Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Believe in Magic, December 13, 2009
With BLANKET OF WHITE, Amy Grech has crafted a superb collection of short
stories that feature love and loss, redemption, betrayal and other
unspeakable horrors. Highly recommended for those who love scary stories!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Slick & Sick, October 19, 2009
Amy Grech's second collection of short stories is as good as her first (Apple of My Eye)---then again, this is basically the same collection with two new stories added.
So how do the new tales stack up? The title story is a spooky heartbreaker in the vein of Gary Braunbeck or Christopher Conlon (and if you have a daughter like I do, it'll hit you even harder). Russian Roulette, the second new offering, features some dry humor and is perhaps the most different tale in the lot.
If you haven't had the pleasure of reading Grech's first collection, you'll surely enjoy Perishables, Cold Comfort, and my favorite Grech tale, EV 2000, a sci/fi vampire story that's to die for.
Apple of My Eye went out of print after two printings. If you missed it, Blanket of White is a must read. If you own Apple and are a big Grech fan, you'll want this---or at least get the e-book edition to check out her new stories. Also includes a movie trailer-like introduction by Michael McCarty.
Amy---we're waiting for a novel!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The "dark/er aspects of humanity"..., September 14, 2009
::Quick Points::
+ I found the short-short scenes of BLANKET OF WHITE to be an effective technique. It made me want to get to the next story, to see "what facet/snippet of life (through a dark lens)" I'd receive next.
+ Personally, I usually prefer reading more "uplifting" material, heh! - which in this case, means the author has done well with showing the dark(er) aspects of humanity (it kind of reminds me of the movie, Se7en, which I loved).
+ I found the writing style of this book to be more mainstream than literary, so readers who like literary/classic fiction might want to take note of that.
::Longer Version::
The stories are bite-sized -- I enjoyed the "to-the-point" aspect of Amy Grech's BLANKET OF WHITE very much. The writing style stays focused on the theme -- a theme which runs through the whole book (the "dark/er aspects of humanity"), a theme which gives the book a heartbeat and life of its own.
Thoughts about some of the stories - 'Prevention' puts a new twist on sibling rivalry. 'Come and Gone' - was/is very original (a dark, erotic journey; not for the faint of heart)! 'Perishables' reminded me of a story in Annie Proulx's collection of short stories in Close Range: Wyoming stories -- I can't remember which story exactly, but a similarly concise one. 'EV2000' is a timely wakeup call, in the era of advanced technological pursuits. Shorter scenes = more stories = more "glimpses" through different perspectives for the reader. Maybe this wasn't the author's intention, maybe it was - being a magpie type myself, I loved this in this book. It covered many different settings/situations, because of the writing style the author chose.
Minor gripe - there were a few typing errors which the editor had missed. I counted at least four spelling errors in the first story and I _know_ I'm being persnickety, but that is part of an editor's job - it gets in the way of my enjoyment of a story ;).
Paradoxical and ironic/cliched as it may sound, there can be order in chaos (a seemingly unstructured style), which is what I found in Blanket of White. Lacking a thorough overboard of character's backgrounds, history, etc, can have its advantages (in a way) -- the characters become a little more faceless -- they could be anyone -- they could be your neighbor, your friend, a family member, a friend of a friend, a colleague, a distant cousin, the guy that works at the nearest gas station. That in its own way, is character building.
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