Hi, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Diane Cook's debut collection, Man v. Nature.Writing a synopsis for a collection is always so tough! I find I really can't do it in a traditional sense so I'm just going to dive straight into my review.
Cook's theme here is, of course, man versus nature, but within this theme the stories themselves run the gamut from man literally versus nature to man versus human nature and everything in between! The interesting and unexpected thing about this collection is that most of the stories are set in post apocalyptic and even somewhat dystopian worlds. Worlds in which spouses are assigned rather than chosen and children are determined to be necessary or not. Worlds overcome by natural and unnatural forces. Worlds in which the unbelievable are everyday occurrences.
Some of Cook's stories are amusing, some are shocking, and most fall somewhere in between. All of them are a bit weird, to be honest, but every one of the chosen pieces for the collection fit together to perfectly illustrate Cook's obvious talent as a storyteller.
A couple of my personal favorites in the collection are "Moving On," where a newly widowed woman faces a new life without her husband, all the while waiting for a new husband to bid for her hand and "Somebody's Baby," a tale that brings to mind legends of changelings.
Man v. Nature is quirky and dark, likely to hit the spot for a particular set of readers, but it's also an altogether fantastic collection.
Rating: 4/5
To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here. For more from Diane Cook, you can follow her on Twitter.
2 comments:
Fall always strikes me as the right time of year to read quirky, dark books like this one. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for being a part of the tour.
That's a great way of putting it, the unbelievable being these characters' everyday lives. These stories are certainly worth reading, I agree.
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