RaveThe Sewanee ReviewIt’s thrilling, then, to see Shipstead approach the short story with this same ethos, freighting it with some of the same complexities she brings to the long form ... displays impressive range in these variegated narratives ... Her writing leans long—all of the stories but one run at least twenty pages—but as a result, Shipstead is able to construct fully-functioning worlds and then provide the characters within them the breadth to both breathe and grow. Her stories have a lived-in quality; there is the sense that characters exist before the first page and beyond its last ... Shipstead’s reliable narrative voice and precise world-building are hallmarks of the novelist, but this collection affirms equal dexterity in the short story—particularly for those who relish in the expanse of the catacombs and pastures of narration, and the ever-present sensation of having someone irresistible to walk through them with.
