Amy Gustine

Really, really good for a debut. It's probably more around 4 stars but because there are only a few reviews and the book deserves a lot more attention, I gave it 5. I was captivated by every single story in the collection and the prose was beautiful. Some of the stories were disturbing and others emotional, but they were all really interesting and the characters were very well written.

Mostly interesting if not quite exciting group of stories. There were a few gems, and a few that I really thought could have benefited from a longer length. All of the stories have the common thread of featuring lonely outsiders, which I definitely appreciated.

Overall, very good collection with a couple of missteps. Gustine is best when she finds grace and mystery in the most ordinary circumstances - raising a child as an atheist amid religious friends and neighbors, an adopted son who is expected to care for his terminally ill mother. The final story Half-Life about a young woman who was raised in foster care becomes a nanny for the granddaughter of the judge who separated her from her biological family was a mindblower.

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories, somehow the author managed to be both tragic and hilarious.