The writing of this book was very good, but the gruesomeness was too much, and I wasn't able to finish the last few short stories. A death of human or animal was the ending of all the stories I read, and despite the good variety of stories and settings, the deaths turned me off.

Hannah Tinti is a fine writer. Witty, visceral, she gets to the heart of the matter with a few well-chosen words. These stories showcase that talent. Many of them are bloody and violent. In "Bloodworks" there is a child who is violent towards his sister, classmates, and others. He eventually kills and keeps as a trophy, a newborn kitten. Yep. It's in here. So is another story with a violent son, the very brief "Slim's Last Ride" which refers to a pet rabbit whose owner is a young boy who continu...

I wanted to like this more than I did. I found the characters and stories flat and unappealing, and while I'm not terribly squeamish, some of the callous violence (especially toward animals) was repulsive and (at times) gratuitous.The only humorous bit was the list of demands from three giraffes to their zookeeper. I kept hoping for more of the wit and humor promised on the book's back cover, but none of the "humour beneath our darkest impulses" was apparent to me.The Author's Note following the...

I enjoyed Tinti's two novels and so I decided to read her collection of stories. Most of the stories here contained gory details of animal mutilation that seemed, to me, pointless. Each story contained a vague or nonexistent epiphany, and I was left confused about the character's arc and/or theme of the story.

With the exception of Amy Hempel, I don't think I've ever given five stars to a collection of short stories. Usually, there are too many misses for me to go above three stars. But there was something about Tinti's writing that allowed me to forgive/gloss over the shortcomings.These stories are bizarre in the best kind of way. Tinti's sense of humor is wonderful, and her created worlds turn "reality" on its head just enough for anything and everything to happen.Seriously, good and fresh stuff. I

I was thoroughly disappointed in this book. The back promised the stories were, "original and funny" but I thought gruesome and lackluster were more like it. I hated reading about the unnecessary deaths and cruelty of animals. I would not read this book again.

Hannah Tinti's story collection is a rare beast: a mix of mild absurdity (unionized elephants, a grown man who refuses to tie his shoes) and reality that scrapes along the underside of your soul. Similarly, the animals in question are both literal and metaphorical. The rabbit a troubled boy throws out the window is real and bloody and injured, but the snake a woman cooks and feeds to her ex-boyfriend is an act of turning herself inside out. Our society saves some of its worst violence for animal...

Serendipity brought me to this author, and I'm glad it did. A page and a half from the end of the 1st story I thought it was good, but after reading the final paragraph, I rated it VERY good. The second story was excellent - in the presentation of the characters, in the presentation of the mystery - so much so that I rate it as one of the best murder short stories I've read. The balance of the collection maintains a very high level of writing.

I. Loved. This. Book! It's a book of short stories all having something to do with animals in some way, shape or form. Fair warning, the stories can border on dark and often sweep right over the edge of that line (which I personally love, but I'm aware it isn't everyone's cup of tea), but I think that's what makes the stories great. The stories take turns that I didn't see coming and had me completely enthralled. I couldn't put it down. The characters are real without being overwrought and with

Her language is lovely, but her topics are dark and disturbing...so much so that I felt uncomfortable and shocked at some of short stories' content. There may be one of two of the stories I may recommend, but this isn't a book I'm going to praise to everyone I meet. Most likely, it will never be mentioned. You have been forewarned.

Among most of the short stories in the collection is quite a bit of violence/gore specific to animals, which made this a difficult read. Being vegetarian (trying to go vegan), it definitely made me uncomfortable and tear up at some points. However, art is supposed to make you uncomfortable. While this did unnerve me, I find Tinti's descriptive abilities and writing style very captivating.

When my little sister was in junior high, White Fang was assigned reading. In the novel, there is a scene depicting animal death that so disturbed my 13-year-old sister's sensibilities that my mother had to submit a request that my sister be assigned another, less graphic, classic. Suffice to say that my sister, who still prefers animals over humans, would find many of the stories in Hannah Tinti's collection intolerable. I do not consider myself sensitive, particularly when it comes to animals,...

I really couldn't get on with this book. I might have had more patience with it at another time, but when I picked it up today and read the first few stories I just couldn't think of a reason to make myself read the rest. I very rarely stop reading a book without finishing it. Even if I don't like a book, I usually find I can learn something from it. I didn't get that with this book. A one star rating might seem a bit harsh, given that I think there's plenty about this book that's perfectly OK.

This collection ranges from humorous to horrifying, weird and wonderful.

This is difficult to rate, because it's very good but I didn't like it. It's an extremely uncomfortable read. The stories are all meant to be ominous and trigger a certain sense of dread and discomfort that only grows as you progress through the pages, but that you can't quite put your finger on. So, in that sense, all these stories are very well crafted. If that description appeals to you, then this is your type of book. I just didn't find them very enjoyable. There are three exceptions to this...

This book was hard for me-- I admit I only read the first five or six stories and then returned it to the library. The writing is excellent and unusual but every story involves a gruesome death, either human or animal, and I was having nightmares. (It didn't help that I was reading a story before going to bed.)Doesn't it seem like stories are much more likely to be disturbing than novels? Once you're in a novel, you have some expectation of whether, in the next 25 pages, something will occur tha...

I love this collection. As a writer, Tinti had me rereading, looking for the seams and asking how did she do that? Highly imaginative stories with moments of discomfort where I had to put the book down (Slim's Last Ride! Goodness) and just an authoritative handling that I totally submitted to.

"Animal Crackers" is the debut work by Hannah Tinti and consists of a collection of short stories that have animals as a common thread through the stories.This is NOT a children's book by any means when you think animal stories. The short stories deal with a number of serious topics: abuse, murder, infidelity, relationships and other violent or unusual happenings.There are all kinds of animals here... from your basic dogs, cats and birds... to bears, elephants, snakes and even turkeys. The stori...

A zoo, a circus, a turkey farm, a natural history museum, an African hunting expedition: several of the 11 stories are set in locales where human–animal interactions are formalized and exploitative, but all mention an animal at least once. In two cases the animal reference seems incidental and the stories really belong elsewhere – “Home Sweet Home,” which opens with the excellent line “Pat and Clyde were murdered on pot roast night,” appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2003; “Hit Man of th...

This collection was so dark and sinister at times and so honest and smart at others. It was remarkable how much the author was able to inject into these stories and these characters. There were definitely some indicators as to the novelist Hannah Tinti would become now. I enjoyed subtlety she included the animals in the individual story. Some favorites were “home sweet home,” for its ability to encompass a raunchy and daring whodunnit into such a short page count, “reasonable terms,” where three...