And I Do Not Forgive You

And I Do Not Forgive You is a 2020 release, and the short story collection from Amber Sparks with the subtitle “and other revenges.” Boy does it live up to that subtitle. At its heart, the collection shows modern people in the quasi-fantastic, mostly-all-too-real world of technology, familial betrayal, and city life. The princesses, kings, and queens which people some of the most fairy-tale-esque of the stories don’t reside in some 1400s Europe that never was– they live now, here, and struggle as we do now, here. A stand-out in that department was “The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines,” where the magical-realist elements meshed so nicely with the themes that I found myself bookmarking it again to read later.

While I didn’t love every story in the collection, I could find myself wanting to read them all again to find new depths. My absolute favorite story was “A Short and Slightly Speculative History of the Lavoisier’s Wife,” which was honestly one of the best short-stories I’ve read in a while in terms of form and voice.

In general, the stories have distinct tones and themes, but each shine with a lush mixture of gritty vernacular (“#Bullshit, I said, and you said the #endtimes was no place for #haters”) and taut phrasing.

And I Do Not Forgive You is a collection you’ll want to share and discuss, both for its feminist themes and commentary on modern life as well as for its prose. Brava to Sparks.

Thank you to Netgalley, who gave me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I’m willing to admit that the current trending variety of feminism alarms me. I appreciate it, agree with the fact that this might absolutely be historically the best time to be alive for women, but there’s something terrifying about militant feminism (or militant other things, for that matter), what it does to one’s mind, the way it warps perspectives. It’ll probably be a while before some sort of reasonable balance is achieved. For now, it did spawn a variety of feminist fiction, some of which, like this collection, is pretty terrific. But the preamble of this review was to highlight the fact that this book’s appeal for me wasn’t its feminist nature. More so something about the title and the cover. You know, the pedestrian approach to reading selections. But also there was the blending of myths and apocalyptic scenarios and potential for something like magic realism or even supernatural and all those things I do like. So in fact, this was the book that did it all, it absolutely delivered on the cover promise, it completely met its description and it was actually thoroughly feminist without doing that thing where the message overwhelms the story. The writing was absolutely magical, from the first and longest story about a girl in a trailer park and her ghost friend, each of these stories succeeds at drawing the reader in. Each tale is an original, singular delight. The author straddles genres, mixes and matches, thematically and stylistically and the results are pretty freaking awesome. Obviously, all of the stories feature female protagonists and, obviously, all of them have a moral, something along the lines of how one can’t hold a good woman down for long, they shall rise and shine. And again, that’s all good and great, it just wasn’t the main draw for me. I simply enjoyed great storytelling, lovely command of language and notable displays of imagination. The moral was more along the lines of garnish. So basically, I’m trying to say that you might enjoy this book no matter where (within reason) you stand on feminism. The message in these stories is inspirational more so than selfcongratulatory. It doesn’t high five the characters for their gender, it showcases their inner strengths in face of adversity and so on, ability to persevere and rise above.. And that’s a good message for any audience. A very enjoyable quick read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.