Customer Reviews

Pieces: A Collection of New Voices

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This collection of short stories left me wanting more from many of the authors included, many of which are working on novels. I was first led to this book by the editer, Stephen Chbosky, whose novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, as become a personal favorite, one I've already read twice.

The stories included are all refreshing and range greatly in style and subject matter. I was amazed by so many of them and was stunned by the authors interesting, hip and refreshing take on telling a story. I don't normally read short stories, but I really liked reading them because so many of them are very short, 10 pages or less and you can read them quickly and be done with those characters. Also if there is one you don't care much for it's not very long and you can move on to another more interesting story.

Some of my favorite stories were, "Polariod," which gets you into the mind of crowd all standing around the Eiffel Tower. The way the story is told is awesome and leaves you satisfied. "The Carnival" was another favorite, it's amazing use of metaphor will leave you breathless.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in finding new, fresh, authors who aren't afraid of shocking you.

Pieces isnt a bad book at all! I had some low expectations for it due to some of the other reviews, but all in all I was pleasantly surprised with most parts of the book. It isnt very reminiscient of "Perks of Being a Wallflower" if you're expecting that.

Overall, I give it a B, some of the stories were horrible (Mother, White Carousel Horse) and then, some were marvelous,(Roam, Forbidden Fate). Others were mediocre.

Dont listen to the people saying this book is "too much to take" because I am 16 and a high school junior. I found it to be a good read that kept me interested and entertained.

The thing that I most enjoyed about this book was that I could actually relate to the stories. Stephen is not only a wonderful writer, but a spectacular editor as well. He did a great job bringing this book together and making it into what it is today.

This book is totally enjoyable. MTV Books did a great thing by having the 'Write Stuff' Competition, or else we wouldn't have had access to this collection. It contains 15 short stories by young, talented authors from all over the U.S. I never thought much about short stories (usually reading novels), until I picked up this book. I love the story "Polaroid," about people in Paris on a rainy day. All of these stories have something in common. They all tell that what the eye sees is not always the truth. That behind every person there is a truth, known only to themselves. It might be good, or bad. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read something different, capturing, and fresh. A good buy. Along with Pieces, I recommend The Losers Club by Richard Perez and WILL@epicqwest by Tom Grimes -- two very cool Amazon quick-picks I'm very happy with.

Kudos to the editors and publishers of this wonderful collection for giving young writers a forum to "break in." I plan to use several of these stories in my tenth and eleventh grade American literature classes. They are as good as many of the "classic" stories I've come across in Best Of anthologies, the New Yorker, Esquire, etc... And they will show the aspiring writers in my classes that pursuing writing professionally is feasible with a little talent and a lot of persistence. William Clifford's "Scoring", Michelle Rick's "Next Time" and Dennis Dillingham's "The White Horse Carousel" are particularly inspiring, and even show flashes of brilliance. I look forward to seeing more from them.

when i read a collection of short stories, i like to pretend that i am the teacher in a creative writing class and give the stories and their authors a grade. this helps me decide which authors i am going to pursue further (i use collections to find new authors). i decided to publish my grades on this collection after seeing other assesments here that were grossly out of line with mine. and my grades are.....

scoring - B minus
polaroid - C
day of the dead - B
the white carousel horse - F
first snow - B
the carnival - F
petty theft - C minus
next time - B
black cowboy - A
pinball - C
mother - F
respiration - C minus
a fortune - D
forbidden state - C minus

notice the nice distribution all averaging to a C. by the way, any editors or english departments that read these and decide to do the same and come up with the exact same grades as i, and realizing my undiscovered genius wish to employ me, i am available.

to those authors who got bad grades, its just one man's very subjective opinion. you should be chuffed that you got published and dont give up. to carmen elena mitchell, i am awaiting more with great anticipation.

I really disliked the book. The stories chosen were pointless and boring. I would read one story, be thoroughly disappointed, hope the next one would compensate for my wasted time, and unsurprisingly, it would not. Obviously, I would not recommend this book.

The only story worth reading is "Scoring" but I wouldn't purchase the whole book to read it.

True, most of these stories are pretty terrible: incoherent, recycled modern fiction. But the book is saved by its few good stories, Davy Rothbart's in particular. He's brave enough to take on a rarely-heard voice -- that of a prison inmate -- and honest enough to pull it off. Kudos.

there's nothing more i can say other than this is an amazing book and has been my favorite book of all time for years now.

I felt kind of old reading this book and being in my mid twenties because i felt as though it was aimed at a much younger (teen audience0, but sometimes things never change and the books and stories still resonated a lot with me. I enjoyed the stories a lot. If anything negative, the short stories left me wanting more, a lot more. Some very talented authors in the group.