2/20

Overall I liked both collections (there's some minor overlap). Link is very talented and versatile. She leans towards magical realism with strong horror vibes, with the realism strongly rooted in current-day American culture. I wouldn't classify the stories as horror, just as having horrific underpinnings, so to speak. Still, many stories revolve around death, or bullying, or both.

3/20

There's a bit of a problem with the ending of some stories: they often end on an ambiguous note. To me it had the effect of Link just stopping the story at a certain point, then glancing at me with a meaningful stare, waiting to see if I understood what she meant. And, well, sometimes I do. And sometimes I don't, and this leaves me feeling slightly uncomfortable. I admit I often do the same thing in my own flash fiction which I publish here, because sometimes it just feels right.

4/20

Individual stories from Magic For Beginners:

The Faery Handbag - Liked it, but IMO not as strong as other stories. It's lighter than the other ones and more "fun" while still discussing serious topics like refugees and migration. All even more important today than the time it was written. Still, not as strong.

5/20

The Ortlak - Dark story about coming of age and deadend jobs in a sort of alternate reality where zombies (well, consumer-zombies) exist on the US-Canada border. I liked it. Very Lynchian. I thought at first that maybe the title was a reference to the famous de Maupassant short story The Horla (which inspired Lovecraft), but I'm not sure now.

6/20

The Cannon - A standout: An absurdist fantastical story about cannons as living being and people being regularly shot from them and then living essentially in low orbit, told in fragments, while addressing the reader directly. I felt that as an experiment it partially failed, but the fact is I still remember it as a unique experience three weeks after reading it says it did something right. I wish Link had tried writing more like this, but tempered with a slightly more conventional style.

7/20

Stone Animals - The best story, IMO, in both collections. It's another good, dark Lynchian story, this time of a dysfunctional family with an emotionally missing father who move to a new supposedly haunted house. Strong psychological horror vibes. Many things happen which are just on the verge of being surreal, but not quite. Nothing is explicitly explained and a lot has to be inferred. The ending is very open to interpretation but I liked it.

8/20

Catskin - a fairy tale but with disturbing, horrific details. I personally don't like those, they're too dark and often feel like the author turns the darkness (and sometimes gore) to 11 just to make a point against traditional narratives, sort of like wannabe punks. Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter struck me the same way (although I sort of liked it).

9/20

Some Zombie Contingency Plans - Another strong, dark story about a teenager girl and an ex-con. It's not horror, or maybe it is. It's disturbing in the way it gets you to root for the viewpoint character, who is disturbed but you can't point out exactly how, until the very end.

10/20

The Great Divorce - Very good premise about a world where the dead can marry the living and have dead children (which they cannot see and have to use mediums). But it had no real plot and so was kind of boring.