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The Bread We Eat in Dreams
Subterranean Press proudly presents a major new collection by one of the brightest stars in the literary firmament. Catherynne M. Valente, the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and other acclaimed novels, now brings readers a treasure trove of stories and poems in The Bread We Eat in Dreams.
In the Locus Award-winning novelette “White Lines on a Green Field,” an old story plays out against a high school backdrop as Coyote is quarterback and king for a season. A girl named Mallow embarks on an adventure of memorable and magical politicks in “The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland—For a Little While.” The award-winning, tour de force novella “Silently and Very Fast” is an ancient epic set in a far-flung future, the intimate autobiography of an evolving A.I. And in the title story, the history of a New England town and that of an outcast demon are irrevocably linked.
The thirty-five pieces collected here explore an extraordinary breadth of styles and genres, as Valente presents readers with something fresh and evocative on every page. From noir to Native American myth, from folklore to the final frontier, each tale showcases Valente’s eloquence and originality.
Table of Contents:
The Consultant
White Lines on a Green Field
The Bread We Eat in Dreams
The Melancholy of Mechagirl
A Voice Like a Hole
The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland—For a Little While
How to Raise a Minotaur
The Shoot-out at Burnt Corn Ranch Over the Bride of the World
Mouse Koan
The Blueberry Queen of Wiscasset
In the Future When All’s Well
Fade to White
Aeromaus
Red Engines
The Wolves of Brooklyn
One Breath, One Stroke
Kallisti
The Wedding
The Secret of Being a Cowboy
Twenty-Five Facts About Santa Claus
We Without Us Were Shadows
The Red Girl
Aquaman and the Duality of Self/Other, America, 1985
The Room
Silently and Very Fast
What the Dragon Said: A Love Story
In the Locus Award-winning novelette “White Lines on a Green Field,” an old story plays out against a high school backdrop as Coyote is quarterback and king for a season. A girl named Mallow embarks on an adventure of memorable and magical politicks in “The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland—For a Little While.” The award-winning, tour de force novella “Silently and Very Fast” is an ancient epic set in a far-flung future, the intimate autobiography of an evolving A.I. And in the title story, the history of a New England town and that of an outcast demon are irrevocably linked.
The thirty-five pieces collected here explore an extraordinary breadth of styles and genres, as Valente presents readers with something fresh and evocative on every page. From noir to Native American myth, from folklore to the final frontier, each tale showcases Valente’s eloquence and originality.
Table of Contents:
The Consultant
White Lines on a Green Field
The Bread We Eat in Dreams
The Melancholy of Mechagirl
A Voice Like a Hole
The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland—For a Little While
How to Raise a Minotaur
The Shoot-out at Burnt Corn Ranch Over the Bride of the World
Mouse Koan
The Blueberry Queen of Wiscasset
In the Future When All’s Well
Fade to White
Aeromaus
Red Engines
The Wolves of Brooklyn
One Breath, One Stroke
Kallisti
The Wedding
The Secret of Being a Cowboy
Twenty-Five Facts About Santa Claus
We Without Us Were Shadows
The Red Girl
Aquaman and the Duality of Self/Other, America, 1985
The Room
Silently and Very Fast
What the Dragon Said: A Love Story
336 pages, Hardcover
First published December 31, 2013
86 people are currently reading
3584 people want to read
About the author
Catherynne M. Valente
260 books7,731 followersCatherynne M. Valente was born on Cinco de Mayo, 1979 in Seattle, WA, but grew up in in the wheatgrass paradise of Northern California. She graduated from high school at age 15, going on to UC San Diego and Edinburgh University, receiving her B.A. in Classics with an emphasis in Ancient Greek Linguistics. She then drifted away from her M.A. program and into a long residence in the concrete and camphor wilds of Japan.
She currently lives in Maine with her partner, two dogs, and three cats, having drifted back to America and the mythic frontier of the Midwest.
She currently lives in Maine with her partner, two dogs, and three cats, having drifted back to America and the mythic frontier of the Midwest.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 147 reviews
April 3, 2019
Long ago, in a far-off mythical land, I discovered that Cat Valente is brilliant. Not only brilliant, but I love everything she's ever written and it DOESN'T BOTHER ME IN THE SLIGHTEST if I am forced to read quite a few stories that were published in other collections.
Truly.
That's the strength of these stories. They're all brilliant no matter how many times you read them and it still feels fresh every single time. I'm not used to that. If it was any other author I might get a sinking feeling and skip the remembered story and start getting anxious about all the rest.
Not with Cat. Cat reaches DEEP into my subconscious and toys with all the archetypes like she is a goddess, wraps them up in nice meta-bows, and then tosses them at your dream-self like a guided-missile made of dragons and unicorns.
And it's SMART. Always so smart. :) And I feel the need to shout Catherynne M. Valente's name from the mountaintops.
Her fantasy and SF cuts to the very heart of everything, doing it more than lyrically before turning you into cotton candy that will be forced to eat itself.
Barbes-à-papa-cannibalism-literature.
I can't recommend her stuff enough. I truly can't. It's like eating the bread in our dreams. :)
Truly.
That's the strength of these stories. They're all brilliant no matter how many times you read them and it still feels fresh every single time. I'm not used to that. If it was any other author I might get a sinking feeling and skip the remembered story and start getting anxious about all the rest.
Not with Cat. Cat reaches DEEP into my subconscious and toys with all the archetypes like she is a goddess, wraps them up in nice meta-bows, and then tosses them at your dream-self like a guided-missile made of dragons and unicorns.
And it's SMART. Always so smart. :) And I feel the need to shout Catherynne M. Valente's name from the mountaintops.
Her fantasy and SF cuts to the very heart of everything, doing it more than lyrically before turning you into cotton candy that will be forced to eat itself.
Barbes-à-papa-cannibalism-literature.
I can't recommend her stuff enough. I truly can't. It's like eating the bread in our dreams. :)
June 17, 2016
If you’re a fan of Catherynne M. Valente’s work, then you probably know what to expect: prose that touches poetry at times, often an influence of Japanese folklore, strange dream-like logic… This is a wide-ranging collection which includes some stories I read elsewhere, or could’ve read elsewhere, like the Fairyland novella about Mallow. The writing is generally beautiful; that’s never really something I doubt with Valente. The choice of stories is also generally good, even though I have encountered some of them in multiple other collections.
It’s probably most worthwhile for the pretty cover and for people who either haven’t read much Valente and want a sampler, or people who read everything she writes and don’t want to miss anything.
Confession: I mostly skipped the actual poetry. I prefer the lyricism of Valente’s prose to anything about her poetry.
Originally posted here.
It’s probably most worthwhile for the pretty cover and for people who either haven’t read much Valente and want a sampler, or people who read everything she writes and don’t want to miss anything.
Confession: I mostly skipped the actual poetry. I prefer the lyricism of Valente’s prose to anything about her poetry.
Originally posted here.
January 16, 2014
I love this collection. I love how Valente consistently delivers the most gorgeous prose to be found in the genre. I love how she avoids using myth and folklore as mere tools, but instead incorporates them as naturally as breathing, bringing all their layers of meaning into play without diminishing their power. She seems to be able to do everything: fairytale, far-future SF, contemporary fantasy, bleak dystopia, poetry. Add to this a lovely cover and wonderfully appropriate interior illustrations by Kathleen Jennings, and you end up with The Bread We Eat in Dreams: a collection for the ages. Don’t miss it.
Read the entire review on my site Far Beyond Reality!
Read the entire review on my site Far Beyond Reality!
October 7, 2016
"Finally, she said: "I'm lonely," because it's weird but you tell the wolves things, sometimes. You can't help it, all these old wounds come open and suddenly you're confessing to a wolf who never says anything back. She said: "I'm lonely", and they ate her in the street."
I remember reading the above quote on a tumblr post and, against all my common sense, immediately laid down $50 to a small bookstore in Washington for the book in which it was written.
I have to say, I think I got the better end of that deal.
The author is perhaps best known for her hit novel "Deathless". Now, I have never read the book so I cannot tell you whether "The Bread We Eat In Dreams" is as good as any of Valente's other works. What I can tell you, however, is that this collection of short stories and poems literally changed the way I look at the world.
Spanning subjects from magical realism armageddon in the American southwest (The Shoot-Out at Burnt Corn Ranch Over The Bride Of The World) to Native American mythology meets high school football (White Lines on a Green Field) to state-institutionalized bigamy post-nuclear fallout (Fade to White, a personal favorite of mine), Valente was able to build up and flesh out so many amazing worlds that I honestly felt bereft when their individual stories ended. Each short story in this book has enough imagination and world building as to warrant their own series, but perhaps it is the very shortness of these works that makes them so sweet.
Despite their brevity, these stories and their characters have a way of sticking with you. I know that whenever I see a loaf of bread I will think of Gemegishkirihallat and that football will forever remind me of the eternal battle between Coyote and Bunny, while the old gumshoe movies hold no water against the protagonist of "The Consultant". And perhaps that is where Valente's talent truly lies: in creating these little glimpses into other worlds that simultaneously makes us wish for more and yet, somehow, fill us up just enough.
I remember reading the above quote on a tumblr post and, against all my common sense, immediately laid down $50 to a small bookstore in Washington for the book in which it was written.
I have to say, I think I got the better end of that deal.
The author is perhaps best known for her hit novel "Deathless". Now, I have never read the book so I cannot tell you whether "The Bread We Eat In Dreams" is as good as any of Valente's other works. What I can tell you, however, is that this collection of short stories and poems literally changed the way I look at the world.
Spanning subjects from magical realism armageddon in the American southwest (The Shoot-Out at Burnt Corn Ranch Over The Bride Of The World) to Native American mythology meets high school football (White Lines on a Green Field) to state-institutionalized bigamy post-nuclear fallout (Fade to White, a personal favorite of mine), Valente was able to build up and flesh out so many amazing worlds that I honestly felt bereft when their individual stories ended. Each short story in this book has enough imagination and world building as to warrant their own series, but perhaps it is the very shortness of these works that makes them so sweet.
Despite their brevity, these stories and their characters have a way of sticking with you. I know that whenever I see a loaf of bread I will think of Gemegishkirihallat and that football will forever remind me of the eternal battle between Coyote and Bunny, while the old gumshoe movies hold no water against the protagonist of "The Consultant". And perhaps that is where Valente's talent truly lies: in creating these little glimpses into other worlds that simultaneously makes us wish for more and yet, somehow, fill us up just enough.
October 26, 2017
There is a little bit of everything in this collection -- short stories, poems, and a novella. I really enjoyed some of the stories, loved the novella, disliked other stories, and skimmed the poems. Valente is a master at mixing myths, fantasy, and science fiction, and she was at her best in the novella called "Silently and Very Fast," which concerns artificial intelligence.
There are just too many stories and poems to comment on them all so I'll just note three (in addition to the novella) that I especially liked. First is "White Lines on a Green Field." This is a Coyote story and as another reviewer has already said - who doesn't love a Coyote story. In this one Coyote gives a town something to remember, as he takes the football team to the state championship and gets all the cheerleaders pregnant (but takes the babies away). The second is "The Bread We Eat in Dreams" that concerns a demon who turns out to be a good cook and then is killed as a witch. It was a gem. The third was "The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland -- For a Little While." If you've read and liked the Fairyland books, chances are pretty good you'll like this story about Mallow.
I read this book over about a month. I found that if I didn't like a story, I'd not pick it up again for a few days. I had been going to give it 3 stars until I read the novella, which made up for the stories I had not liked.
There are just too many stories and poems to comment on them all so I'll just note three (in addition to the novella) that I especially liked. First is "White Lines on a Green Field." This is a Coyote story and as another reviewer has already said - who doesn't love a Coyote story. In this one Coyote gives a town something to remember, as he takes the football team to the state championship and gets all the cheerleaders pregnant (but takes the babies away). The second is "The Bread We Eat in Dreams" that concerns a demon who turns out to be a good cook and then is killed as a witch. It was a gem. The third was "The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland -- For a Little While." If you've read and liked the Fairyland books, chances are pretty good you'll like this story about Mallow.
I read this book over about a month. I found that if I didn't like a story, I'd not pick it up again for a few days. I had been going to give it 3 stars until I read the novella, which made up for the stories I had not liked.
June 13, 2014
How do you even start to review Catherynne Valente? It's like, there are normal, good, solid books, and then there are her stories which are something like reading but more akin to letting her rummage around in your deepest desires and hold the things you want most just out of your reach.
Which is to say, of course, that I love just about everything she puts out, and The Bread We Eat in Dreams is no exception.
If you follow her work closely, you've probably already read some of the stories contained within. If nothing else though, it's nice to have them in one place, and this is a beautiful edition. If you missed the limited print of Silently, and Very Fast, it's reprinted here and it's worth picking this up just for that tale.
Do be warned that this is a rich collection - be prepared to take it maybe a story or two per night, and brace yourself for actively resenting anything that impedes your reading time. In a perfect world, I would have had a week in a cabin in the woods to savor each story with no distractions at all, but even in our fallible world it was a most extraordinary experience.
Which is to say, of course, that I love just about everything she puts out, and The Bread We Eat in Dreams is no exception.
If you follow her work closely, you've probably already read some of the stories contained within. If nothing else though, it's nice to have them in one place, and this is a beautiful edition. If you missed the limited print of Silently, and Very Fast, it's reprinted here and it's worth picking this up just for that tale.
Do be warned that this is a rich collection - be prepared to take it maybe a story or two per night, and brace yourself for actively resenting anything that impedes your reading time. In a perfect world, I would have had a week in a cabin in the woods to savor each story with no distractions at all, but even in our fallible world it was a most extraordinary experience.
May 25, 2017
When I started to read this book, just a few weeks ago, I had a mother. By the time I finished it, I didn’t have a mother anymore. I’d been orphaned at age 39 just as surely as any of the children in any of the fairy tales that Valente is riffing on, often brilliantly, in this book.
Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
April 27, 2015
I'm constantly praising Valente's writing, and in order for you to understand why it's bloody perfect I'll give you the opening lines of the book:
Like ??? I'm in love? Who writes like this?
That being said, not all of the stories were amazing. Sure, the writing is incredible but most of the 35 stories/poems were just boring or plain weird. I actually skimmed through two or three works.
The book is filled with mythology, magic, history and sometimes they feature real people. Valente's creativity is stunning, she takes a normal element and gives it a new spin on its tale.
Despite all this, I'm still planning on reading more of her works. After all, her book Deathless made it to my all time favorites. And also yeah, her writing is good for my soul.
She walks into my life legs first, a long drink of water in the desert of my thirties. Her shoes are red; her eyes are green. She’s an Italian flag in occupied territory, and I fall for her like Paris.
Like ??? I'm in love? Who writes like this?
That being said, not all of the stories were amazing. Sure, the writing is incredible but most of the 35 stories/poems were just boring or plain weird. I actually skimmed through two or three works.
The book is filled with mythology, magic, history and sometimes they feature real people. Valente's creativity is stunning, she takes a normal element and gives it a new spin on its tale.
Despite all this, I'm still planning on reading more of her works. After all, her book Deathless made it to my all time favorites. And also yeah, her writing is good for my soul.
I was so young. I didn’t know anything. I said: I could be a wolf for you. I could put my teeth on your throat. I could growl. I could eat you whole. I could wait for you in the dark. I could howl against your hair.
Read
July 12, 2015Didn't read the whole collection so I'm not going to bother rating it.
Two of the stories are utterly amazing.
Silently and Very Fast is one of the best stories I've read in a while, and the only novella in the collection. It's a mix of fairytales, posthumanism, biopunk, and post-terran journey, which is such a cool thing. For much of the story you're kind of caught up in how interesting everything is, and it's narrated by an AI, but gradually the emotions begin to pull on you and the story becomes enormous in scope. But it's an internal scope, hitting emotions as wide as planets are apart. Also, one of the most interesting takes on the Singularity I've encountered.
White Lines on a Green Field was also fantastic. It's a wild and playful take on high school recklessness. It's about youth and it feels youthful and dangerous in all the right ways. Really loved this story.
I think Valente handles teenagers better than anyone whose name isn't Stephen Graham Jones, and several of the stories deal with that time in life. I read probably half the collection and a lot of the stories are just okay, with a few bad ones and those two that I mentioned which burn so bright and loud.
She's an interesting writer with a cool use of language and narrative. She's subtle at times and screaming at other ones. I think this was a good introduction to her. I'll probably try out a novel by her soon. Hopefully it's more like her noveella and less like her shorter stories.
Two of the stories are utterly amazing.
Silently and Very Fast is one of the best stories I've read in a while, and the only novella in the collection. It's a mix of fairytales, posthumanism, biopunk, and post-terran journey, which is such a cool thing. For much of the story you're kind of caught up in how interesting everything is, and it's narrated by an AI, but gradually the emotions begin to pull on you and the story becomes enormous in scope. But it's an internal scope, hitting emotions as wide as planets are apart. Also, one of the most interesting takes on the Singularity I've encountered.
White Lines on a Green Field was also fantastic. It's a wild and playful take on high school recklessness. It's about youth and it feels youthful and dangerous in all the right ways. Really loved this story.
I think Valente handles teenagers better than anyone whose name isn't Stephen Graham Jones, and several of the stories deal with that time in life. I read probably half the collection and a lot of the stories are just okay, with a few bad ones and those two that I mentioned which burn so bright and loud.
She's an interesting writer with a cool use of language and narrative. She's subtle at times and screaming at other ones. I think this was a good introduction to her. I'll probably try out a novel by her soon. Hopefully it's more like her noveella and less like her shorter stories.
November 1, 2014
The Consultant: 2 stars.
White Lines on a Green Field: 3 stars.
The Bread We Eat in Dreams: 5 stars.
The Melancholy of Mechagirl: (poetry)
A Voice Like a Hole: 5 stars.
The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland—For a Little While: -
How to Raise a Minotaur: 3 stars.
The Shoot-out at the Burnt Corn Ranch Over the Bride of the World: 4 stars.
Mouse Koan: (poetry)
The Blueberry Queen of Wiscasset: 3 stars.
In the Future When All's Well: 2 stars.
Fade to White: 1 star.
Aeromaus: 1,5 star.
Red Engines: (poetry)
The Wolves of Brooklyn: 4 stars.
One Breath, One Stroke: 4 stars.
Kallisti: 4 stars.
The Wedding: 4 stars.
The Secret of Being a Cowboy: (poetry)
Twenty -five Facts about Santa-Claus: 5 stars.
We Without Us Were Shadows: 3 stars.
The Red Girl: 3,5 stars.
Aquaman and the Duality of Self/Other, America, 1985: (poetry)
The Room: 4 stars.
Silently And Very Fast: 5 stars.
What the Dragon Said: a Love Story: (poetry)
White Lines on a Green Field: 3 stars.
The Bread We Eat in Dreams: 5 stars.
The Melancholy of Mechagirl: (poetry)
A Voice Like a Hole: 5 stars.
The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland—For a Little While: -
How to Raise a Minotaur: 3 stars.
The Shoot-out at the Burnt Corn Ranch Over the Bride of the World: 4 stars.
Mouse Koan: (poetry)
The Blueberry Queen of Wiscasset: 3 stars.
In the Future When All's Well: 2 stars.
Fade to White: 1 star.
Aeromaus: 1,5 star.
Red Engines: (poetry)
The Wolves of Brooklyn: 4 stars.
One Breath, One Stroke: 4 stars.
Kallisti: 4 stars.
The Wedding: 4 stars.
The Secret of Being a Cowboy: (poetry)
Twenty -five Facts about Santa-Claus: 5 stars.
We Without Us Were Shadows: 3 stars.
The Red Girl: 3,5 stars.
Aquaman and the Duality of Self/Other, America, 1985: (poetry)
The Room: 4 stars.
Silently And Very Fast: 5 stars.
What the Dragon Said: a Love Story: (poetry)
January 28, 2014
The Bread We Eat in Dreamscontains thirty-five of Catherynne Valente’s short stories and novellas, caught out in the wild and arranged neatly for the paying public. Ranging from delicate, herbivorous poems to novella-sized megafauna, these creatures display the ecological diversity of the Phylum of the Fantastic and the continued resonance of the Kingdom of Myth. For gentlemen-scientists and enthusiastic students of all things speculative, Valente’s story-menagerie is worth the visit.
Thirty-five stories cannot be summarized in any meaningful sense, particularly when they are such willful, strange, and wild stories. There are warped retellings of fairytales — at least one witch plucks an apple from a tree, and little red riding hood has grown awfully postmodern and bitter over the years (“The Red Girl”). There are dystopian future-worlds ruled by women with a hundred ... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
Thirty-five stories cannot be summarized in any meaningful sense, particularly when they are such willful, strange, and wild stories. There are warped retellings of fairytales — at least one witch plucks an apple from a tree, and little red riding hood has grown awfully postmodern and bitter over the years (“The Red Girl”). There are dystopian future-worlds ruled by women with a hundred ... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
April 15, 2017
I greatly enjoy Valente's writing style, not only in this anthology, but in her other masterpieces as well. Many of the stories in here were quite catching, and I enjoyed the way she played with myths and fairy tales, molding them into something new, something echoing what it is to be human now, in the past, and possibly in the future. Of course her writing is beautiful, but the content, as well as being a good story, makes you think about the world in a different way, like growing another sense.
November 16, 2019
This was a really lovely book that I've been reading for the last couple weeks. The chief attraction is Valente's beautiful prose, but her incisive wit and thoughtful reflection are close seconds. The Bread We Eat in Dreams is not a collection that has a clear narrative or unified type of story, but it presents a picture of a mind deeply concerned with the ethics of social interaction and with our responsibilities to each other. These poems tend towards the humorous in a manner that is different from the stories (though there is humor in those too), but not at the expense of linguistic power or emotional honesty (I, frankly, was royally pissed when I realized what she was doing in "Mouse Koan"; it was just too good). The arc of the book (insofar as it had one) draws us inward, into the logic of mind and story and dream while still always remembering the relationality that suffuses the communal-ness of the stories that come earlier in the book.
Some favorite pieces include "What the Dragon Said: A Love Story", "Silently and Very Fast," "Twenty-five Facts About Santa Claus", "The Secret of Being a Cowboy" (ending "The secret of being a cowboy is / never sticking around too long and honor / sometimes looks like a rack of bones / still standing straight up at the end of both poems."), "Kallisti", "The Wolves of Brooklyn", "Fade to White", "The Blueberry Queen of Wiscasset" (with its haunting vision of unknown power and a desperate ache to make things well), and "The Bread We Eat In Dreams". These are stories and poems filled with love and awe and sight, even when Valente doesn't show us everything she sees. Well worth reading if you can get your hands on a copy. And even if you can't, it's worth seeking out whatever of its contents you can find in her other collections.
Some favorite pieces include "What the Dragon Said: A Love Story", "Silently and Very Fast," "Twenty-five Facts About Santa Claus", "The Secret of Being a Cowboy" (ending "The secret of being a cowboy is / never sticking around too long and honor / sometimes looks like a rack of bones / still standing straight up at the end of both poems."), "Kallisti", "The Wolves of Brooklyn", "Fade to White", "The Blueberry Queen of Wiscasset" (with its haunting vision of unknown power and a desperate ache to make things well), and "The Bread We Eat In Dreams". These are stories and poems filled with love and awe and sight, even when Valente doesn't show us everything she sees. Well worth reading if you can get your hands on a copy. And even if you can't, it's worth seeking out whatever of its contents you can find in her other collections.
March 27, 2017
When I read a book that has beautiful words, they always linger in my mind like an echo or a pleasant aftertaste, as if my daily thoughts aspire to be beautiful too. The short stories and poetry in this collection are such an example of beautiful words. The stories are unique, funny, and at times heartbreakingly beautiful. I rarely reread books, but this one I wouldn't mind reading again, savoring the feel of the words in my mind's mouth as I read.
August 15, 2019
It only took me three years.
November 25, 2022
reading Valente is a storytelling masterclass and will rewild you
September 22, 2017
This is one of the most wonderful fairytale type books I've ever read. The writing is divine and the stories are clever and inventive. I read a story or part of one before bed and go to sleep with a smile on my face. The analogy of history being like your auntie's elusive cat was brilliant and the insights and descriptions are such a pleasure to read and savor. You want to savor each of the stories and l actually look forward to reading them again which I never do with books! What a fabulous writer. I would get a whole box of these books and give them out to anyone who needed cheering up or a break from the chaos of reality. What a fabulous book!
August 9, 2014
I really loved this collection. I'm coming to realize that I'm more of an anthology girl than a collection reader in general. I like the variety and I can get bogged down in collection if they aren't balanced really well. And this is a long collection, twenty stories and five poems. It looks like the limited edition printed version of the book has ten more stories that weren't in the ebook, as well. But despite the length and my inclinations, this book was great, I really enjoyed every bit of it.
Even though I'd read several of the stories before, I re-read all of them except White Lines on a Green Field, which was fine (and award-nominated), but not one of my favorites. I enjoyed my re-reads of The Bread We Eat in Dreams (award-nominated), the very odd One Breath, One Stroke (which is one of the stories that made me fall in love with Valente), and Silently and Very Fast (award-nominated), which is probably the best short story/novella I've ever read. In fact, Silently was even better the second time around, I understood it better and picked up on nuances I'd missed the first time. Silently is still available online from when it was printed in Clarkesworld, I urge you to try it if you haven't read it yet.
It's interesting just to look at those three stories and see that one uses US history with a bit of mythology, a demon and religion, one uses Japanese culture and mythology, and one is science fiction and mythology, everything from Enki and Inanna to Snow White. But she uses the mythological references in such new and creative ways, she just blows me away. This isn't re-writing or updating fairy tales. In her stories mythology is a touchstone, or a mirror, or a jumping off point, but what she does with it is completely new and fascinating.
As for the other stories, I was never bored, but some I loved, some were fun and some were just smiles and nods. I loved my first visit to her version of Fairyland in The Girl Who Rules Fairyland—For a Little While. The teenage runaways inVoice Like a Hole were moving. The Shoot-Out at Burnt Corn Ranch was wild, she was at her craziest in that one, kind of a wild west version of One Breath with mythology and characters run rampant. I'm not good at reading poetry, my eyes just don't focus on it well, but I tried a few times with these and eventually The Melancholy of Mechagirl sunk in, and so did Red Engines. There were many other stories that were quite good, but those were my favorites. It's really a terrific collection. Which obviously isn't just my opinion, considering how many of the stories in the collection were nominated for and won so many awards. For once I'm in agreement with the judges. The collection was also nominated for the 2014 Locus Award. Those Locus voters always seem to get it right, good job guys.
Even though I'd read several of the stories before, I re-read all of them except White Lines on a Green Field, which was fine (and award-nominated), but not one of my favorites. I enjoyed my re-reads of The Bread We Eat in Dreams (award-nominated), the very odd One Breath, One Stroke (which is one of the stories that made me fall in love with Valente), and Silently and Very Fast (award-nominated), which is probably the best short story/novella I've ever read. In fact, Silently was even better the second time around, I understood it better and picked up on nuances I'd missed the first time. Silently is still available online from when it was printed in Clarkesworld, I urge you to try it if you haven't read it yet.
It's interesting just to look at those three stories and see that one uses US history with a bit of mythology, a demon and religion, one uses Japanese culture and mythology, and one is science fiction and mythology, everything from Enki and Inanna to Snow White. But she uses the mythological references in such new and creative ways, she just blows me away. This isn't re-writing or updating fairy tales. In her stories mythology is a touchstone, or a mirror, or a jumping off point, but what she does with it is completely new and fascinating.
As for the other stories, I was never bored, but some I loved, some were fun and some were just smiles and nods. I loved my first visit to her version of Fairyland in The Girl Who Rules Fairyland—For a Little While. The teenage runaways inVoice Like a Hole were moving. The Shoot-Out at Burnt Corn Ranch was wild, she was at her craziest in that one, kind of a wild west version of One Breath with mythology and characters run rampant. I'm not good at reading poetry, my eyes just don't focus on it well, but I tried a few times with these and eventually The Melancholy of Mechagirl sunk in, and so did Red Engines. There were many other stories that were quite good, but those were my favorites. It's really a terrific collection. Which obviously isn't just my opinion, considering how many of the stories in the collection were nominated for and won so many awards. For once I'm in agreement with the judges. The collection was also nominated for the 2014 Locus Award. Those Locus voters always seem to get it right, good job guys.
paused
November 29, 2022The Consultant - The voice of this story is a delight and I love the dame Dick Tracy/Sam Spade/what have you. This is more of a sketch than a story, and it makes some good points but I would have liked a dab more! (I would probably be less disappointed if it didn't remind me how much I really want another book in the Indexing series.)
White Lines on a Green Field - I hate sports stories and most high school stories and almost all coming of age stories, but I love trickster gods and I am learning to love postcolonial comeuppance. This story won the Locus for a reason and it was a good one.
2021 Advent Calendar
Welcome to the short story Advent calendar! I will be reading a story a night (theoretically) and reviewing as I go, though I may give myself amnesty to finish the review the next day. Traditionally, these would be stories available online, but because I did no planning for this whatsoever until Karen inspired me to jump in on 12/1/21, I will be reading out of collections and anthologies I already own. Goodness knows I have enough of them. I expect though that I will jump around a bit, so I will include the full list on each. (Also, if you haven't seen a short story Advent calendar before, check out karen's calendar; she has been 10,000x better than I have about keeping the tradition and has all kinds of story goodness you can look at.
Story List
12/1: "Laughter at the Academy" in Laughter at the Academy by Seanan McGuire.
12/2: "Lost" in Laughter at the Academy by Seanan McGuire.
12/3: "The Consultant in by The Bread We Eat in Dreams Catherynne Valente.
12/4: "White Lines on a Green Field in by The Bread We Eat in Dreams Catherynne Valente.
12/5: "Mr. Fiddlehead" in The Woman Who Married a Cloud by Jonathan Carroll.
White Lines on a Green Field - I hate sports stories and most high school stories and almost all coming of age stories, but I love trickster gods and I am learning to love postcolonial comeuppance. This story won the Locus for a reason and it was a good one.
2021 Advent Calendar
Welcome to the short story Advent calendar! I will be reading a story a night (theoretically) and reviewing as I go, though I may give myself amnesty to finish the review the next day. Traditionally, these would be stories available online, but because I did no planning for this whatsoever until Karen inspired me to jump in on 12/1/21, I will be reading out of collections and anthologies I already own. Goodness knows I have enough of them. I expect though that I will jump around a bit, so I will include the full list on each. (Also, if you haven't seen a short story Advent calendar before, check out karen's calendar; she has been 10,000x better than I have about keeping the tradition and has all kinds of story goodness you can look at.
Story List
12/1: "Laughter at the Academy" in Laughter at the Academy by Seanan McGuire.
12/2: "Lost" in Laughter at the Academy by Seanan McGuire.
12/3: "The Consultant in by The Bread We Eat in Dreams Catherynne Valente.
12/4: "White Lines on a Green Field in by The Bread We Eat in Dreams Catherynne Valente.
12/5: "Mr. Fiddlehead" in The Woman Who Married a Cloud by Jonathan Carroll.
January 21, 2020
There is no doubting that Valente has oodles of talent, and few authors can manipulate language and words and imagery and ideas quite the way she does. But. Yes, the but.
I often feel she tries so hard to utilize as many colors and rhymes and alliterations and imaginary beasts, too often in the same lengthy sentence, that she forgets to develop the story. I love stylistic writing of many kinds, but I read books for stories.
Tales. Fables. Journeys. Morals. Lessons. Adventures. Dreamscapes. Lives. Nightmares.
Lacking a plot, the rest is just words. And beautiful as they may be, it can be tiresome to wade through the poetic prose, or prosaic poetry, to find nothing.
At her best, Valente weaves the words into worlds. For the rest, she fails to escape her linguistic games and leaves you in a void.
This, like most of her collections, has a few gems (but stories you may have already read already, elsewhere) but mostly it’s just some well-crafted words page after page after page.
To be fair and honest, I fault myself for reading most of these as singular pieces on various book and magazine sites, so my complaint is mainly* not their availability in the past, just their content.
Fool me once…
*An aside: I do think she “republishes” too much of her work. Her collections and anthologies have too many titles that have been presented in previous books. Kudos for selling more books, but how about getting to that second “Deathless” book instead, please.
I often feel she tries so hard to utilize as many colors and rhymes and alliterations and imaginary beasts, too often in the same lengthy sentence, that she forgets to develop the story. I love stylistic writing of many kinds, but I read books for stories.
Tales. Fables. Journeys. Morals. Lessons. Adventures. Dreamscapes. Lives. Nightmares.
Lacking a plot, the rest is just words. And beautiful as they may be, it can be tiresome to wade through the poetic prose, or prosaic poetry, to find nothing.
At her best, Valente weaves the words into worlds. For the rest, she fails to escape her linguistic games and leaves you in a void.
This, like most of her collections, has a few gems (but stories you may have already read already, elsewhere) but mostly it’s just some well-crafted words page after page after page.
To be fair and honest, I fault myself for reading most of these as singular pieces on various book and magazine sites, so my complaint is mainly* not their availability in the past, just their content.
Fool me once…
*An aside: I do think she “republishes” too much of her work. Her collections and anthologies have too many titles that have been presented in previous books. Kudos for selling more books, but how about getting to that second “Deathless” book instead, please.
February 9, 2017
If you liked this book, you might also enjoy:
✱ The Melancholy of Mechagirl
✱ Young Woman in a Garden: Stories
★★★★☆ The Consultant
★★★★☆ White Lines on a Green Field
★★★★★ The Bread We Eat in Dreams
★★★★☆ The Melancholy of Mechagirl
★★★★☆ A Voice Like a Hole
★★★★☆ The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland—For a Little While
★★★★★ How to Raise a Minotaur
★★★★★ The Shoot-Out at Burnt Corn Ranch Over the Bride of the World
★★★☆☆ Mouse Koan
★★★★☆ The Blueberry Queen of Wiscasset
★★★★☆ In the Future When All’s Well
★★★★☆ Fade to White
★★★★☆ Aeromaus
★★★★☆ Red Engines
★★★★★ The Wolves of Brooklyn
★★★★★ One Breath, One Stroke
★★★★★ Kallisti
★★★★☆ The Wedding
★★★☆☆ The Secret of Being a Cowboy
★★★☆☆ Twenty-Five Facts About Santa Claus
★★★★★ We Without Us Were Shadows
★★★★☆ The Red Girl
★★★★☆ Aquaman and the Duality of Self/Other, America, 1985
★★★★★ The Room
★★★★★ Silently and Very Fast
★★★★☆ What the Dragon Said: A Love Story
✱ The Melancholy of Mechagirl
✱ Young Woman in a Garden: Stories
★★★★☆ The Consultant
★★★★☆ White Lines on a Green Field
★★★★★ The Bread We Eat in Dreams
★★★★☆ The Melancholy of Mechagirl
★★★★☆ A Voice Like a Hole
★★★★☆ The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland—For a Little While
★★★★★ How to Raise a Minotaur
★★★★★ The Shoot-Out at Burnt Corn Ranch Over the Bride of the World
★★★☆☆ Mouse Koan
★★★★☆ The Blueberry Queen of Wiscasset
★★★★☆ In the Future When All’s Well
★★★★☆ Fade to White
★★★★☆ Aeromaus
★★★★☆ Red Engines
★★★★★ The Wolves of Brooklyn
★★★★★ One Breath, One Stroke
★★★★★ Kallisti
★★★★☆ The Wedding
★★★☆☆ The Secret of Being a Cowboy
★★★☆☆ Twenty-Five Facts About Santa Claus
★★★★★ We Without Us Were Shadows
★★★★☆ The Red Girl
★★★★☆ Aquaman and the Duality of Self/Other, America, 1985
★★★★★ The Room
★★★★★ Silently and Very Fast
★★★★☆ What the Dragon Said: A Love Story
December 2, 2016
Disappointing. | I have loved so much of Valente's work that for awhile I was practically an evangelist about it. "Have you read her? You must read her. Something of hers will fit your taste, you *must* check her out." When this was announced I put it straight on my wishlist and got it as soon as possible after release. But then I started reading it and, well, it was dull. Somewhere along the line, a few years ago, Valente got obsessed with creating beautiful writing, and stopped worrying about creating a quality narrative. Don't get me wrong, there is some gorgeous writing in this collection. The final story is probably the best example of my complaints. So deep, so intricate, so involved, so beautiful, so little story. Most of the time if I could care where a given story was going it wouldn't matter, because it's not actually ever going anywhere. There's no arc. There's rarely action, or conflict, truly. There are only characters, gazing deeply either into their navels or off into the horizon. It took me more than two full years to finish a single medium-length book of short stories and poetry by an author I have loved previous works of. "Disappointing" is the only real way I can describe it.
May 24, 2016
An odd mix. There were a few I really like, a few that were interesting, and a few that just did nothing for me.
I really liked The Consultant, but its tone/topic created an expectation for the other stories, as it felt very much like an intro. The expectation was not met, and I was rather disappointed by this.
I also can recommend the title story (The Bread We Eat in Dreams*). It's a very nice take on the witchcraft/demon mythos.
Fade To White* was an interesting atomic '50's dystopia. Worth reading.
Aeromaus focuses on the ways words and meanings can change.
One Breath, One Stroke is a fascinating cross-world identity parable.
We Without Us Were Shadows* has the premise that the Bronte sisters (and brother) discovered that their play-fiction world was real. Rather interesting.
The Room is a quirky story about a room that just shows up in houses, etc.
Silently and Very Fast* explores the growth of an AI through lived story-experience.
The rest I either didn't care for, or didn't leave a lasting impression.
*Indicates a title that is available to read for free online as of 2016.05.24
I really liked The Consultant, but its tone/topic created an expectation for the other stories, as it felt very much like an intro. The expectation was not met, and I was rather disappointed by this.
I also can recommend the title story (The Bread We Eat in Dreams*). It's a very nice take on the witchcraft/demon mythos.
Fade To White* was an interesting atomic '50's dystopia. Worth reading.
Aeromaus focuses on the ways words and meanings can change.
One Breath, One Stroke is a fascinating cross-world identity parable.
We Without Us Were Shadows* has the premise that the Bronte sisters (and brother) discovered that their play-fiction world was real. Rather interesting.
The Room is a quirky story about a room that just shows up in houses, etc.
Silently and Very Fast* explores the growth of an AI through lived story-experience.
The rest I either didn't care for, or didn't leave a lasting impression.
*Indicates a title that is available to read for free online as of 2016.05.24
January 24, 2016
I love that she is eclectic and inventive. I love that she has different voices, as that is rare and beautiful in a writer. She gives lush, memorable moments to each story. I will never see the moon quite the same way again.
Valente is one of my favorite authors, so I was excited to get this ebook at such a good deal. I was disappointed with the quality, which I assume is not the author's fault. There are numerous, easily seen typos.
That being said, it is a significant glimpse into her writing and her creative mind. There were a lot of stories that seemed to be seeds of her books. I could see her swirling these stories around until they became independent and full.
Valente is one of my favorite authors, so I was excited to get this ebook at such a good deal. I was disappointed with the quality, which I assume is not the author's fault. There are numerous, easily seen typos.
That being said, it is a significant glimpse into her writing and her creative mind. There were a lot of stories that seemed to be seeds of her books. I could see her swirling these stories around until they became independent and full.
March 21, 2016
The fact I loved this book is pretty much a no-brainer - this is Valente at her best, and it's almost frightening how perfectly she spans multiple genres. There is poetry here, sometimes cryptic, sometimes sparsely powerful; short stories about mythology, about everyday life, about everyday life post-apocalypse, about all the different apocalypses you can have. The kind of collection where you have a unique opinion about every single story inside. Just brilliant stuff.
August 16, 2023
Feverishly dark. Madness reigns here. Fav story: the one about the Apple tree at the end of the world. I still think about the woman in black.
September 3, 2014
Mixed. Definitely not one of her best.
October 11, 2015
It had "White Lines on a Green Field" in it and it's still probably one of my fvorite short stories ever so how could the rating be any less
February 12, 2018
The blurb on the back of the book (curtesy of Publishers Weekly) mentions Valente’s ability to explore and convey the complexities and changes of youth. I’d argue that that’s her work in this collection of story stories and poems is more universal than that. You see, we’re all young when it comes to the stories that we tell ourselves. There’s a reason why almost all the protagonists in fairy tales are children or teenagers. It’s easy to relate to the plight of the young because we’re like them. We’re all lost and clueless, desperately seeking something true. On some level Valente realizes that no matter how many years we live, we are still young when it comes to the world around us.
No story exemplifies this more than her novella “Silently and Very Fast.” Taking place in the distant future, it’s the story of an AI, having lived generations in the minds of one family, coming to terms with what and who it is. It’s an initially odd yet deeply original tale that centers around the emotional experiences of the AI -- a story is so interior that we never even see the real world. Eventually, the AI comes to the conclusion that no matter how many hundreds of years it’s lived, it still has so much to learn.
All of Valente’s stories in this collection deal with all those issues that we find ourselves questioning and establishing when we’re young -- love and death and sex and blood and relationships and isolation -- the very essence of what it means to be human.
Some are quiet explorations like “Silently and Very Fast,” focused more on mood and tone than action. Another example of that type of story is “In the Future When All’s Well.” Here, while vampirism slowly and unpredictably spreads through the human race, one teenager struggles to find her place in the changing world. No fights or love stories. Just a girl trying to understand.
To look at these youthful universal issues, Valente oscillates between sci-fi and fantasy though almost all are inspired by / pull from fairy tales and other folklore. “White Lines on a Green Field” is another tale of the trickster god Coyote living it up, but this time on the football field. Somehow Valente accurately captures the clichés and enchantment of high school within the clichés and magic of legends. As a sci-fi example, “Fade to White,” is an atompunk story of a world full of constructed families and false façades in the midst of a simmering nuclear war. In this one Valente dances with the age-old concept of arranged marriage and what love and society mean in a world that is slowly splitting apart at the seams.
Sometimes Valente does get a little weird and/or overly-detailed. “One Breath, One Stroke,” a tale of the split life of a man and his spirit, was very bizarre and unsettling but in an exacting way, mimicking the Japanese folklore that it was inspired by. “The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland – For a Little While,” the story of how Queen Mallow took power, included so many strange and bizarre details about the world that it was almost dizzying. And “We Without Us Were Shadows,” which introduces the Bronte sisters as creators of a magical kingdom, was just random and nearly nonsensical – easily the weakest of the whole collection.
Overall, Valente’s stories in this collection are thoughtful and questing, rooting at the primal, youthful heart of humanity often through the universal stories of creation and magic. Because who doesn’t like a good fairy tale once and a while?
No story exemplifies this more than her novella “Silently and Very Fast.” Taking place in the distant future, it’s the story of an AI, having lived generations in the minds of one family, coming to terms with what and who it is. It’s an initially odd yet deeply original tale that centers around the emotional experiences of the AI -- a story is so interior that we never even see the real world. Eventually, the AI comes to the conclusion that no matter how many hundreds of years it’s lived, it still has so much to learn.
All of Valente’s stories in this collection deal with all those issues that we find ourselves questioning and establishing when we’re young -- love and death and sex and blood and relationships and isolation -- the very essence of what it means to be human.
Some are quiet explorations like “Silently and Very Fast,” focused more on mood and tone than action. Another example of that type of story is “In the Future When All’s Well.” Here, while vampirism slowly and unpredictably spreads through the human race, one teenager struggles to find her place in the changing world. No fights or love stories. Just a girl trying to understand.
To look at these youthful universal issues, Valente oscillates between sci-fi and fantasy though almost all are inspired by / pull from fairy tales and other folklore. “White Lines on a Green Field” is another tale of the trickster god Coyote living it up, but this time on the football field. Somehow Valente accurately captures the clichés and enchantment of high school within the clichés and magic of legends. As a sci-fi example, “Fade to White,” is an atompunk story of a world full of constructed families and false façades in the midst of a simmering nuclear war. In this one Valente dances with the age-old concept of arranged marriage and what love and society mean in a world that is slowly splitting apart at the seams.
Sometimes Valente does get a little weird and/or overly-detailed. “One Breath, One Stroke,” a tale of the split life of a man and his spirit, was very bizarre and unsettling but in an exacting way, mimicking the Japanese folklore that it was inspired by. “The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland – For a Little While,” the story of how Queen Mallow took power, included so many strange and bizarre details about the world that it was almost dizzying. And “We Without Us Were Shadows,” which introduces the Bronte sisters as creators of a magical kingdom, was just random and nearly nonsensical – easily the weakest of the whole collection.
Overall, Valente’s stories in this collection are thoughtful and questing, rooting at the primal, youthful heart of humanity often through the universal stories of creation and magic. Because who doesn’t like a good fairy tale once and a while?
March 20, 2017
average star rating 4.13
more detailed thoughts (incl individual short story ratings/reactions) will be coming, for now i'm just going to say WOW yes this is my type of collection. Not every short in this knocked it out of the park for me but a lot of them did. this felt like such a complete and diverse look at fairytales and magical realism my brain feels compressed and weighed down in the aftermath. a little like being struck my a car and left to drift in the sea at night.
Individual Ratings (w/ thoughts that have stuck with me about the ones that stuck with me ;) ):
The Consultant *5 (a very strong start to the collection. the language is on point & sets the theme for most of the rest of the book)
White Lines on a Green Field *4.5 (I love stories about Coyote and this was interesting esp from Bunny's pov)
The Bread We Eat in Dreams *5 (AMAZING)
The Melancholy of Mechagirl *5 (really amazing imagery about girls in this one)
A Voice Like a Hole *3
The Girl who Ruled Fairyland,etc *4.75 (prior to reading this I wasnt especially interested in reading the Fairyland series but now I'll be picking them up. I love the cyclical nature between the Wind and her lover in this)
How to Raise a Minotaur *5 (So creepy, really interesting twist on a familiar legend)
The Shoot-Out At Burnt Corn Ranch,etc *4 (loved the premise here and the world building)
Mouse Koan *4.75 (again amazing imagery and really interesting discussion going on in the lines about Capitalism and consumerism)
The Blueberry Queen of Wiscasset *5 (love it, again inversions and manipulations of familiar stories A+)
In the Future When All's Well *3.75
Fade to White *4 (it was slow getting into this one but it really is a fascinating and unique twist on the control of sexuality and reproduction in a dystopian future)
Aeromaus *4
Red Engines *3.75
The Wolves of Brooklyn *3.75 (I liked what she was doing in this & it definitely has stayed in my head but I don't remember the end coming quite enough together for me)
One Breath, One Stroke *4.5
Kallisti *4
The Wedding *3.75
The Secret of Being a Cowboy *3 (this one was fine but it didn't grip me)
24 Facts About Santa Claus *4 (some of the stuff in this is REALLY fascinating)
We Without Us Were Shadows *4
The Red Girl *3.75
Aquaman,etc *3.5 (fine but didn't grip me)
The Room *3.5 (interesting concept)
Silently and Very Fast *5 (this one is AMAZING, again, love the concept, love the imagery. I think this would make the foundation for a fascinating spare philosophical film w/ the right director, something harkening back to a different landscape in scifi)
What the Dragon Said, etc *3.5 (this one was fine, except that as the conclusion to the collection it left me kind of, eh and it didn't wow me compared to the previous story so overall i was underwhelmed by it as the end)
more detailed thoughts (incl individual short story ratings/reactions) will be coming, for now i'm just going to say WOW yes this is my type of collection. Not every short in this knocked it out of the park for me but a lot of them did. this felt like such a complete and diverse look at fairytales and magical realism my brain feels compressed and weighed down in the aftermath. a little like being struck my a car and left to drift in the sea at night.
Individual Ratings (w/ thoughts that have stuck with me about the ones that stuck with me ;) ):
The Consultant *5 (a very strong start to the collection. the language is on point & sets the theme for most of the rest of the book)
White Lines on a Green Field *4.5 (I love stories about Coyote and this was interesting esp from Bunny's pov)
The Bread We Eat in Dreams *5 (AMAZING)
The Melancholy of Mechagirl *5 (really amazing imagery about girls in this one)
A Voice Like a Hole *3
The Girl who Ruled Fairyland,etc *4.75 (prior to reading this I wasnt especially interested in reading the Fairyland series but now I'll be picking them up. I love the cyclical nature between the Wind and her lover in this)
How to Raise a Minotaur *5 (So creepy, really interesting twist on a familiar legend)
The Shoot-Out At Burnt Corn Ranch,etc *4 (loved the premise here and the world building)
Mouse Koan *4.75 (again amazing imagery and really interesting discussion going on in the lines about Capitalism and consumerism)
The Blueberry Queen of Wiscasset *5 (love it, again inversions and manipulations of familiar stories A+)
In the Future When All's Well *3.75
Fade to White *4 (it was slow getting into this one but it really is a fascinating and unique twist on the control of sexuality and reproduction in a dystopian future)
Aeromaus *4
Red Engines *3.75
The Wolves of Brooklyn *3.75 (I liked what she was doing in this & it definitely has stayed in my head but I don't remember the end coming quite enough together for me)
One Breath, One Stroke *4.5
Kallisti *4
The Wedding *3.75
The Secret of Being a Cowboy *3 (this one was fine but it didn't grip me)
24 Facts About Santa Claus *4 (some of the stuff in this is REALLY fascinating)
We Without Us Were Shadows *4
The Red Girl *3.75
Aquaman,etc *3.5 (fine but didn't grip me)
The Room *3.5 (interesting concept)
Silently and Very Fast *5 (this one is AMAZING, again, love the concept, love the imagery. I think this would make the foundation for a fascinating spare philosophical film w/ the right director, something harkening back to a different landscape in scifi)
What the Dragon Said, etc *3.5 (this one was fine, except that as the conclusion to the collection it left me kind of, eh and it didn't wow me compared to the previous story so overall i was underwhelmed by it as the end)
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