St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

These stories are all beautifully written and a bit harrowing, but almost all of them are also unresolved: they set up a very interesting world and story and then leave you wondering what will happen. Many of them involve characters trapped or stranded somewhere and awaiting rescue. They're almost more like vignettes or tableaux than short stories per se. Whether it's because the names, characters and worlds are so intriguingly sketched out with so few words, or because of the unresolved nature of the stories, I have the feeling I'll continue to ponder many of them. My favorite was City of Shells.

Another difficult to rate.
There were bits I liked. Bits I liked a lot. The magical. The understanding... Karen moves with ease between all kinds of people... I find her people believable.
Then there were bits I didn't like. Like 12 years old having sex.
The culture shock of the first story, about the alligator farm. Or, what culture. People have been pushed so far out from the society they don't have any culture, any traditions beyond two generations, any memories or ancestors, any connection with anything... it's horrifying.
The bullies.
But I suppose, all in all, it is amazing. It got a reaction out of me. I responded emotionally, strongly. It was easy to read.

Russell's writing is exquisite, always. I connected with some of the stories in this collection and others not at all. While I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the intensity of the bizarre captured in her vivid constructs, her immense talent as a writer is never in question. I just wish that maybe she didn't try so hard to be unique and different in every aspect of her concoctions. That would bring more reality to her work and make the strangeness and brilliant moments more recognizable and appreciated. It just ends up feeling forced weirdness sometimes, unfortunately.

You can this review and more like it on my blog.

She used to have these intense bouts of homesickness in her own bedroom. When she was very small, she would wake up tearing at her bedspread and shrieking, “I wanna go home! I wanna go home!” Which was distressing to all of us, of course, because she was home.

Nobody is more bummed than me that I didn't like this collection. My first introduction to Karen Russell was Vampires in the Lemon Grove, another collection of short stories that I picked up on a whim in 2015 and absolutely devoured. It became one of my favorite books and I recommended it to literally everyone who would listen. Ironically enough, while I chose it for the postal book club that my friend Rachel started, another group member (there are 12 of us) chose this one! I was stoked that I would finally get the chance to read more of Karen's work.

Everybody wants to go home, and no one can agree on where that is anymore.

Unfortunately, the majority of the stories in this collection just didn't vibe with me. They felt bizarre just for the sake of being bizarre and I found it impossible to connect with any of the characters (save for a couple). The stories felt like they stopped abruptly and I had difficulty understanding their purpose. There were some stories about girls having questionable relationships with grown men that made me unbelievably uncomfortable. Perhaps there were underlying messages that I truly just didn't understand.

My rating for each story:

Ava Wrestles the Alligator 3/5 (cw sexual assault??)
Haunting Olivia 2/5 (cw familial death)
ZZ's Sleep-Away Camp for Disordered Dreamers 2/5 (cw r-word, animal death)
The Star-Gazer's Log of Summer-Time Crime 2/5 (cw ableism)
Children's Reminiscences of the Westward Migration 4/5
Lady Yeti and the Palace of Artificial Snows 3/5
The City of Shells 3.5/5
Out to Sea 2/5 (cw underage drug abuse; pedophilia)
Accident Brief, Occurrence #00/422 2.5/5 (cw casual racism)
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves 4/5

He is an obdurate man, a man of irritating, inveterate habits. He refuses to put down toilet seats, or quit sucking on pistachio shells, or die.

My average rating was 2.8 stars, rounded down to 2. I think the content warnings really speak for themselves as to why I didn't love this collection. Many of the stories included problematic themes that I didn't really find combated or justified in any way. I suppose the point of this collection is to make people uncomfortable, but aside from the two four-star stories, I just didn't enjoy myself reading this. I was going to DNF after the fourth story, but I really wanted to finish this for the book club and was also looking forward to the title story (which was last, and which was worth reading).

This book may still be worth it for you if you're interested. It definitely worked for other people, so I don't want to turn anyone away, but this really wasn't for me.

I could not finish this book, hence the 1-star rating.

Russell is highly imaginative and has good ideas. The characters were different and quirky, and I liked how the setting of each short story (that I read) was engaging and kept me wanting more. And that's what I wanted - more - but in a bad, bad way. Overall, the stories always had something lacking.

It felt like Russell found a fool-proof formula on how to write a good short story, so she kept on applying it, and unfortunately, it got old very quickly. I had to put the book down after reading the first four, her author voice became stale and painful to read as I went on.

The fourth story was also disgustingly crude. I could not see myself enjoying the rest of the book.

Would not recommend.

Let me say straight out that I love Karen Russell's use of language and her knack for creating these magical tales. St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves is full of inventive and fun stories. Whether her characters are wrestling alligators or navigating giant conch shells or awkwardly watching women in Yeti costumes skate on ice with orangutans, it is easy to enjoy the imaginative images and play.

Initially, I loved this collection, but the further along I got into it, the more it became a chore to read. Yes, it's whimsical and entertaining, but strip that away and there's not much left. Most of the characters lack depth. The stories largely center around a similar moment of epiphany for our protagonists. And is it just me, but are most of these stories really about sex? (and if not, what does that say about me?) Frankly, I grew tired of the formula.

So I'd definitely read Karen Russell's work again, but maybe something with a larger scope. I could've liked these stories had they been developed more, but as they stand, I thought they were just okay.

Fairly entertaining, well-written, quirky short stories but I didn't love all of them.

Somewhat uneven. I had read a couple of these stories in the New Yorker and Zoetrope, and on re-reading them, those are still as brilliant as I originally thought. The titular story is also brilliant. But some of the other stories are a little disappointing, if only because I had such high expectations. Overall a great read though, and I'm excited to read more from this author.