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Pretty Monsters

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I have a confession - I'm an adult who loves so-called YA novels, and especially tales of the supernatural and macabre. Kelly Link 's "Pretty Monsters' seems to be borderline between YA and adult fiction. The stories within this collection of dark, fantastical tales are truly unique and what makes them stand out, besides the imaginative plots and unusual characters are the fact that the stories themselves don't usually resolve themselves in a conventional manner.

Among the stories I liked were "Monster", in which a ravenous beast preys on boys at summer camp - and this is an unusual creature indeed, it uses a cell phone. There's the story "The Faerie Handbag"of a girl whose grandma's purse happens to be the living quarters of a fairy village. "The Wrong Grave" is another one that is creepy yet humorous - of a boy named Miles who regrets burying the sole copy of his collection of poems in his deceased girlfriend's casket. These are among the tales that sucked me into a weird,terrifying, and yet humor-tinged world.

The other stories in this collection are "Magic for Beginners" in which a teenager finds himself questioning the 'reality' of the TV show he's addicted to, "The Surfer", "The Wizards of Perfil", "The Constable of Able", "The Specialist's Hat" and "Pretty Monsters".

This is Kelly Link's third collection of stories, after "Magic for Beginners", and "Stranger Things Happen", and the first collection for young adults. The protagonists in these stories are all teens and despite the strange premises of the stories, the characters themselves seem very real and the emotions they experience as they face their 'realities' are very much human. Highly recommended!

In a recent interview, Michael Chabon recommended reading Kelly Link. His suggestion was good enough for me, and so I quickly got a copy of the short story collection Pretty Monsters from my local library.

I think the first thing I need to note is that Pretty Monsters is a young adult novel. Meaning that, while there is some profanity and adult circumstances, the stories largely focus upon young adult protagonists and largely investigate themes important to young adults.

However, that is not to say that you should turn your nose up at this book if you are an old adult as opposed to a young adult. (I'm 32, where does that put me?) Link has one of the most imaginative minds I've ever run across. While her stories dealt with aspects of horror, science fiction, and fantasy, each was completely original and refreshingly weird. I mean that as a total compliment, by the way. Oftentimes, I feel like authors aren't willing to get flat-out weird enough. I'm not talking perverse--I'm just talking weird in a fun and provocative way. Link often took her stories in unexpected directions, and if you do manage to predict an outcome to one of her stories, be assured that she meant for you to do so.

My only complaint about Pretty Monsters, though, is the fact that each story tended to end on a rather abrupt, inconclusive note. Some people really enjoy this, but I personally prefer more decisive endings. Link charmed me, consequently, when she addressed this issue in--appropriately enough--the final story in the collection. Somehow the fact that she's cognizant of her trends makes it less irritating for me.

In particular, I recommend "The Faery Handbag," "Magic for Beginners," "Pretty Monsters," and, by far one of the best short stories I've ever read, "The Surfer."

~Scott William Foley, author of Souls Triumphant

In a dual review of her previous collections, Stranger Things Happen and Magic for Beginners a couple of years ago, I wrote the following about Kelly Link:

"...for the last decade, [Link] has demonstrated an unparalleled mastery of the short story form in every sense of that word. In retrospect, to say she has mastered the form is perhaps an understatement: not only has she tamed this particular beast, she's taught it a few new tricks. Her talent and dedication shine through in each and every tale.

Link's collections are treasure troves of creative storytelling, each volume a celebration of the power of the imagination, each story a unique, glittering gem worthy of careful and repeated inspection. Combining fantastic concepts with familiar elements of the real world, Link's works reveal there are myriad ways of interpreting and portraying "reality". You'll rarely encounter a writer as warm, adventurous, eclectic and sharp witted as Link. Fearless, there is no place she won't go; empathic, she effortlessly conveys to her audience the nuances of her characters' pain, bewilderment, joy and understanding."

I'm pleased to report that Link's latest collection, Pretty Monsters, bears out these words, providing incontrovertible evidence that she is, as Peter Straub once said, "the most impressive writer of her generation."

Aimed at the so-called young adult audience, Monsters is a happy blend of older, previously collected tales ("Magic for Beginners," "The Faery Handbag," and "The Specialist's Hat") and other, newer stories written for various theme anthologies which are collected here for the first time ("The Wrong Grave" from The Restless Dead, "The Wizards of Perfil" from Firebirds Rising, "Monster" from Noisy Outlaws, "The Surfer" from The Starry Rift, and "The Constable of Abal" from The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales). All though all are entertaining and rewarding on numerous levels, none compare to the title story, "Pretty Monsters," a bit of literary slight of hand which simultaneously manages to evoke the movies Mean Girls and Ginger Snaps while delivering some authentic chills.

As stated in the promotional materials accompanying the uncorrected proof, Link's stories have been Nebula, Locus, British Science Fiction Association, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker award winners. Her last book, Magic for Beginners, was given Book of the Year Awards from Time Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, and The Village Voice, and was also a Best of BookSense pick for 2005. If you've read her previous collections, or experienced one or more of her stories in their original venues, or in a Year's Best collection, you know why they were so honored. If you have yet to sample any of Link's work, you need to get busy and start enjoying the products of her vivid and expansive imagination. Pretty Monsters would be a great place to start.

This was my first time reading Kelly Link. She is quite the find, I really enjoyed her stories. An award winning author, Pretty Monsters is the third book to be released featuring her short stories. Pretty Monsters was originally published as a hardcover in September 2008.

A fun read, out the the 10 stories I really enjoyed Pretty Monsters and The Cinderella Game. Take your mind on a fantastic voyage with Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters. Each tale is new and adventurous. Storytelling that is unique, wacky and filled with paranormal elements. Ms. Link spins exciting tales that are worth re-reading.

In her new collection of stories, Kelly Link gives readers a wide array of spooky, ironic, and sometimes downright funny short stories that will make them shiver--from Miles's accidental excavation of the wrong girl's grave when he sets about to dig up poems placed in his dead girlfriend's casket, to the terrifying and tech savvy monster who terrorizes a summer camp.

Link's style ranges from quirky to gruesome to downright creepy, and her collection offers a little something for everyone with a unique and highly imaginative quality. Since the content of the book is so varied, some readers might have a little trouble sticking it out through all the stories, but Link's characters are very relatable despite the strange circumstances the find themselves in. However, perhaps the best part about these stories is Link's talent for deceiving twists and surprise endings, which make each and every story all the more enjoyable--and startling.

I purchased a copy of Pretty Monsters based on Caitlin Kiernan's recommendations in her Live Journal, and I'm so glad that I did. The stories are immersive and leave me with the feeling that, when I pick them up again, they'll have somehow continued on from the place they ended the last time I read them.

My only complaint is that The Cinderella Game is not included in the Kindle edition, as it is in the paperback edition.

I'll definitely be reading more of Ms. Link's work.

Pretty Monsters is a collection of short stories for young adults, but adults will also enjoy Link's imaginative stories. Link's imagination is fearless. In her stories, she conjures up fantastical situations, such as: a futuristic Earth plagued with a deadly flu outbreak; magical handbags that contain other worlds within; all-to-real reality shows; ghosts that dangle on colorful ribbons that are worn like pretty trinkets on dresses; and beautiful aliens. Some stories feature absolutely realistic and "normal" people and situations, but suddenly burst into the bizarre or supernatural.

As the collection progresses, the stories become more complicated, crafted, and enjoyable. My favorite stories were "The Wizards of Perfil, "Monster," "The Surfer," and "Pretty Monsters." In each, young people find themselves on their own, and in some desperate search for identity, recognition, and respect. In "Wizards," forsaken children are turned into servants for wizards who they fear, but never see. In "Monster," boys at a sleep away summer camp regale each other with monster stories until they finally meet a real one (who incidentally has both a sense of humor and a cell phone!). "The Surfer" a futuristic tale, conjures up memories of the bird flu and swine flu scares. I really liked how Adorno, the teen soccer star, matures. He grows from a selfish, obnoxious teen into a young man more aware of himself and others, more humble with respect to his athletic abilities. "Pretty Monsters" seems a cross between Mean Girls and A Teenage Werewolf. An initiation prank goes horribly wrong when the initiate turns into something not quite human and not exactly friendly.

Link's characters are very complex, real, and multi-dimensional, yet are described with an almost minimalist style. We get snatches of "deep truths"--moments of truth through brief interactions with others or sudden moments of clarity. Minimalist though it may be, Link's writing bursts with lyrical prose, such as:

You can learn a lot of stuff at camp. You learn how to wiggle an arrow so that it comes out
of a straw target without the metal tip coming out. You learn how to make something out of yarn and twigs called a skycatcher, because there's a lot of extra yarn and twigs in the world, and someone had to come up with something to do with it. You learn how to jam your feet up into the mattress of the bunk above you, while someone is leaning out of it, so that they fall out of bed...You learn to pretend to be asleep when people make fun of you. You learn how to be lonely" (202).

Each story has a striking or unexpected conclusion. In some stories, the ending is described so loosely that I was unsure what exactly happened, and had to backtrack and try to figure it out. (That said, in some cases, I never was really sure what did occur.) Other stories, such as "Monster," "Pretty Monsters," and "The Wizards of Perfil," present such shocking conclusions that will leave readers reeling, but hungry for more thrills.

Shaun Tan's artwork and decorations make this book visually stunning. The beautiful and imaginative artwork matches the fascinating prose within this book's lush covers. Young adults will gobble this book up, and adults will relish in the author's imagination and fine craft.

This review was also posted on my blog: [...]

PRETTY MONSTERS is a collection of nine short stories; all of which were quite interesting. Here is a sentence or two about each story...

1. The Wrong Grave - Miles Sperry decides to dig up his dead girlfriend, Bethany Baldwin, to get back some poetry that he wrote for her after she died and wasn't smart enough to make copies of. When he opens the grave, he has discovered that it is the wrong one. Now he's got some strange dead girl following him around all night.

2. The Wizards of Perfil - This is about a boy named Onion and a girl named Halsa. Onion's parents have died and Halsa's mother is watching after him and the other children. While in the market of Perfil, she sells Onion to someone who says they will take him to the Wizards of Perfil. For some reason, they bring Onion right back and take Halsa instead. Once Halsa is there, she discovers that the Wizards are incredibly vain and super lazy. But there is something that neither Onion or Halsa knows about the wizards.

3. Magic for Beginners - A boy named Jeremy Mars and a few of his friends are obsessed with a show called The Library. Jeremy's mother and father have some problems getting along because Jeremy's father is a writer. When his father puts Jeremy in one of his books and then kills him off, his mother insists that she and Jeremy go to Las Vegas to see the wedding chapel she has inherited from her late sister. But Jeremy is afraid that he'll miss the next spontaneous episode of The Library!

4. The Faery Handbag - Genevieve's grandmother, Zofia, has a mysterious handbag that is apparently a family heirloom and over 200 years old. She never lets the bag out of her sight. Zofia tells Genevieve crazy stories about how a whole little village lives in that bag, and a nasty dog, too. If you open it up and aren't careful, you could get sucked into the handbag and not come out for years, even if you are only in the bag for one day. When Zofia dies, Genevieve is to be the keeper of the bag, but once Zofia is gone Genevieve can't find the handbag anywhere.

5. The Specialist's Hat - Samantha and Claire are identical twins who live with their father on the second story of a huge house. Their father is writing the history of the Eight Chimneys where they are currently living. Samantha and Claire have a babysitter who tells them about The Specialist, who apparently goes around the house killing people and that she herself used to live there and has seen The Specialist when she was younger. Things get a little creepy when The Specialist himself shows up that night.

6. Monster - Bungalow 6 has to go on their campout before camp ends for the summer. It's pouring out but they still want to go. The boys from Bungalow 4 say they saw a monster and they are determined to see it. James Lorbick is kind of the loser of the cabin, and Bryan Jones dares him to put on a dress once they've set up camp. He puts it on and ends up wearing it most of the night. When their counselor, Terence, goes down the hill to help out a female camper, the monster shows up...

7. The Surfer - Dorn is kidnapped by his father and taken to Costa Rica to see the elusive Hans Bliss, who was picked up by aliens years before and was told that they would come back to Earth some day. After landing in Costa Rica, they are quarantined because of the flu pandemic that has been killing for quite some time now.

8. The Constable of Abal - After Ozma's mother, Zilla, has killed the constable of Abal, they flee to a place called Brid that Ozma hates. Back in Abal, ghosts were quite the fashion. Zilla made them that way, but in Brid Ozma's mother acts like she despises ghosts and makes Ozma dress as a boy.

9. Pretty Monsters - Lee and her friends Nikki, Maureen, and Bad capture Czigany and (not on purpose) her sister, Parci, for Czigany's "ordeal" which is a ritual in their all-girls school. While on Lee's aunt's farm, Lee keeps pulling out her current book about a girl named Clementine and a boy named Cabell.

I enjoyed each of these stories. A few of them were so far-fetched and crazy! You can definitely tell that Ms. Link has a crazy imagination, which is incredibly awesome. I think my favorite story of the bunch was Monster. The ending of that one was just so strange to me, and also sort of funny. If you're in the mood for some crazy out-of-this-world stories, then this book is definitely for you. This would be a great one to read during the Halloween season because of all the spooky aspects and whatnot.

Reviewed by: Breanna F.

I can't get enough of Kelly Link's voice. It is so present in each of her tales, even in their diversity. Lovely read and so thoughtful.

Kelly Link has come up some of the most original ways of looking at reality from charaters that always keep you guessing. I especially loved "A phone booth in Las Vegas", for it's twist on a TV show that you would not ever imagine. The perceptions on life in 'Pretty Monsters' are refreshing and unique.