Solid intro to Caitlin Doughty's works on death.

I was so excited for this book (I read it during winter for the ~ambience~), but felt let down by a lot of things about it - the characters most of all. And the reveal at the end left me feeling unfulfilled and disappointed.

I really like ghost stories, and I enjoyed the concept for how each writer was promoted to write these stories (by staying in a reportedly haunted location and writing a story prompted by that location). I picked this up because of Jeanette Winterson (whose story broke my heart and out it back together again), but I liked most of the other stories too.

This book broke my heart. I sobbed while reading certain parts of it. It's very beautiful, and the story is incredibly engaging. I picked this off of a display in the library - I recognized the title but did not know anything about it, including the fact that it's a queer love story.

I usually struggle with short story collections, but not so with Carmen's. Gothic and impactful, to me, most of these stories show how good short stories can be when they are done well. The story about the writer's retreat haunted me for days, in a good way.