My review was published online at the end of June and has been promoted via Twitter, including tagging Guernica.

http://westtradereview.homestead.com/westendstaalduinenreview22.html

I found it difficult to complete this collection of stories as I felt quite unfulfilled throughout my reading of them.

Some stories were interesting and had huge potential such as Cut Road while others were underwhelming and laborious to read. Overall I was disappointed by this text.

"On the day Wanda Dufresne called her daughter for the last time, she woke up stiff and sore, as though her dreaming self had decided that a night of lifting small cars would be just the thing." -From Cut Road

3 stars

I was drawn to this book due to the cover; and honestly after reading the stories, the cover is really the most interesting part still. I love how it weaves different things from the stories into the picture like the lizard, cigarette, and gun. Each story usually had a great opening line, but ended abruptly. Many had me wondering what the "point" of it really was. There was no overarching theme to tie them all together or anything either. The writing was solid, but most stories left me wanting more.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

When it comes to short stories, I much prefer a proper arc, three-act tale told concisely over a moment in time sketch, however well rendered. That’s mainly why this collection, well-written and poignant as it was, didn’t quite work for me. I appreciated the stories but wanted more from them. Overall impression of this Canadian collection is nice, but the sort of nice one can say about Canada in general. Very quick read too. Thanks Netgalley.