Okay, I just loved this. I love his style of writing, I felt like it was almost poetry. The stories are so short and simple, but there are so many layers and things to think about. Some are even uncomfortable to read, and I think that was one of the best things. You really know what you are reading is important and meaningful if you almost wish you hadn't read it. It means that it really got to you. I doubt I will ever forget this book and everything it meant. ( )

I wanted to give up this book so many times as I was reading it, and I almost did. It is so dark. SO DARK. And it took me a while to see past the many disturbing elements before I really saw this book for what it was. It is a meditation on parenting and loss in apocalypse. The way the world grinds down parents and children, the way parents grind down children, the way children grind down their parents, when the "normal order" has been stripped away. When there is no longer any assurance of living to see your children have children, no longer any assurance of passing on your genes, the family business, your grandparents' furniture. When the world is misery and loss, what ties still bind parents to their children?

It is not a novella. It is a collection of short stories, one for each letter of the alphabet. Each a fresh apocalypse. Each haunted set of parents. Each doomed set of children. Each fresh hell. ( )

Guuuuuh. ( )