short stories – Mike Wilson https://mikewilsonwriter.com Writing in the post-truth world Sun, 25 Oct 2020 23:27:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.3 177517995 Book Review – I Hold a Wolf by the Ears, by Laura van den Berg https://mikewilsonwriter.com/2020/11/01/book-review-i-hold-a-wolf-by-the-ears-by-laura-van-den-berg/ https://mikewilsonwriter.com/2020/11/01/book-review-i-hold-a-wolf-by-the-ears-by-laura-van-den-berg/#respond Mon, 02 Nov 2020 00:25:00 +0000 https://mikewilsonwriter.com/?p=988 I Hold a Wolf by the Ears: Stories

I Hold a Wolf by the Ears is a collection of eerie short stories by Laura van den Berg. The women protagonists in the stories are disturbed or disturbing or both, and most of the antagonists are women, too (sisters, mothers, new friend, former sister-in-law). The plots are interesting and the quality of the writing is excellent. NPR calls the stories “exquisite.” Here’s what Kirkus Reviews says:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/laura-van-den-berg/i-hold-a-wolf-by-the-ears/

]]> https://mikewilsonwriter.com/2020/11/01/book-review-i-hold-a-wolf-by-the-ears-by-laura-van-den-berg/feed/ 0 988 Book Review – If It Bleeds, by Stephen King https://mikewilsonwriter.com/2020/06/30/book-review-if-it-bleeds-by-stephen-king/ https://mikewilsonwriter.com/2020/06/30/book-review-if-it-bleeds-by-stephen-king/#respond Tue, 30 Jun 2020 19:37:22 +0000 https://mikewilsonwriter.com/?p=629 If It Bleeds, the title of Stephen King’s latest release, consists of four novellas. The first story, “Mr. Harrington’s Phone,” follows the life of a boy who works for and befriends a rich man and introduces him to (then) new-fangled cellphone technology. When the man dies, the boy slips the man’s beloved iPhone into his suit pocket so he’s buried with it. The boy is inspired to phone the number and you’ll have to read the story to learn the rest. The second story, “The Life of Chuck,” begins with a giant billboard thanking Chuck for 39 years. Nobody knows why. The third story, and title of the collection, is “If It Bleeds,” derived from the journalism maxim, “if it bleeds, it leads.” The protagonist is Holly Gibney, a character who has appeared in King’s previous work and the premise in this story draws from The Outsider.  The fourth story is “Rat,” in which an ambitious protagonist enters into a Faustian bargain with a rat. All of these stories are classic Stephen King with ordinary daily-life details and characters who behave like real people.  Kirkus Reviews calls this collection “a pleasure for his many fans and not a bad place to start if you’re new to him.”

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