I don't read a lot of short stories. For the most part I find them unsatisfying, many of the stories feeling like fragments of story ideas rather than fully fleshed tales. Peter S. Beagle is one of the few authors I've read who seems to be able to write both short and long pieces with equal skill. That brings me to Cat Rambo's work. This book was my first exposure to her writing, so I do not know anything about her longer pieces. I can however say that I was delighted with this short story collection. I picked it up because of a recommendation by another author, and frankly, because her name is so darn cool. What I found inside the book was a wide variety of stories ranging from full-blown fantasy to real-world with a hint of magic. PoV varied, and she handled all with equal aplomb. The level of imagination was impressive and even intimidating. I kept thinking, how the devil did she come up with that?

This is typically Cat Rambo, surreal, twisted in the most unusual ways. Definitely a good read if you are in the "Jabberwocky" mind set, or looking for something radically different to your usual read. A cross between "Still life with woodpecker", "Waiting for Godot" and "Through the looking glass".

I was hooked by the middle of the first page. I was a fangirl by the end of the book.