they're fine.

Is this the most 2021 novel ever written?

The book has kind of stalled out for me. And I wish characters would stop saying "interesting."

This has gone in a curious direction, but I'm not feeling super confident that the book can pull it off.

Kind of slow for a thriller

I'm enjoying this significantly more than Station Eleven. In particular, the prose feels cleaner and more self-assured.