This collection of short stories was not my cup of tea. It connected, or attempted, to connect, event in the present with events in the past as though they were real and failed.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

These stories were enchanting. A few stuck out in particular. I have patrons who love a good story collection, and this will be perfect for them.

I received a free electronic ARC of this collection of short stories from Netgalley, Jo Lloyd, and Tin House Books. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read "Something Wonderful" of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am pleased to recommend Jo Lloyd to friends and family. This is a book that is hard to put aside, featuring stories told with compassion and affection.

I love a good short story. Something Wonderful is a debut work, a collection of outstanding stories featuring folks you already know by one name or another. Jo Lloyd won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2019 and an O. Henry Prize in 2018. Her stories to quote the publisher, 'have appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, and elsewhere.' I love that she is now available at our local book store on demand. I have her on my must-reads shelf. Thanks, Netgalley, for bringing her to my attention.
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Each of the stories in this collection was lush and satisfying--rich both in poetry and in human feeling. Five stars for the language alone. The stories were continuously surprising to me, as well, for the way they refuse to conform to the conventions of the short story form, as defined since, oh, I don't know...since Chekov, maybe. It's not that the stories are experimental. It's more the opposite: many of them reminded me of how I feel when reading stories written in the early eighteenth century. These stories take their time. They create worlds. Each story feels complete, and yet I kept catching myself thinking: this story would make a great novel, or: this character is one I would enjoy spending another 300 pages learning ore about.

None of these things are criticisms. In each of her stories Jo Lloyd very masterfully left me wanting to read more, and sorry to see that the story was soon coming to an end.

These are stories about people in between, traveling, searching for something wonderful in their lives but not ever reaching firm resolutions. The writing is lovely, and Lloyd easily transports readers from the 1800s to modern day. I didn’t always find myself thoroughly engaged; I find myself gravitating more these days toward interconnected story collections, and the pervasive feeling of disappointment experienced by the characters was exhausting to me, not in a good way.

I’m grateful to NetGalley and Tin House for the ARC.

A collection of short stories with a broad range of settings and subjects. I found Lloyd's writing to be exceptional, with evocative descriptions and interesting turns of phrase. Not one sentence was out of place.

I wanted to read this book based almost exclusively on the cover and the title which are both beautiful. I do not read short story collections often, but I enjoyed reading this immensely. The writing style was lyrical. I was engrossed in each story as if it were a chapter of a larger book. My only wish for some of these stories is that they *were* a part of a larger book so I could have even more of the characters and more than just a snippet of the story. I have read short story collections before where there was nothing linking the stories together, but I have to admit that I sort of craved that in this case. I wondered if there was a common theme or thread that would bring all of the stories together by the end, but that wasn't the case. Nevertheless, this was a pleasure to read and I would absolutely recommend to anyone craving a serious and oftentimes moving collection of short stories.