<i>Daddy: Stories</i> is Emma Cline's follow up work to her well-received debut novel <i>The Girls</i>. This tightly packed short story collection features 10 stories that center on the small (and sometimes quite large) failures of men.

Cline is a great story teller, and her strength seems to be in short stories. Each one is vivid and unsettling. At times the stories are almost painful to read because the characters are so trapped in their paths to self-destruction. Of the 10 stories "Marion" is the most engaging.

So why the three stars? There's no denying that Cline is so talented, and she knows how to create deeply flawed and unsettling characters, but I've realized that I'm just not a fan of her style for reasons I just can't put my finger on.

Thank you Random House and Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of this work.

Emma Cline's strong writing shines through in these short stories. While some were more compelling than others, the power dynamics explored throughout were all incredibly interesting.

I liked The Girls, and have been interested in some of the short stories Emma Cline has written, so I was excited to see this pop up in my feed. Netgalley gave me access to an ARC, so I spent the weekend reading this one. It wasn't nearly as good as I thought it would be. Every single story seemed to be a retelling of the one before it, and after awhile each one became tedious and predictable. Looking back, each story seemed to be the first draft, of a first chapter of a larger novel.

The good news is that there is definitely a feeling invoked in these stories. There's a languid, California ennui sadness in each of these stories, almost like Tennessee Williams, if he went to the West Coast. There's a grime over these characters that gives a certain depth to this collection as a whole, even if the stories aren't individualized enough to stand out on their own. There's a truth to their world, even if all the stories blur together in the end. I can talk about that feeling for this book, but I can't talk about each story because they were so much the same that I've mostly forgotten them, even though I only finished this two days ago. Not a one stands out in my mind.

I hope Emma Cline puts out a novel soon, since I think that is where she is strongest as a writer.

DADDY is a well-done short story collection by a clearly talented author. However, I didn't enjoy it as much as The Girls, Emma Cline's well-regarded novel from a few years back. So many of these stories end abruptly; I don't mind that for a few here and there, but this felt like one after another. Also, the tone is quite bleak as the characters come across as dysfunctional and disillusioned. Again, some variety would have been nice. That being said, the characters are complex and Cline portrays them expertly on the page, even in short spaces. Her writing is superb. Perhaps the best way to enjoy this collection is as a "slow but steady" read, dipping in and out so as not to become depressed.

Ten enlightening glimpses into the lives of (often severely) flawed American men and women, ranging from entire families to failed men who’ve been ousted by society. Looking forward to picking up a hard copy upon its release and rereading each passage for a second take to find things I didn’t find before.

I can't say I didn't enjoy the majority of these short stories, because I did, but something about them left me dissatisfied each time. The writing was gorgeous, the characters compelling, the plots unique and strange, but every time they ended I was frustrated by how much more I wanted from them. That's probably the point of the collection and I can appreciate that but I definitely wanted some more exploration within each story to make them feel worth reading in the first place.

2 Stars (I received an e-arc from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review)

I know that Emma Cline's books have had some polarizing opinions and I happen to be on the negative side. This the first of her works that I have read, though I only made it 33% of the way through before I gave up. The writing was simple, which combined with pointless plots, made it difficult to get through a single short story. As far as I could tell all the stories had a male main character and they were old and complained about how hard life is as a white man. And were super judgmental of everything, not something that we need in 2020.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read Daddy prior to its release in September. After reading the description and seeing the cover of the book, I knew this would be a book that I would love. I have recently discovered my love of short stories. It was so nice to be able to read each story in between books that I happened to be reading at the time. I felt like the bright, yellow of the cover provide an ironic and beautiful contrast to the dark stories included in the book. I really, really enjoyed each and every one of them though.

This book is a delicious read. Emma Cline's prose is so rich in imagery, and the fluidity in which she writes gives her stories a distinct voice. This startling set of short stories, reads from a rather unconventional and diverse set of perspectives, which are tied together by common themes of disillusionment, the presence of older men/father figures, and decaying family structure. What I love the most about Cline's writing is her tendency to describe "around" an idea (or a character), creating glaringly obvious inferences that allow the reader to be aware of what the protagonist is not. Reactions to a character, may allow the reader insight into the character, while the character him/herself in unaware. In What Can You Do With A General, for example, the lack of interest, and subtle hostility from his children, shed light on John's abusive tendencies, though his age and descriptions attempt mask this fact. All in all, I highly recommend this book, there is not really anything I would change about it, save for the fact that I wish there were more stories! The title Daddy, despite not all stories having this type of "figure", encapsulates the tone of the story, and is quite shocking at first glance. I love it!

I am normally not a fan of short stories, but I read these 10 stories in between other books and they were the perfect fillers.

The author’s natural talent for starkly honest characters came shining through even if some of these stories were emotionally draining. These are the tales of people who have stumbled in consistent ways and ended up traveling down the roads they never planned to take.

The title is slightly misleading, as it almost makes you think you are going to read Lolita-type stories but other than that this is a solid collection that I am sure will delight fans of this author.

So. Ten stories from Emma Cline, whose The Girls, led us into a hold-your-breath, something's about to happen, brink... and then pulls away, leaving you unsatisfied but deeply wanting more.

These take you to the same places. We don't know the full story of what previously happened or what's about to; all the relationships are dysfunctional; but damn it, I need just one more hit.

Daddy is going to be one of those books I keep pressing on people like a drug dealer. Cline is an itch I can't stop scratching!

A fantastic collection of short stories that tease the issue at hand in the most intriguing and insightful way. Some of the stories cleverly flip issues (e.g. #metoo) in a thought provoking manner, one that I would not had predicted working at all. All of the stories are densely character driven with layers of subtext, histories, enmeshment and resentments, I could imagine any of them being extended to a novel. Cline is a phenomenal writer, I’d recommend this collection or her novel Girls to anyone that enjoys literary fiction

Sorry, was not a real fan of this one. Some of the stories were okay, but the book really didn't hold my interest.

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of DADDY: STORIES in exchange for an honest review,

I am not typically drawn to short stories. I have read some in my life that have stayed with me for the long haul. But I usually, find myself as a reader left wanting more or feeling like what was the point of it all. DADDY is a collection of 10 short stories that rarely have to do with the title. (I must say here that I do not like this title and can think of 100 better ones). The stories all tend to deal with complex relationships and the end product of the choices we make in life.
Cline is a fantastic writer. Her words flow and pull you in. But with that said, I still can't say I loved this collection. I found it interesting and often heartbreaking, but I didn't necessarily enjoy the stories. It is a solid 3-star book due to Cline's compelling writing.

Usually the only short story collections I attempt are by authors I'm already familiar with - so I knew these would likely be poignant and thoughtfully written after Cline's excellent debut novel, The Girls. And they are - most of them immediately engaged me, but by the end of every single one, I felt a deep dissatisfaction - as if they had ended right as things were getting good. That's probably the point, but I guess it's just not really my thing? I'll be back for Cline's next full-length novel, but I won't be rushing back into the short fiction waters anytime soon.

Favourites were Los Angeles, Menlo Park, Marion, and A/S/L.

A first collection of stories by one of my favorite emerging writers, Daddy is enjoyable, thoughtful, and subtle. These stories tiptoe around secrets and unknowable truths, their real meanings elusive and slippery.

The stories struck me by their wistfulness, their nostalgia for sepia-toned better days. Yet thrumming beneath the words is the steady sense that many of the characters never had better days. Many of the stories seem to show characters at a moment of great loss, a sudden reversal of fortunes—a nanny hiding from the paparazzi after her affair with her boss, a famous actor, is discovered; a successful businessman who must cancel a weekend getaway with his mistress to retrieve his expelled son from boarding school—but if you squint, you see it's not a precipitous downfall but a loss that has accumulated, simply a new low point on what has been a slow decline.

What happens to a person caged in the insurmountable reality of who they are? For a moment, Cline lets many of her characters believe that they might find a reprieve, begin a slow climb back to somewhere they want to be, but her endings tend to lean towards an unmitigated pragmatism. The characters, no matter their wishes for redemption or something better, can't leave the place they've always been. All they can do is yearn for the bygone days, pretending those days were different.

Favorite stories:
What Can You Do with a General
Menlo Park
Son of Friedman
Arcadia

First, I consumed this collection of stories in a day. Each story was a long-form story, which I felt was perfect for the pace and purpose of each little "vignette." I felt we got excellent character development and depth, and that depth helped build the framework of the setting, and by that time, a full story has bloomed. Each story felt like something was hidden, unsaid, just outside the frame of the picture, which I thought was really smart and evocative. It left me wondering about these people, and actually left my mind to continue building the story after it had finished. The writing was excellent, and I really just appreciated most everything about this collection. I actually had to go back and see if I'd read "The Girls" - I read so many books that I often find my mind pushes out older books to make way for new, but apparently I really enjoyed that first novel as well :-) Looking forward to more from Emma Cline.

Interesting that Emma Cline chose to follow up her debut titled The Girls, with a short story collection titled Daddy. There are 10 stories about men, not all are necessarily fathers, although most are and most stories involve a female protagonist. We have girls with “daddy issues” and men struggling with abandonment, affection, ambition, success, aging, parenting and accountability. A few of these stories would make for a compelling novel and the story called Marion reminded me of The Girls.

My favorites from the collection were The Nanny, Los Angeles, What Can You Do With A General and Northeast Regional. And my favorite, Marion.

While I prefer interconnected short stories this book had enough grit and sass to keep me invested. Emma Cline has a gift for saying a lot without really saying too much. These stories are provocative and thought provoking.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for gifting me with an ARC.

Since I enjoyed The Girls, I figured Emma Cline's latest would hit the spot as well. Unfortunately, this really missed the mark for me. The stories were fine. Just fine. They were largely forgettable, really. I'm not sure what Cline was going for with this collection, but what I got was a largely bland bunch of vaguely linked stories.

I feel like Emma Cline's forte is short stories. I thought her last effort (which generated a fair amount of controversy over her disputed boyfriend's claims of plagiarism) was okay but it was so clearly a "ripped from the headlines" retelling of the Manson family that it was hard to know if she was clever enough to come up with stories of her own. This collection, although a few also seem to fictionalizations of actual events, was a lot more original and stronger than her novel which I felt relied heavily on overly opaque language and tropes. This collection showed a fair bit more range.