The collection: Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories by Kelly Barnhill
The story: Wear gloves or you’ll get imagination on your hands reading this first adult work from a Newbery Medal-winning children’s author. Stickiest of all is “Mrs. Sorenson and the Sasquatch,” a tale of love across the magical-species line.
The collection That Time I Loved You by Carrianne Leung
The story: Since these are all linked stories of life on a suburban street in 1970s Scarborough, Ont., it’s best to start with “Grass,” which begins the slow journey—as if peeking through the windows, house to house—of an unravelling tragedy behind all those perfect picket fences.
The collection: You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld
The story: The emotionally adept stories in this American novelist’s first collection are all deeply unsettling, but perhaps the most of-the-moment is “The Prairie Wife,” about a lifestyle blogger whose squeaky-clean empire is threatened by a secret from her past.
This article first appeared in the April 2018 issue of ELLE Canada.
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