Jason Sizemore

Neat concept with a solid mixture of settings. A few of the stories were good. Most were not to my taste and a few were so bad I skipped to the next one part way through.

Oh Alix. How can you pack so many feels in one short story, 5200 words? I think I need to have a long steady look at the ones around me I love, and feel my own heart beat, and maybe cry a little but mostly smile.

Merged review:

Oh Alix. How can you pack so many feels in one short story, 5200 words? I think I need to have a long steady look at the ones around me I love, and feel my own heart beat, and maybe cry a little but mostly smile.

Some years it seems like everything in the anthologies (my preferred reading) has gone weird. To me it's like the cycle for everyone to get creative has come again and everyone has to get all existential. My life is just strange enough that I don't have the shared metaphors to connect with them. This would be one of those.

The sequel to Ursula Vernon's Jackalope Wives is nearly as good. It feels a little more pat than it's predecessor and a little more fan-servicey. If nothing else, Grandma Harken is a well-written and nuanced older female character -- a demographic largely missing from speculative fiction.