Alexia’s Reviews > Liberation Day > Status Update

[…] It held many thematic similarities to Liberation Day but was executed much worse. Excluding the wider context of the collection, this short story gets an average 3 stars.

Ghoul is another Saunders classic short story that dares to ask, what if the ending was so unsatisfying? On a serious note, the pattern of his stories seems very obvious, therefore predictable (and boring). Like, of course something really bad was going to happen to [redacted] and the ending was going to be kind of miserable with just enough hope and rebellion to make an argument for the opposite […]

Sparrow short and sweet. I was really annoyed by the narrator in the beginning but of course the story later took a heartwarming turn which I quite enjoyed. (If George Saunders had written that previous sentence there would be 4 commas & maybe he’d find a way to insert a fifth) 3.5 stars.

A Thing at Work I really enjoyed this at first but then the ending tapers off into a non-solution in what I’m beginning to suspect is classic Saunders style. The set ups for his stories are great but the ends miss that oomphf you tend to crave in any good story. Nothing wrong with letting the plot simply fizzle out, but every time? Let’s be serious. Still 4 stars though lol.

Love Letter Saunder’s excessive-use-of-commas writing style really started to bother me in this one, maybe because it’s the third of his I’ve read in a row or maybe because the rest of it didn’t stand up as well as the others. 3 stars.

The Mom of Bold Action was fun and I enjoyed how the mother’s writerly imagination kept stealing the reins and taking the narrative for a ride. However, I wasn’t really gripped by this one. 3.5 stars

Liberation Day was uniquely compelling and immersive. I enjoyed how tension was built in the story, though found the conclusion slightly underwhelming just because I was pumped for something much bigger. 4.5/5