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An impressively consistent collection which mixes the familiar with the undeservedly forgotten and talent spots a few writers who were (then) up-and-coming. Highlights include Ursula Le Guin's troubling 'what would you do?' fantasy, 'Those Who Walk Away from Omelas', Susan Sontag's 'The Dummy' (a critique of capitalism and the American Dream which has only grown more telling in the forty years since it first appeared), and the beautifully subtle 'Up North' by Mavis Gallant, a ghost story which h...
Read some years ago - can't recall much except that a large chunk is taken up by a very striking novella by Joyce Carol Oates, "The Virgin in the Rose Bower". My main 'take' from this collection was a determination to follow up other fiction by Oates, which I have, at the time of writing, began to read.
For my review of this book, visit my Youtube Vlog at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krTKU...Enjoy!
Forced myself to finish this. Very boring... Zzz...
"This collection started off well enough, with an admirable Atwood, an intriguing Byatt. And then I noticed that the stories in this anthology were arranged in _alphabetical_ order. How lazy, I thought to myself. I have strong feelings about anthologies and their editors. It's not enough that there be a strong theme - macabre tales by 20th women writersbut the editor needs to think carefully about the structure of the book, creating an arc that leads the reader from one story eagerly on to the n...
PLACEHOLDER REVIEW: reading a bunch of Fay Weldon and while this book is on my "to read" shelf, I thought I'd jump ahead and place the review here."Spirit Of The House" by Fay Weldon has an employee at the grand home of one of those landed-gentry-turned-tourist-attraction manors begin to suspect that the young nanny - who her husband lusts after - entrusted with the care of the lord's infant child is actually harming the baby, but no one believes her. Nice little modern Gothic, set in the world
There were a few good selections in this book (Shirley Jackson definitely delivered on creepiness, as always), but in general, these stories were tame. Also, as a collection, it was not put together well. The stories were ordered alphabetically by the author's names, which I have never seen in an anthology before. It didn't flow well, especially because in the midst of a book of short stories they put 165 page piece by Joyce Carol Oates.
Only marred for me by the false ambiguity of Joyce Carol Oate's The Virgin in the Rose Bower (fans of tv show Lost will know what I mean.) But the terse, spare, and brilliant story that follows would make the entire book worth reading. There are some true gems in this lost of mystery/horror stories by women. Well done.
This is almost a five-star (and probably would be if I hadn't already previously read about half of the stories (all top notch ones) by all kinds of excellent authors ("by twenty-five leading female writers [who] dare to stray from the path of the ordinary and venture into the shadows." Great stories for bedtime reading.
An excellent collection of short stories all by women authors. Some are scarier than others and some just make you go "hmmm". Some of my favorite authors are included: Flannery O'Connor, Nadine Gordimer, and Margaret Atwood. Great collection for the scary story reader.
A few fantastic stories in this collection, but quite a few duds, including a novella jammed into a book of short stories, and as the other commenters point out, no organization or annotations worthy of the name.
The Tragedy of Glen Mawr Manor was really creepy. The story had a haunted room complete with a huge painting of cherubs. At times, or perhaps cuz of certain people, the images on the painting would come to life to harm the room's occupant.
3.5I picked it up for Daphne du Maurier and Shirley Jackson, but thoroughly enjoyed the works of many of the other writers, as well.
I finished all but the long overly-detailed story by Joyce Carol Oates.
Someone should inform the editor of this collection what horror means. There are some good stories here, but...
Horror
did not finish.just couldn't get into the stories to feel like finishing it.
