Magic for Beginners

Uhhh... you know that thing when you can recognize that something is well-done and still not like it that much?

That is how I felt about this book. I had to abandon a few of the stories halfway through because they were too scary. A lot of them were just like... really, beautifully, weird. Too weird for me, maybe? And I feel like my bar for weird is pretty high? But the weirdness was really well done.

I absolutely adored the first story about the handbag and then quite liked the story about the convenience store though I was very disappointed at how that ended. Each successive story after was less and less appealing to me. I made it about halfway through the book before I gave up. Maybe I should have stuck it out to the end but the stories that followed the handbag and the convenience store left me wanting?

I have rarely been so torn about a book. I would definitely recommend it to particular people, but it was ultimately just not my style. The stories were just a little too surrealist for my taste. That being said, the stories had great atmosphere. Stone animals in particular was just unsettling enough, like a dream that scares you but you can't describe why.