Thursday, June 16, 2011

Review of TEETH

I don't think there's a single bad story in this collection. There were one or two that didn't work for me quite as well as the rest (Cecil Castellucci's "Best Friends Forever," and Suzy McKee Charnas' "Late Bloomer") and I'm always honest about the fact that I struggle with poetry even at the best of times (and thus, Neil Gaiman's "Bloody Sunrise" and Emma Bull's "My Generation" were not highlights for me personally), but even the stories that didn't totally click still had some aspect I lilked (in Castellucci's story it was the ending; in Charnas' it was the twists on the way there).

My favorite stories in the collection? The lead-off by Genevieve Valentine, "Things To Know About Being Dead" and the closer by Tanith Lee, "Why Light?" prove why Datlow and Windling are such great editors -- they know how to start strong and end strong. The stories are very different in tone and text, but both leave a strong impression.  Steve Berman's "All Smiles" introduces us to a possible new YA series protagonist who happens to be gay, and by the end of the story I absolutely wanted to see and know more about Saul. Nathan Ballingrud's "Sunbleached" felt like a lost chapter from Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot; coming from me that's high praise indeed. Garth Nix's "Vampire Weather," Delia Sherman's "Flying" and Ellen Kushner's "History" were also high on my favorites list.

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