DNF @ 68%

I have tried for hours to get myself into these stories and I simply cannot. I understand what Lima was trying to say in telling these stories, do I think it was the right choices? No. Did some of it work for me? Yes.

I liked Rapture and Ghost Story and Antropófaga and really loved the alt chapters.

I loved the depiction of the devil in this, in one of the book blurbs this collection is suggested to lovers of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and I can see why. The devil is sleek and mysterious not the evil deviant the writer thinks he’d be.

But other than that it was all very lackluster to me. I do also feel this is marketed as the wrong genre? It didn’t feel very horror to me, but I understand why it could be viewed as such?

Thank you netgalley and Tor Publishing Group for this arc.

After sleeping with the devil in 1999, “the writer” began crafting stories for him, some of which are included in this divine debut collection. Some are weird, some are wondrous, but all will have you reflecting on belonging, home, creativity, fear and more.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

Ananda Lima’s "Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil" is a bold and evocative anthology that delves deep into themes of oppression, immigration, and identity, particularly focusing on Brazilian American experiences. This collection of short stories, interspersed with interludes from the perspective of a fictional author who has slept with the devil, offers a unique exploration of desire, sin, and the power of storytelling.

From the very beginning, Lima hooks readers with her lyrical prose and intriguing premise. The devil, depicted as a complex character who is not outright evil but exudes a palpable sense of danger, brings a compelling tension to the narrative. His declaration that "stories were more than knowing things, facts. There was no soul in that. It was in the telling and the words, the spaces between them," highlights the collection’s thematic core and sets the tone for the poetically tense nature of the stories.

Lima’s depiction of the devil as someone who "tends to want most what he can’t have" ties desire intricately with Christian notions of sin, which adds nuance to the storytelling. The political themes woven throughout the anthology, such as antiracism and anticapitalism, are handled with finesse, making the collection not just a literary work but a socio-political commentary.

However, not all stories hit the mark. Some seem disjointed and fail to fit cohesively within the collection. Despite this, Lima's exploration of the devil’s love for stories and her humorous yet critical depiction of America offer fresh and thought-provoking perspectives.

Overall, while "Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil" excels in its poetic prose, political themes, and vivid imagery, it occasionally falters in coherence. Some stories shine brilliantly on their own but feel disconnected from the central narrative thread. Nonetheless, Lima’s anthology is a significant contribution to contemporary literature, offering a rich tapestry of stories that challenge and provoke.

📖 Recommended For: Fans of lyrical and politically charged short stories, Enthusiasts of Brazilian American representation, Admirers of mythological and supernatural elements in fiction.

🔑 Key Themes: Political Liberation and Anti-Fascism, The Complexity of Desire and Sin, Anti-Racism and Anti-Capitalism,The Power of Storytelling and Narrative, Cultural and National Identity.

Content / Trigger Warnings: Cannibalism (minor), Miscarriage (minor), Pandemic (moderate).

At the start, I was into this, really. I didn't quite get what the deal was, if the Devil was a real person, etc., but I was curious, and I liked the stories, which seemed like moments of time in the main character's life through a third person narrator. Cool! I enjoyed these slices of life, and even was down for the Devil's role. But then about halfway through... Idk man, narrators/POVs changed, I got confused, not really knowing whose story we were following half the time. Where'd the "writer" go? She still the main character? I hadn't a clue. When I got to the cannibalizing of tiny vending machine people, I was just flat out lost. I feel like maybe I was supposed to understand and didn't? So now I feel kind of stupid, and no one likes that.

That said, the parts that I enjoyed were definitely worth reading. Maybe it'll make more sense to you than it did to me at the end.

Bottom Line: Was really digging it, but then got a little too confused. Still, cool premise, and I mean... tiny vending machine people-snacks are always worth saying you've encountered, so there's that.

I was hoping for the vibes of Addie La Rue but darker and I just was so disappointed that the devil didn’t have as large of a place in this work as I was hoping,

The story telling was disjointed and for me personally didn’t create a cohesive narrative with the movement in and out of the story within a story within a story vibe.

Thanks so much to the publisher for my ARC and ALC in exchange for my review.

The devil as a dork! A writer who sleeps with the Devil at a party, while in Nancy Reagan/dumpster fire drag! CRAFT is marvelously inventive and playful. Stunning and surreal. "I stepped closer, feeling an urge to nuzzle into his neck like a feral but needy kitten." Can't wait to read more from Ananda Lima!

I found the marketing of this book to be really mismatched with the actual reading of this collection. What I thought were stories written to the Devil by a woman who meets/hooks up with him at a Halloween party in the 90s was really more a meditation on heavy (but relevant) socio political topics (immigration, Covid, politics, etc.) This isn't inherently bad, but when you think you're getting an interesting set of stories that center this really interesting idea (from the synopsis) with horror and fantasy elements, and then you end up with a more current-times-commentary-novella, it's definitely not great. I was expecting some talk of immigration and belonging, because it mentions that in the synopsis but I didn't realize just how much the stories were going to focus on non-Devil ideas (lol).
I also just was not interested or pulled in by the stories--it could have been my disappointment of realizing that the story I thought we were getting was not real, but there were definitely some moments in reading where I found that the writing style/artsy-ness of the whole thing was to the detriment of the message attempting to be conveyed.
There were some moments in this that I did enjoy, and I can definitely see enjoying more of Lima's work going forward (because this is a debut I believe), this just wasn't for me!

Craft is a wonderful novel on the surface about dealing with the devil however the undercurrent on immigration and being an immigrant makes it so fascinating. The narrator was wonderful and added such depth and richness to the story. At times the novel felt disjointed but the thread underneath the stories on being an immigrant and the experience of it really held all the stories together. I really loved how everything always came back to the writer and how her experiences lent to the telling of the stories she wrote.

This book was fine, but the marketing was way off. Stylistically, the prose was elegant and artsy. It just wasn't what I signed up for. I expected way more Devil and far less political commentary. This would have suited the general literary/upmarket readership much more than Tor's usual readership.

Absolutely, diabolically original!

In Craft, we are treated to a series of vignettes by the author after she sleeps with the devil at a Halloween Party (!). We meet immigrants and ghosts and plenty of shade thrown at the government. Amanda Lima is a singular talent who has taken something ugly and made it almost too beautiful to look at directly!
it's abstract, it's interlinked (my favorite), it's devastating, it's brilliant. Give this a try, you will be thinking about it for a long time after!

#tor #amandalima #craft #storiesiwroteforthedevil

Thank you to Tor for inviting me to read this early!!!

4.5 rounded up! This is such an interesting and unique reading experience--it reads like both a novel and a short story collection and it gives such an intimate view of the writer (the narrator or the author themselves? Who knows!). The stories are surreal and haunting and when this is combined with the very real-world horrors that are being described it really sticks.

Particularly, I found this iteration of the Devil to be so engaging and interesting compared to how we tend to immediately visualize him. His inclusion brought such a unique warmth and depth to the story in the way that the writer interacted with him and wrote for him. I'm partial to stories about stories in the first place, but this just did it so well! The detached third person POV was also a cool choice.

I think my favorite of the short stories was Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. Heaven felt so tender and comforting and I felt it when I read it. I honestly don't think I'd hate being in Purgatory on a bus as long as I had my phone and headphones charged forever.

Look. I'm a short story fan because of Alice Munro. She was the queen and nobody has come close for me.

Until now. Craft by Ananda Lima is a wild collection of unsettling stories. It's a story about stories. It's bite sized people in vending machines. It's immigration and family duties. It's all...amazing.

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

Craft: Stories I wrote for the Devil is a dream-like collection of stories built around the concept of a writer meeting the Devil at a Halloween party when she is in her twenties and periodically seeing him again through her life. The story collection is not what I expected but once I got into the rhythm of the book it was captivating. The writing is beautiful and is a book that I continued to think about after I had finished it.

Once I got used to how this was written, I really enjoyed it! I like short stories that all are strung together like this. This was a unique collection about a woman who sleeps with the devil then encounters him more times in her life. It was weird, borderline horror that wasn't in your face but still somehow created a sense of dread throughout.

This is being pitched as a series of stories written to the Devil after a woman meets and sleeps with him at a Halloween party in 1999… which obviously sounds awesome, but in all honesty is super misleading. Instead, the focus is more on immigration, politics, Covid and there’s not much horror to be found. I liked a lot about this, just not what I thought I was signing up for in the moment.

Melding different perspectives, and casting an ever-refracting mirror of itself back and back and back, Craft is a deeply strange and beautiful story. Or set of stories. It is both novel and anthology, melding and shifting between the two, leaving you confused about exactly quite what the real story is.

A writer is given feedback that she writes too many stories about writers... in a story a writer is writing about her. We shift in and out, back and forth, never really certain whether we are inside a story or not. In many books, this would be a problem, a chaotic mess, but Lima manages it with a deftness and a lightness of prose that makes it charming even as it disconcerts.

The dialogue, the way the characters interact, the uncertainty of whether the devil is truly there, or just a figment of the narrator's imagination, or even a narrative device, all play off each other perfectly, and make it difficult to put down, or to forget.

The only issue I would have with it is there are two stories that feel slightly less woven in than the others, but even they are compelling in the moment of reading them, and only stand out when trying to view the work as a whole.

It is a strange, drifting experience of a novel, but an entirely worthwhile one.

A writer meets and sleeps with the Devil at a Halloween party when she is young. She meets him again throughout her life, and crafts fine stories in honor of him . This is not satanic in any way and it was quite a joy to read. I love the way the stories are interwoven and the Brazilian/American immigrant experiences are remarkable. This was quite a surprise in a good way.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for this e-arc.*

"the writer found herself angrier with the Devil than with God"

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an e-arc in exchange of my honest review!

I really enjoyed the chapters of the writer and the Devil, however the writer's stories lost me. While the descriptions, word choice, and tones are mesmerizing, they are very character-driven stories which is not for me. I also wasn't expecting so many of the stories to involve immigration and the Covid pandemic, but the uncomfortableness Lima was able to introduce throughout all the different settings leaves me excited to read more from her and see where she can go from here

I'm not really sure how to rate this, because I personally cannot fully comprehend exactly what my brain consumed. It's been a while since I finished reading this and thought with some time that I could give it a fair review. However, I think that my "feelings" and opinions remain the same as I come back to review it.

Craft by Ananda Lima is stated to be an anthological novella, filled with short stories that are a mix of horror and fantasy. Here's what I think the novella was suppos4ed to be: a telling of an immigrant writer from Brazil intermingled with the stories that she has written and thoughts she has fantasized about.

A part of me really wanted to like this, but the synopsis that was written was a bit misleading and therefore I was slightly confused as to what I was supposed to be reading. The idea of it was great. The execution was poor. It possibly needed more editing, or just was simply not my thing. The author has some well rated works on Goodreads, so maybe this one is just not for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group | Tor Books for allowing me to read this for an honest review.

Will be posting this to Instagram, Goodreads, and Instagram.

This is such a unique short story collection. It's impressive to make a slice-of-life “deal with the devil” kinda story. It's such a strange juxtaposition but it completely works.

I liked the subtle unsettling feeling of these stories. I tend to prefer these collections where all the stories are interlinked.

I would recommend this one to readers who enjoy an out of the box horror experiences.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.