I went into this collection unaware of the thick streak of magical realism that runs through Galchen's writing, which probably would have dissuaded me as it tends to be one of my less-favorite writing tropes, but that's just a personal preference of mine. That said, Galchen is clearly a great writer, but this collection suffered in the way that I feel most short story collections suffer; the content was uneven. A couple of these stories I LOVED (Wild Berry Blue, The Entire Northern Side Was Covered With Fire), a couple I really didn't like, and the rest were forgettable. I tend not to read short story collections for this reason, but this was on multiple best-of-the-year lists so I thought it would be worth checking out. If you're familiar with or a fan of Galchen's writing, I wouldn't dissuade you from this, but overall this collection left me feeling flat.

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