I loved this short story collection by Lauren Groff almost more than I loved her novel Fates and Furies. These stories are unsettling with a mounting sense of dread. They feel like modern fables, sneakily fantastical and hallucinatory. Perfect read on a sticky hot summer day in the park.

I'm between a so-so and a pick on this one. I think my ambivalence is partly because the tone felt kind of uneven to me. The central crime (and the suicide that sets up the whole mystery) felt really intense, but there are whimsical lighter flourishes and stylistic choices in the story too that didn't seem to match up to me. Overall, worth the read but not what I was expecting. More of a thriller than a mystery.

Started Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore whilst alternating coffee, beer and a benny. Perfect Saturday. Enjoying this read so far, anything set in a bookstore with a mystery vibe and I‘m there.

I read this in two sittings. It is incredibly written, putting into words so many of the feelings and longings I had at that early teen stage. The sentence structure and wording is evocative and gut-clenching. I've read some negative criticism about the last third of the book and feel that it's unwarranted. This is not a thriller or a suspense novel, but an intense look at the end of girlhood and the ragged entry into womanhood.