Jen Fawkes

Very good debut collection—dark and offbeat, skewing heavily toward contemporary explorations of myths, fairy tales, and sideshows, and their real-life counterparts: parental abuse, neglect, and estrangement; illness; violence. But for all that, this doesn't feel oppressive—Fawkes's characters all have a weird hopeful streak, whether a happy ending is theirs for the taking or, more commonly, not. There's an impulse toward the quirky that sometimes intrudes on otherwise solid yarn-spinning, but still it's an interesting and worthwhile collection overall.… (mehr)