Wicked Wonders

Wicked Wonders is filled with stories that stir the imagination. They are not stories for children, despite many featuring children. They are stories of transformation, each unique and exceptional. I loved the tale wherein mathematics ends up being used to create a paradise for two youngsters, and that of the cartographer who uses origami to create a passage for women to escape to safety. Many of the stories are moving, such as the love story between a woman who inherits the penny arcade and a stranger linked to the tree she loved as a child. The stories touch you with unexpected, sometimes making you smile, at other times making you shudder. All are excellent.

If you are looking for an anthology filled with wondrous tales that are entirely unique, Wicked Wonders is just what you are looking for.

5/5

I received a copy of Wicked Wonders from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

I have never read such a beautiful and wonderful set of short stories. Klages is a master of her profession.
From the first story of a girl who favours the baddies instead of the princesses to the first baby on mars and of course that terribly scary ham, it hooked me.
Often in short stories there is normally a dud or a 'meh' story but each story was as brilliant as the last.
I am so pleased I have read these stories and am looking forward to going back to them in future. A masterpiece.

Ellen Klages' Wicked Wonders is one of those short story collections that is deeply poetic and carries you like a song through the night when you're supposed to be sound asleep. This collection of short stories features everything from a girl destined to be on one of the first missions into space where return is not an option, a story of a young woman who can create magic through maps and rescue those who cannot help themselves halfway across the world, and even the secret imagined history behind margarine.

My favorite story features a young woman seeing Disney's Sleeping Beauty for the first time and falling desperately in love with the character of Maleficent. Rather than being delighted by all the dolls of the princess or prince, she finds herself wanting a puppet of the witch and begins to find that it carries her through challenging times.

As I've stated before, Klages' work has a poetic quality to it that appears almost lyrical. Passages become much more fun to read aloud than quietly to one's self. The best part is each story is relatively short so it's hard to fall back in to the age old excuse of not having enough time to read. Wicked Wonders is a collection that the reader finds themselves not wanting to put down, but also not wanting to finish out of fear that they will have to leave the magical world they've found behind when the close the cover.

Wicked Wonders is available from Tachyon Press May 23, 2017.

This was my first time reading Klages stories. Normally, I'm not a huge short story fan, but she may have converted me, at least to hers. The themes of the story vary widely as do the general category. Some are more sci-fi/fantasy, others are general fiction. Almost all focus of a child or teen as the protagonist. Each character is fully fleshed out and the stories are vivid, short peeks into very specific times and situations in their lives. It is so hard to pick a favorite, with them all so different. If I had to pick one, it would depend on my mood and the day. Today, I would say it was Goodnight Moons, though I can't really explain why.

The book would be great for teens or anyone really interested in the short story form.

Give this book a chance and you are bound to find at least a story or two that touch you, and as the author writes in the final (excellent) story, changes you just a little .

In a nutshell: A mixture of heartbreaking magical melancholy, vintage nostalgia, and forlorn near-futurism.

I saw this in one of io9's upcoming release posts, and the stories that were highlighted sounded interesting enough for me to add it to my to-read list. When I saw that NetGalley had a copy, I figured I'd give it a shot, even though I'm not really much of a short story person.

I'm very glad I had the opportunity to read this, though. While there were many stories that were just "okay" or that fell flat for me, the ones that I loved, I absolutely LOVED. Klages has a way with the zeitgeist and atmosphere of the 50s and 60s; even though I did not live through those decades, I felt immediately transported back to that time period. It made me appreciate even more the social conventions that the characters in some of these stories break, and it made the magical stories even more amazing. Klages' brief Story Notes in the back were also highly enjoyable and they gave a more down-to-earth element to the stories.

Looking over my individual story ratings, I was most drawn to the magical realism stories--most of these reminded me, whether slightly or substantially, of Cat Valente's Fairyland series. Her style is one of my absolute favorites right now, and I loved getting that vibe from another author, who explores the more day-to-day magical realism, rather than the epic questing type.

Here are some brief reviews and reflections on my favorite 5 & 4 stars stories.

5 stars

Singing on a Star: This one was amazing--it had the right amount of mysterious magical realism and honest to goodness creepiness. I got lots of The Shining vibes from this, and the mystery that it leaves open at the end lends itself to many different paths of analysis.

Echoes of Aurora: Beautifully melancholic, yet very sweet. It actually made me a bit guilty for liking autumn as much as I do.

Friday Night at St. Cecilia's: This was a bit silly, but it was also amazing. It reminded me of Wonderland, but in a slightly more updated sense. Klages also somehow made it possible for Monopoly to seem creepy.

4 stars

The Education of a Witch: I could definitely relate to this one in a way. I love villains as much as I love the heroes of a story, and I'm always disappointed when their backstories aren't elaborated upon. Klages highlights how the villain's powers are appealing to a young girl, one who knows that these powers are wrong, but still doesn't exactly understand that society doesn't really approve of villain sympathy.

Hey, Presto!: Magic is something very difficult to write convincingly and have it come across as properly magical and creepy, rather than just fancy, pompous showing off. Perhaps it's because this all took place behind the scenes, but this was incredibly well written, and came across with the aura that I love all my magic stories to have. Plus, a strong, snarky female lead who saves the day.

Caligo Lane: The immediate comparison I drew here was to Mr. Map, the character in the Fairyland novels. The same secluded map-making vibe permeates this story, and the addition of origami and the hopeful-yet-sad ending made it even more captivating. Franny is a captivating character, and I'd love to read more about her in Passing Strange.

Gone to the Library: The ending on this one seemed a bit abrupt, but the weaving of history and lit and math was lovely. The cameo by Grade Hopper was awesome, especially since the math story line revolved around the type of math I like (even if I don't fully understand)--paradoxical, imaginary, mind-baffling stuff. The additional of mysticism and very strong Secret Garden vibes gave it a mysterious, slightly unsettling undertone.

3 stars:
Amicae Aeternum, Sponda the Suet Girl, & Woodsmoke

2 stars:
Mrs. Zeno's Paradox, Goodnight Moons, Household Management, & The Scary Ham

I had never read any of Klages' works before this, but I'm now definitely intrigued to read more of her works; the recent Passing Strange is now high on my to read list.

Again, I'm very glad I read this, and will be rereading a few of my favorite stories again soon--the aesthetic is memorably fantastic.

Wicked Wonders is a collection of fourteen stories, one of which is non-fiction, all of which has been written in the last decade or so by Ellen Klages. Klages is a multiple Hugo and Nebula award nominee, and has won the
World Fantasy Award with Andy Duncan for their novella "Wakulla Springs". Wicked Wonders is my first deep dive into her fiction - I've read a couple of stories that are in this collection in other places, so I was at least
passingly familiar with some of her work.

The stories in Wicked Wonders are similar in theme in that their primary focus is on a young girl or girls, but I wouldn't call this a YA collection by any stretch of the imagination; it certainly doesn't have that feel to me.
The fantastical elements do not take center stage in any of the stories, and don't necessarily play a major part in the story. What every story does have in common are well written and developed characters as well as well
crafted storytelling. They are mostly fantasy stories, although there is a science fiction story or two thrown into the mix. There's something here for everybody, although the reader may not realize it until getting all the way
through the collection.

My favorite story, one of those that I've read before, is called "Amicae Aeternum". The story is sneaky, because Klages doesn't let the reader in on what's happening until more than halfway through it. The story centers on
two friends, Corry and Anna. They are meeting just before dawn, probably not unlike many other days they've met. This day is different, though, as Corry's life will be changing irrevocably. The story's focus on friendship
and loss is, in the end, riveting and poignant. This is an excellent piece of fiction.

Another story that I previously encountered is the magical "Caligo Lane", about cartographer Franny Travers who lives on the titular street and makes maps that allows people to travel between locations as long as the map is folded correctly. That's an overly simplified statement of the story, which is really a description of Travers making a particular map. The story is short but engaging, leaving the reader wanting to know more about the maps that Travers makes.

Other stories are just as engaging and entertaining, if not moreso, than the previous two. In "Hey Presto", Hugh Werdlow is a magician who is in need of a new female assistant on very short notice. He asks his daughter
Polly to join the crew for the show, and she must learn all ths stage tricks and misdirections that go into this particular show. It's a tale of just how difficult it is to put on a magic show as you and I understand it - this tale has nothing of the fantastic in it - and how that show helps a young woman prepare her life's path. "Echoes of Aurora", which follows immediately after "Hey Presto", is the tale of middle-aged Jo Norwood returning
to the place of her youth to finish cleaning up the family business after her father passed away. It's a haunting tale of memories that return to Jo in an unusual form, and how she spends her time with those memories.

"Friday Night at St. Cecilia's" relates the tale of a wager gone wrong at an all-girls religious boarding school and the girl who figures out how to beat the system. It's a fun tale that has the reader travelling back to childhood to remember all those board games they used to play as a kid. I absolutely enjoyed the very short tale (I now wonder if its length is intentionally in keeping with the story itself) about Annabel and Midge who get
together for a treat in the Mission District in San Francisco. Since the story is so short I really can't say anything else otherwise I would give it away. I do, however, get the impression that Klages had a bit of fun with this one. I know I did.

There are two very powerful stories in the collection (that's not to say that others aren't powerful, but in my estimation these two are at the top of the list). The first is "Goodnight Moons", the tale of an expedition to Mars
and what happens when it is discovered that one of the colonists is pregnant. The extra body wasn't planned for, of course, but the extra "crew member" was approved. The power in this story lies not in the birth of the child and the early stages of her life, but the inevitable affect being born on Mars has on humans. The ending is heartrending. The other is "Woodsmoke", about two young girls who befriend each other at summer camp. Peete is a veteran; she's been going there for years, and this year due to her parents' work she gets to stay the whole summer for the first time. Margaret is from a foreign land, and brings much strength and knowledge to the camp. She is there because her parents are afraid that once she gets her first period the men in their village will go wild and she wouldn't be safe. Again, the ending is gut wrenching, and shows the reader that even when you think you know someone, you really don't.

As is evident, many of these stories don't contain elements of the fantastic at all. "The Education of a Witch", "Singing on a Star", "Sponda the Suet Girl and the Secret of the French Pearl", and "Gone to the Library" certainly do, however, and are all terrific stories. "Household Management", I think, defies description, although the landlady makes us think of a famous crime solver. It's short, strange, and offbeat.

Finally, there's "The Scary Ham", a non-fiction piece that Klages told at a Nebula Awards banquet about a real ham that her father had hanging in the basement. It's truly a twisted tale - mostly because it's true. Google it some time - if you get the right result, you even get a picture of the ham. Scary stuff indeed.

Wicked Wonders is truly a wonderful collection of recent short fiction by Ellen Klages. It's a terrific introduction to her work for someone who has not read her before now; take my word for it, because I fell into that
category. The stories are well written and the characters will pull at your heartstrings. This is really good stuff, and has caused me to add yet another author to my list of those of whom I wish to read more. That last
sentence may not be particularly grammatically correct, but rest assured that the sentences Klages writes will be that and a whole lot more.

I have never been much of a short story fan but selected this book because I had a recollection of a poignant short story by Klages that I had read on Tor.com a while back. That story, Caligo Lane, is included in this anthology of Klages' work.

The short stories in this volume all have their own special magical touch. All are female-centered and many of her characters are richly drawn. Some of the shorts have a fairytale quality, some touch on sci-fi, and others have a queer fiction element running through the story, including one with a gender identity component. One of the stories reads like well-formed flash-fiction, a scant two, albeit enjoyable pages, while a few are longer, almost approaching novelette length. All are well-written and have a deft touch that made me enjoy reading each story, which is a rare thing in an anthology.

Wicked Wonders by Ellen Klages is just.....perfect. Short stories that mix childhood, science fiction and imagination.

Stand out favorites involve a wicked little girl who loves Maleficent more than Sleeping Beauty (me too, kid), a heartbreaking camp story, and an unusual romance at a dying arcade.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the book in exchange for this review.

A beautifully eclectic collection of short stories that will amaze, confound and leave you wanting to know more. The wonderful thing about this collection is that you will absolutely fall in love with at least one of the stories, they are all so completely diverse that everyone can enjoy different ones.
Personally The Education of a Witch and Sponda the Suet Girl and the Secret of the French Pearl were my favourites.
I'm really excited about this book and have added it to the ordering system at work because I need to own a copy.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I hadn't read any of Klages' work until getting my hands on Passing Strange last year (silly David) so was very pleased to be able to catch up (not least because in two of the stories we meet characters from that book). It is great that the book lived up to expectations in every way.

These are serious, funny, tough, tender and varied stories. Above all, they have heart and offer hope. In many, women or - especially - girls - struggle with constraints, actual or impending loss or change, and things aren't made easier by the strictures of society: a woman accidentally falling pregnant is placed in an impossible position by her partner. A girl is misunderstood by her mother, forced into a mould that doesn't fit her. Another girl is about to lose everything. In all these stories there is, though, hope: the comfort of a good friend, a chink of light or a realisation of power and potential.

Friendship is at the centre of many of the stories: new friendships, old friendships renewed after decades, unlikely friendships suddenly tested, as in the longest and most intense of the stories, Woodsmoke, an account of two girls spending a summer at camp. Apart from the dawning relationship between then - they don't start off friends, Peete is pretty resentful to begin with - this story is shot through with a kind of childhood luminosity. This is NOT a sentimental story - it has great clarity and honesty, but it shows the glory of enjoying life, of enjoying the moment and - I hope - promises a future of support and solidarity.

The experiences here are common ones: clearing a house after the death of a parent (touched on a couple of times, including in a piece of non-fiction, The Scary Ham), the coming of a new sibling, two women meeting for coffee and cake, a mother putting her child down for the night. But the everyday is made strange - passing strange, perhaps: those two women (in Mrs Zeno's Paradox) meet across time and space in a variety of cafes as they halve their cake and halve it again, the child is being nursed on Mars, the schoolgirl settling down to play boardgames on a Friday night at her boarding school ends up an Alice in Wonderland style adventure - and in San Franscisco, a sorceress can fold space through origami.

Not all the stories are actually fantasy or science fiction: Woodsmoke, for example, is entirely naturalistic (although infused with a sense of the magical) and Sponda the Suet Girl and the Secret of the French Pearl while fantastical in setting (a thief, an inn, a quest for treasure) actually contains nothing not rooted in real science (Household Management is similar, though rooted in a different kind of fiction). Many of course are, and in some it's a twist of magic that provides that little glimmer of hope from the future.

As well as the stories themselves, the book contains a shrewd (I think!) introduction form Karen Joy Fowler and a piece by Klages herself describing her approach to writing and the genesis of some of the stories. Both provide useful insights but in the end the stories stand alone in their wit, courage, fellowship and above all, humanity.

This is a collection of stories that I felt better for having read. Strongly recommended.

Wicked Wonders by Ellen Klages is a very highly recommended collection of fourteen short stories. I enjoyed almost all of the stories in this collection immensely, with just a couple I was slightly less enthusiastic about. Those are pretty impressive odds. The stories consist of a mix of science fiction, fantasy, humor, coming-of-age, magic, and real life. All the stories except for one, Woodsmoke, have been previously published.

Contents:
Introduction by Karen Joy Fowler: "There is something powerfully strange and strangely powerful, but it is off to the side or coming up behind you. You’ll sense it in the small, particular details at which Ellen excels..." "The only thing you can depend on is magic. However sober and quotidian the world, Ellen always brings the magic."
The Education of a Witch: Young Lizzy loves Maleficent the witch from Sleeping Beauty while dealing with changes in her life.
Amicae Aeternum: Before she and her parents board The Goddard, a generation ship, Corrine Garcia-Kelly is saying good-bye to everything she will miss on Earth.
Mrs. Zeno’s Paradox: Annabel meets Midge for a treat, which they split, repeatedly.
Singing on a Star: Becka has her first sleep over at her friend Jamie's house where a song opens an elevator to a different world where she meets a man named Hollis.
Hey, Presto!: Polly is working with her father, the magician Vardo!, for the summer.
Echoes of Aurora: Jo Norwood returns to her hometown to settle her father's estate after being gone 35 years and meets Aurora.
Friday Night at St. Cecilia’s: Rachel Sweeney was supposed to be playing backgammon with her friend Addie, but instead gets caught up in the grip of a fairy queen and is trapped inside several board games.
Caligo Lane: Located in San Francisco, Caligo Lane might be an illusion. Difficult to reach, or find again, it is here that Franny, a cartographer, lives and combines mapmaking and origami.
Goodnight Moons: Zoe is part of the first team of six astronauts to go to Mars. She discovers she is pregnant after they have already started their voyage.
Gone to the Library: Izzy, an eight year-old girl who loves math, meets her neighbor, Bibber, who needs her help.
Household Management: We get a glimpse into the life of Sherlock Holmes landlady.
Sponda the Suet Girl and the Secret of the French Pearl: A thief buys a map that he believes will lead him to a wizard who owns a pearl of great value.
Woodsmoke: "Every childhood summer is special. School is out and freedom beckons. Then comes a magic summer.... For Patricia Ann Maas that summer was 1963..." Patty spends her fifth summer at camp Wokanda, where she can be herself and is known by the nickname Peete.
The Scary Ham: A true story. Klages father was given a full-sized ham which he hung in his basement for twenty years, in the room with the litter box. This story and pictures can be found on the Tor website. http://www.tor.com/2014/05/22/the-scary-ham/
Afterword: Why I Write Short Fiction
10 Facts About Ellen Klages
Story Notes About the Author

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Tachyon.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/05/wicked-wonders.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2007740925

Review posted in my blog under the title "The One with Maleficent and the baby from Mars"

What Worked
Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite writers. I especially love his tales of childhood: adventures on bicycles to dark carnivals in the midst of summer thunderstorms. Great stuff, but it occurred to me sometime in my 30s that all of Bradbury’s protagonists were boys. Makes sense since that’s his experience of the world, but I kind of wished that there were some of those kinds of stories with girl protagonists. Because, why not?

Enter Ellen Klages and Wicked Wonders:

"She intends to be a good girl, but shrubs and sheds and unlocked cupboards beckon."

Yep, Klages hooked me right there with that line.

The stories range across the spectrum of speculative fiction. “Singing on a Star” and “Friday Night at St. Cecilia’s” are strongly fantastical and “Goodnight Moons” a straight-up sci-fi tale. On the other end, “The Education of a Witch” is only fantasy tinged and “Amicae Aeternum” is more of a bitter-sweet best-friends(who are girls!)-on-bikes story than space opera. There are even a couple of stories with no fantastic elements what-so-ever, including my favorite “Hey, Presto!” Had I known there was going to be a well-done historical fiction story with magicians I would have never hesitated to request this book!

What Didn’t Work
I am really picky about science fiction. For me, the most science fictiony story of Wicked Wonders, “Goodnight Moons,” was also the least successful. Happily, for me, science fiction is in the minority on this anthology.

Overall
I’m fairly sure that I haven’t read any Ellen Klages in the past. Coincidentally, I had also almost requested her latest novel Passing Strange from NetGalley too, but had decided against it as well on the grounds that my TBR pile was too high. After reading Wicked Wonders…well, that TBR stack is just going to have to get stratospheric. Ms. Klages, you have a new fan.

This short story collection was one I had been looking forward to and I was so pleased when I got a free copy through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

These are all small glimpses into the lives of girls with a sprinkling of sci-fi or fantasy tossed into them. I loved how atmospheric they were and how they weren't meant to tell a full life's story. Instead, we get dropped into their lives and just as quickly get tossed back out and get to imagine how the story ends. Honestly, I really could't find fault with this collection. Ellen Klages writes stories that I find myself wishing I had come up with. She has a wild imagination and was able to pull me along with her.

Overall, I loved the way that they would draw me in and at the end leave me thinking about them long after I had moved on to another book. My favorite story was Singing on a Star. I loved the Alice in Wonderland feel of it and the creepy vibe that left me with goosebumps at the end.

This is the type of collection that you give to your scifi/fantasy/not-quite-reality novel snob friends and family to turn them into short story lovers. So many good stories in one book.

In  Ellen Klages’ dazzling new collection of short stories, "Wicked Wonders," she crafts one perfect sentence after another.

Published by Tachyon, a small press in San Francisco, this extraordinary collection is introduced by PEN/Faulkner Award winner Karen Joy Fowler.   Klages has a reputation for eclecticism:  she won the Nebula Award in 2005 for her novelette “Basement Magic” and the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction in 2007 for her Y.A. novel, "The Green Glass Sea."

Klages’ perceptive stories cross genre.  Are they miniature fantasies?  Magic realism?  Retold fairy tales?  A little bit of all three, plus some smart homages to Ray Bradbury.

Klages is an evocative chronicler of childhood.  In “Amicae Aeternum,” Corry gets up early one lovely morning to take a  walk through her hometown. She has a list of things she wants to see:  she appreciates every detail, from flowers to fire hydrants.

Klages writes,

"A dandelion’s spiky leaves pushed through a crack in the cement. Corry squatted, touching it with a finger, tracing the jagged outline, memorizing its contours. A weed. No one planted it or planned it. She smiled and stood up, her hand against a wooden fence, feeling the grain beneath her palm, the crackling web of old paint, and continued on. The alley stretched ahead for several blocks, the pavement a narrowing pale V."

It is gradually revealed that Corry’s future life, unlike a dandelion, will be planned.  But for now, Corry goes bicycling with her best friend, Anna.

"No traffic, no cars.  It felt like their last day on earth."

And then we learn that it IS Corry’s last day on Earth.   She and her parents are  leaving on a “generation” spaceship headed for a distant planet.  She will spend the rest of her life on the ship, and her great-great-great–she doesn’t know how many “greats”–grandchildren will live there.  She will never see the planet.
The melancholy narrative is reminiscent of Ray Bradbury’s depictions of t of Midwestern small towns in "Dandelion Wine" and "The Martian Chronicles," where astronauts on Mars never stop missing their hometowns.  Is the journey  worth it? As in Bradbury’s stories, small town characters are split between Earth and space.  But the girls make a pact that may sustain Corry.

Klages’ other stories of childhood are equally fascinating. In “The Education of a Witch,” Lizzie, a small girl, sympathizes with Maleficent in the movie "Sleeping Beauty."  She finds Maleficent beautiful, unlike the warty witches in storybooks, and thinks the king and queen were wrong not to invite her to the christening.  Later, at a toy store, she persuades her mother to buy her a Maleficent puppet. And after her mother has a baby, Lizzy  spends more time with Maleficent, who tells her stories. When Lizzy tells her nursery school teacher she wants to be a witch, we wonder if she already has the power.

Klages is also fond of portal fantasies. In “Friday Night at St. Cecilia’s,” the heroine Rachel plays a game of backgammon with the school’s cleaning lady and is transported through a portal to living board games, where she must win Clue, Snakes & Ladder, and Monopoly for the lives of her best friend and herself.

Klages’ stories also explore identity.  In “Woodsmoke,” the heroine Peet, whose real name is Patty, is excited about spending  the summer at camp while her parents go to Europe. She loves camp, where girls get to do everything boys do.   Another strong girl, Margaret, whose parents live in Asia, is also there for the summer.  The two girls become close friends, because  other campers leave after one- and -two-week session.  But there’s an identity twist at the end.story.

In my favorite story, “Echoes of Aurora,” a single retired woman, Jo,  returns after her father’s death to the resort town where she grew up. Her father owned a penny arcade, which decades ago was successful, and she repaired the machines.  She plans now to fix some up and sell them to a circus museum.

Again, it is Klages’ prose that makes the story so special.

"Cedar River was a summer town.

"You’ve seen it, or one just like it. Off a state highway, on the edge of a lake—a thousand souls, more or less, until Memorial Day. Then the tourists come, for swimming and fudge and miniature golf. They laugh, their sunburns redden and peel, and when the first cool autumn breezes ripple the water, they leave. The carnival is over."

I have seen it!
One day, while Jo listens to the
nickelodeon in the arcade, a beautiful young woman, Aurora, shows up dancing.  The two become lovers, and Jo stays longer than she had planned.  In the fall, we learn Aurora’s real identity.  It is so fitting–why didn’t we realize it all along?  But you won’t guess it.

I loved these stories.   I am so glad to have discovered this writer.

An outstanding collection of short stories by acclaimed author Ellen Klages.
The title Wicked Wonders fits just perfect for the unique array of often heartfelt and truly magical tales.

Ellen Klages' storytelling is one of kind and not to be missed.
There isn't one story which I didn't enjoy to read.
Highly recommended.

Such a delightful collection of short stories! I enjoyed them all immensely and it seems very likely that people will enjoy at least a couple of them. Definitely a good collection for easing people into the fantasy/sci-fi genre a little bit.

I'm sorry to say that I know nothing about Ellen Klages. I'm sorry about this because this was a really tremendous collection of short fiction.

I'm not quite sure how to define these stories - there's a wonderful, eclectic mix of fiction here, from style to genres, dramas and comedies. The stories flow easily and the characters are smart, clever, funny, sad, and very, very real. As Karen Joy Fowler writes in her Introduction:
<blockquote>Ellen’s young protagonists are both tough and sensitive. Like so many of us, they don’t quite fit in. So they’re always looking for the chance, unavailable in their homes and schools and communities, to be their true selves. This desire to live authentically, to speak with one’s true voice, is where Ellen’s work cuts the deepest.</blockquote>
There really isn't a bad story in this collection and I haven't been this excited about a collection of stories since I read Margaret Atwood's <em>Bluebeard's Eggs</em> back in 1986. A few stories stood above the rest....

In "Hey, Presto!" a young girl visits her father - a magician - in London and the two bond over the science behind the tricks.

Like many nerds, I consider myself a gamer - board and card games, not video games - and "Friday Night at St. Cecilia's" had an interesting game theme that really hooked me.

"Goodnight Moons" is the most science fiction-y story in the collection and yet, like most great fiction, it's about people. In this case, a woman has fought her whole life to be an astronaut on a Mars mission. Once in flight, a serious complication arises and the woman, Zoe has a serious, life-changing decision to make.

Possibly the best story in the collection, "Woodsmoke," is intense and beautiful in some way. The sense of nostalgia is strong for those of us who are old enough to remember summer camp with some fondness. The story is really powerful.

"The Scary Ham" is a very funny story which is more of a memory than a piece of fiction. Here Klages brings us into the room with her remarkable writing, whether we want to be there or not.

It is because of books like this that I keep reading works by authors I am not already familiar with ... the delight in 'discovering' a powerful literary voice. This collection is highly recommended.

Looking for a good book? <em>Wicked Wonders</em> by Ellen Klages is a collection of short stories that are powerful, touching, and very much worth reading.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Wicked Wonders is an absolutely lovely collection, with some stories that I continue to recommend well after having read them here. The author’s notes on each story were insightful and interesting, and often funny as well. It’s a great collection of tales – here were my favourites:

“Amicae Aeternum”
A young girl spends a last day in her hometown with her best friend. I loved the things she chose to focus on, and the slow kind of reveal of why, precisely, it is her final day there.

“Mrs. Zeno’s Paradox”
This story delighted me. It really is cheeky and almost whimsical – which feels like such an odd thing to say about a story that centres on theoretical physics. I’ve recommended this story quite a bit as it is so fresh and playful while still being interesting and engaging.

“Singing on a Star”
This one is weird in every sense of the word. It has a strangeness that stuck with me, and an ambiguity that forced me to think about the ending well after I had finished reading. It’s a kind of take on portal fantasy that plays on the more sinister side of the theme.

“Friday Night and St. Cecilia’s”
I am really into the playing a game for your soul type plot or motif - it’s the kind of tension that works for me, and this story executed it well.

“Caligo Lane”
This story is my favourite of the collection. It’s unapologetically queer, and the magic within is so fresh and exciting. I am so glad Klages went on to include these characters in her novella Passing Strange – a piece of fiction that has a place in my all-time favourites.

“Woodsmoke”
The main character is so heartachingly familiar, this child striving for a specific kind of special. Summer camp can be such magic on its own that it didn’t feel odd at all that this story was surrounded by others with speculative aspects while this one had no such element.

Wicked Wonders is a fantastic collection to have. Beyond the enjoyment I got out of it as a reader, the author’s notes on each story were delightful and fascinating insights that have helped me better recognize and appreciate aspects of writing as well. I am glad to have it on my shelf to put in the hands of others who need these stories.

This was such an awesome collection of short stories! I’ve never read anything by Ellen Klages but I definitely will after reading this. If you’ve ever read any of my reviews for a Jacob M. Appel anthology, you’ll know how much I love his work. This anthology had that same type of feeling and tone. There are some stories with elements of sci-fi, fantasy, and magical realism but even with those aspects the stories really just feel like real people experiencing very real emotions in what feel like very real scenarios. I can’t really say which of these stories were my favorite because I really did love all of them. I would definitely recommend this to anyone that enjoys character driven short stories.

ARC received via Netgalley. All opinions are expressly my own.