I really enjoyed this short story collection. I wasn't aware of this author, but now I will seek out her work. I would definitely recommend this book to my fellow readers.

(a very weak 3.5/5⭐, rounded up)
Enjoyable, but not as strong as I hoped. It could just be a "me" thing, but some of these felt like too much had been crammed into too short of a story.

My favorites from this collection are:
Edna In The Rain (kinda reminded me of The Husband's by Holly Gramazio)
The Ecstacy of Sam Malone
Flowers & Their Meanings (flower "names" melted my heart and made me think of my late gma)
Viola In Midwinter

There are other short story collections I'd recommend before this one, like Out there by Kate Folk or Thanks For This Riot by Janelle Bassett.

{Thank you bunches to NetGalley, Marie-Helene Bertino and FSG for the DRC in exchange for my honest review!}

Marry the Sea 1/5
…what

Edna in Rain 2/5
I guess

Exit Zero 3/5
Ok I understood this one. As much as one can understand a story with a unicorn in it. It was alright

Can Only Houses be Haunted? 2.5/5
This was ok.

I was not enjoying this collection so I decided not to force myself to get through it. I’m good with weird but this is the kind of weird that doesn’t seem to have a point. Sometimes the writing moves sporadically which makes the story hard to follow.

Hopefully you enjoy it more than I did.

All in all I found myself with stronger connections to some of these shorts and less so to others.

Marry the sea explores strong feelings of connectivity. The fast paced writing combined with non stop jumps in narration kept me gripped.

Edna in rain felt incomplete to me, I did however enjoy the narrators lack of care that their previous partner were “falling from the sky”. It made me think how ex’s were once such an important part of you and as life moves on they become less connected to you

The night gardener is a real stand out from this collection. Its protagonist, a lonely woman who has entered into a gardening contest begins to receive balloons with notes directed at her in her garden. The story captures the dread of looking for a purpose or reason for life. I found the strange omnipotent notes to be a compelling choice to represent this.