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coffeeandink

coffee & ink

Currently reading

Gilbert and Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic after Thirty Years
Annette R. Federico, Sandra M. Gilbert
Stolen
Annette LaPointe
Glitter and Mayhem - Amal El-Mohtar, Maria Dahvana Headley, Laura Chavoen, Michael Damian Thomas, Damien Walters Grintalis, Cory Skerry, Sofia Samatar, Damien Walters, Kyle S. Johnson, Kat Howard, Seanan McGuire, Jennifer Pelland, Vylar Kaftan, Rachel Swirsky, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Diana Ro The stories aren't bad, but the only stand-out entry is Sofia Samatar's "Bess, the Landlord's Daughter, Goes Out for Drinks with the Green Girl," which covers some of the same territory as Helen Oyeyemi's Mr. Fox, but in a whirl of bars and flirtations and dancing and friendships and escapes that come too late. We are fascinated by beautiful dead girls; they take their revenge.

I also liked:

Tansy Rayner Robert's "The Minotaur Girls," where a girl needs to free her friends from the labyrinth of a roller rink; Rayner Robert's urban fantasies really appeal to me. I'd love to see her do one at novel length.

Christopher Barzak's "Sisters Twelve: Confessions of a Party Monster," a retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses."

Maria Davana Headley's "Such & Such and So & So," in which personified drinks seduce the unwary.

Jennifer Pelland's "Star Dancer," in which a bug-eyed alien just wants to dance.



The anthology was still a pleasure to read because of all the women in it -- lots of female characters, including a couple of trans women, and a lot of queer women.