Meanwhile, I'm not even halfway through the first story and I'm already giggling my ass off and jonesing to re-read Half-Resurrection Blues and anxiously tapping my foot for Shadowshaper.

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I love how this was a collection of short stories AND its own novel--it's like Louise Erdrich but not--and it makes me want to re-read HRB even harder. Dare I say, it managed to have even spookier moments--the kind that gave me...maybe not quite nightmares, but fascinating creepy dreams (that's TWO books now this year that actually infiltrated my dreams! dayum). I love how the red-tape world of bureaucracy plagues the realm of the dead and all the ways the characters work to subvert it, as well as the history, neighborhood dynamics, and tenderness that thread through the stories. This side of NYC Older is creating is endlessly intriguing and hilarious. I can't wait for more more more. ( )

3.5 stars

My reviews are probably going to suck for the foreseeable future. That said, I enjoyed this. I liked the tongue-in-cheek humor and getting to see POVs of more characters. I continue to wish Older were better at distinguishing the voices for the POV characters though. ( )

There's a story in here (whose name I need to check!) that I cam across online and is the whole reason I started to read Older. A combination of Cuban American culture, ghosts, and most of all music -- one of the best writers on music I know. His prose isn't self-consciously flowery; it isn't unnecessarily rough or ethereal either. It is clear-eyed, but what the eyes are seeing (and ears are hearing, to start to muddle my metaphors) is fantastical. ( )

I really liked these stories, which brought New York City to life in ways that very few books or movies or TV shows do. The setting is kind of the protagonist here, but Carlos is also the protagonist – which is why I kept wishing that this collection had been a novel rather than a series of short stories. It was missing a central thread that was hinted at but not present. I guess I have to go read [b:Half-Resurrection Blues|22393174|Half-Resurrection Blues (Bone Street Rumba, #1)|Daniel José Older|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1401879207s/22393174.jpg|41813786] next!

My favorite story by far was "Magdalena", which just gave me chills all over my body. So intense and beautiful and real. Least favorite was "Love Is a Fucking River" which was trying to be an outsider POV on the main characters but fell a bit flat. ( )

I found this when I went to see if there were more books in the series, it is marked as being book 2.5. So I didn’t realize that this was a collection of short stories. And per the introduction really a prequel to Half-Resurrection Blues. Once you start to read it though, it’s ingenious the way each story can stand alone, yet when read in order make up a much larger story. I had planned to do a blurb for each story, but realizing that each story makes up the part of a bigger picture, I erased my comments.
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com