Beautifully written each story drew me in so thoughtful so well written. Emotional moving highly recommend #netgalley #scribner

I thought this book was interesting, but could not find my footing nor was I really engaged. Perhaps it's just a consequence of the time, but I have to DNF this one all the same. Nevertheless, thanks for allowing me to read in advance — I really love the cover!

I can tell you that Mandeliene Smith is an excellent writer - it's obvious from even the first few sentences of the first story in this collection. All of these stories made me feel incredibly anxious, nervous, sweaty-palmed. I cannot say I really enjoyed them, but they were well done!

I liked the premise of the book more than the actual writing. The blurb description of "an intimate, sparkling collection of stories by a debut writer about girls behaving badly and families on the brink of collapse" is something I knew I had to read, but once I got into it, I found Smith's characters and stories, while dealing with loss, too detached. There are terrific bits in each story, though unfortunately I don't believe it's enough to warrant a read.

Eh....not the best set of short stories I've ever read and certainly not the worst. Some of these are very...surface level, I found that I didn't care enough about these characters. I had forgotten one story as soon as I started the next.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The writing within these stories is gorgeous. These stories hold so much wisdom and stories of striving while facing hardships. I liked some stories more than others, but they all have beautiful prose. It is a compassionate, and insightful collection.

What a gorgeous writer--and what wisdom these stories hold about women and girls! Incisive, compassionate, insightful--these stories deliver and Smith's voice truly sparkles.

DNF
The stories are all surface and no depth. In cases where I've encountered this before, there was beautiful prose to keep me entertained. Rutting Season is missing the beautiful writing. I immediately forgot what the first story was about before starting the second story. Characters are more stereotypes than actual, complex people. There's nothing here to keep me reading.