Dark Breakers

The stories of C.S.E. Cooney mostly excel in atmosphere. They have a certain feeling to them that I haven't found in many other authors, which slowly draws you in, with characters that feel like fairytale figures yet fully formed people of their own. Sometimes I get a bit lost in the story, but for the most part they're enjoyable reads.

Individual reviews for each story:

The Breaker Queen (2/5)

This one was almost a DNF. Could not wrap my head around the story! I didn't really understand what was going on anymore halfway through and honestly couldn't bring myself to care enough to try. While I loved the prose, I wasn't really reading the actual story, and had to power through to finish it. Maybe a re-read is in order, one day.

The Two Paupers (4/5)

After almost DNF-ing this collection, this story was an absolute joy to read straight from the start. It's a delightful mythopoeic story filled with mystery, intrigue and romance culminating in a fantastic tale of artists and magic. The imagery in this story is beautiful.

Salissay's Laundries (3.5/5)

This one was quite interesting; a journalist tries to infiltrate some kind of institution in an attempt to essentially prove magic exists. She's very sceptical and gets up to a bunch of trouble. Just like the others, it's kind of a slow burn, not much going on, and it had a bit of a middle drag for me.

Longergreen (4/5)

A very sweet story on grieving and a bit of interesting worldbuilding. Becomes much more meaningful after having read some of the previous stories in this collection. I especially liked how it interwove a historical event in the world with the personal story of some characters we got to know earlier.

Susurra to the Moon (3.5/5)

This was a very quick and cute absurd little short story. What I really like about C.S.E's stories is how they are very much myths, with fairytale logic, yet they incorporate hard terms of science, referring to decidedly “real” organisations and facts of science, within this illogical feeling world. It's an interesting paradox, and it works quite well.

Average rating: 3.4, rounded down to 3.

Disclaimer: I receive an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review.