Spirits occupy a seaside inn, technology invades a marriage, troubled voices rise from an airliner graveyard, and an atheist is hijacked to Heaven. “One Before Bedtime” gathers a captivating collection of original short stories for young adults, and everyone older—sweeping together Gothic tales, dark mystery, and fantasy, with humor. These accounts offer satisfying reading to everyone for, as author N.S. Johnson has written, “The extraordinary and inexplicable occurs at least once to each of us.”
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Reviews:
"Recommended to lit-fic readers and those who enjoy character drama...evocative without becoming overblown. Read sparingly for best effect."
Reviewer: Reader for Bookangel.
This is an excellent anthology of literary stories that should appeal to most readers. To get this out of the way immediately, the spelling, grammar, and formatting are all fine, with no issues spotted.
The stories range from the contemplative to little revenge fantasies, to some truly original pieces of work. They are generally excellent. I can't fault the writing, which is precise and evocative without becoming overblown.
However, and you knew I had to find something to pick at, these stories are better read one at a time or stand-alone. While these are not by any means bad stories, if you read them all in succession certain trends do emerge. One of them is the "Casualty" trend; by later stories I was trying to work out who would die with which dreams unfulfilled. The number of characters who die, specifically who die just before they were going to accomplish something great or their heart's desire, gets a little predictable.
I do think that "One before Bed" is not a good title if you are looking to sleep. First, because they are compulsively more-ish, and second, because you may need the hankies handy. There's an outstanding one about a Constellation Starliner which is absolutely tragic.
Recommended to lit-fic readers and those who enjoy character drama. Read sparingly for best effect.
Rating: 4
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Discussion
rz3300 (13 September 2016)
This is not the first one that has been recommended to be read sparingly, and now I am really starting to wonder if I am missing something here. I am just not sure I have heard this before. I guess it makes sense, and maybe I will have to try it here and see if it works, and maybe it is the type of story that really makes the difference. Should be interesting, regardless.
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