[This is the first of… many?… straight-up book reviews, rated one to five stars.]

Emma Cline and/or her publishing company reduces ten stories down to the middle thirds of ten stories. The opening thirds (when unlikable characters might be justified) and the closing thirds (when it’s fair to expect any progress or resolution whatsoever) are missing. Missing! So we’re left with the middles, when we get off the elevator onto the wrong floor, walk up and down the hallway mumbling about screen distraction and implied incest for a few minutes, then step back onto the car with a shrug and the door closes and that’s it. What building is this? Where did we mean to go, and who or what awaits there? I don’t know either.

I might blame the collected-short-story format because sameyness can out itself when read back to back to back, though Karen Russell and George Saunders fair alright. “Are they all like this?” is the worst thing to ask yourself in the middle (of the middle) of an opening story, as I did during “What Can You Do With a General.” Unfortunately, “They were all like this” is the worst confirmation at the end (of the middle) of the closing “A/S/L.” Drag. Take the stairs. ⭐⭐

Coming soon: More (and better) short stories from Brenda Peynado’s The Rock Eaters; books five and six from Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series; and Christopher Golden’s The Pandora Room.