The Kissing Contest and Other Stories

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This could easily have been much too twee, but it isn't. The dialogue was bad and the climax was on the clumsy side, but it was fun. Christian, and also treading a bit close to the whimsical for me, but a touching story nonetheless. The Kissing Booth Girl Another alternate history, about an American steam-powered circus that encounters and imprisons a glowing fallen star-woman, armless hint and uncannily white hint hint. Our protagonist is a young African American woman, a mechanist prodigy who faces down intersectional discrimination in pursuing her craft.

The Kissing Booth Girl and Other Stories

I thought for a bit that it was building to a disappointing moral contradiction, but then that turned out to be the point. Definitely earns its place as the title story of the collection. One of those fans - a superfan, in fact, who looks down on another who "hasn't transcended the sex and gore" - sees the reclusive titular actress decades after the movie's release, and she lets him know what she thinks of the tropes of the "final girl" or "strong woman.

Agency, relationships and compromise are investigated, but this one didn't just didn't make much of an impression, largely because it pales in comparison to the thematically-similar story preceding it. This shouldn't work, but it does! It's the End of the World as We Know It A high school senior finally gets to date the boy of his dreams, but only after said boy has died and returned to unlife.

Then, other people come back as zombies. Aug 02, kari rated it really liked it. Wise's imagination has its own unique flavor: As you read, you see the greater landscapes of her fascinations in recurring themes - building creatures that live and breathe, queer love, illusion, sacrifice. Some stories feel vaguely familiar and tame, others are so eerie I needed to read them over and over again.

What they have in common is their scope: And even her end of the world is not what you would expect.

I love, love, love this anthology. And after I cried my eyes out halfway through the book I had to buy more of her work because I don't want this to end. It's addictive, it's poetry, it's surreal, it's dark, it's hauntingly beautiful and it leaves me unable to write a review that would even begin to do this woman's amazing talent justice. So I advise you to read some of the wonderful reviews on this page like from Mieneke. The stories were all very different and I love them all. My absolute fav I love, love, love this anthology. My absolute favorites were: I mean, it don't get better than that, gorgious cover, I want to make that witch some tea, this book is such a treat!

Feb 10, Eric Mesa rated it really liked it. I didn't even realize I already knew A. Wise's work from its appearance in Clarkesworld Magazine. As I mentioned during a couple of the status updates, Wise seems to be a thematic protege of Philip K Dick. A lot of her short stories involve unreliable narrators who often aren't sure if they're dreaming or remembering things correctly or even being honest with themselves. It's certainly not the first time I've come across unreliable narrators, but with how intimately Ms.

Wise writes her characters it's even more jarring not to know how much of the story is "real" and how much is not even real to the narrator. It really does put the reader into the position of TRULY being in someone's head, with all its messiness; a strong contrast to other books that are written from a 1st Person POV but are very clear-headed. As usual with anthologies, here's the status update I wrote for each story: Sorry Quirky and great although I'm not sure what it has to do with the theme of the anthology "Evidence of things It was worth it.

A bit of steampunk and a world that begs more exploration. I'd like to see the further adventures of Beni. This anthology is definitely get PKD with less drugs "The last survivor of the great sexbot revolution" - I first came across this story in a episode of the Clarkesworld podcast. Enjoyed it then and now. Fits in well with the other themes of this anthology about unreliable memories. I'd love an anthology season of all these short stories on a TV show. Jan 08, Caitlin rated it liked it. The kind of sharp of broken glass. Dangerous, not always complete, bloody. Very diverse, in character, and sub-genre slants.

Zombies, automatons, circuses, wishes Sep 03, Stephani rated it it was amazing Shelves: Great collection of short stories! I really loved the diversity of the characters and how the author was able to make me care about them in such a few pages. May 22, Rhys rated it it was amazing Shelves: I checked out this book because the cover and description were really interesting to me. What I didn't realize is that this book would quickly become a collection of some of my favorite stories. As a queer person with a great love of Sci-fi, this book filled a void I'd been craving for a while.

These stories had characters of all different kinds with all different kinds of relationships, and it is nothing short of beautiful.

I cannot wait to read more of her work. Aug 04, Nicole rated it liked it Shelves: The stories that make up this anthology vary in quality quite a bit. Some of them are absolutely wonderful, and some are Very Bad. For the most part, the good outweighs the bad, and as a whole AC Wise's writing has a beautiful fairy tale quality to it, which gives most of the stores a mystical, familiar feeling. It manages to be both detached and distant and yet familiar and intimate at the same time. I also just really really love the cover. My thoughts on the individual stories are below.

The P The stories that make up this anthology vary in quality quite a bit. The Poet's Child - I've never seen such a prolonged story not use any pronouns and do it so seamlessly. It was such an interesting concept and it had a very fulfilling conclusion Juilet and Juilet te - I didn't think I was into this one until I got to the last page and almost started crying out of nowhere. So uh I guess I really liked this one And If the Body Were Not the Soul - it's an interesting world, and I did like the story, but the mentally-connecting-with-the-tentacle-alien scenes were so weirdly sexual that I kept expecting it to actually turn into tentacle porn The Pornographer's Assistant - I've never read such a bizarre sex scene.

Whatever you're imagining based on the name, trust me, you are nowhere close. It wasn't necessarily bad or uncomfortable like some of the later stories, just fucking weird For the Removal of Unwanted Guests - this one left me feeling vaguely uncomfortable and I can't quite pinpoint why. It made me extremely uncomfortable and I still have no idea what was going on or what the point was.

Fred Williams gives a solid reading of the stories. He doesn't dramatically change his voice for different characters, unlike virtuoso actor-readers, but he reads every word clearly and every sentence with appropriate rhythm and emphasis, and he enhances the text with appropriate wit and emotion. And I really like his deliberate, deep, and slightly gravelly and nasal voice.

The only difficult point about the audiobook lay in my unfamiliarity with Russian names, so that, especially in the novella "The Duel," I sometimes mixed the characters up in my mind when listening.

The Kiss and Other Stories

So I'd recommend getting a text version of the story many free ones are online and reading the character names in it once or twice so as to be able to hear their differences more readily. You have to love lines like this from "Neighbours": In my room, only fancy, Grigory's grandfather shot himself.

OUR IMPRINTS

Pyotr Mihalitch rode along the bank of the pond and looked mournfully into the water. And thinking about his life, he came to the conclusion he had never said or acted upon what he really thought, and other people had repaid him in the same way.

And so the whole of life seemed to him as dark as this water in which the night sky was reflected and water-weeds grew in a tangle. And it seemed to him that nothing could ever set it right. There was a gay, warm, serene feeling in her heart, and she felt herself that her smile was particularly soft and friendly. As the carriage rolled towards the gates, and afterwards along the dusty road past huts and gardens, past long trains of waggons and strings of pilgrims on their way to the monastery, she still screwed up her eyes and smiled softly.

She was thinking there was no higher bliss than to bring warmth, light, and joy wherever one went, to forgive injuries, to smile graciously on one's enemies. The peasants she passed bowed to her, the carriage rustled softly, clouds of dust rose from under the wheels and floated over the golden rye, and it seemed to the princess that her body was swaying not on carriage cushions but on clouds, and that she herself was like a light, transparent little cloud. Jan 26, Craig Fiebig rated it really liked it. Classic Russian short stories, beautifully written. Feb 23, Abhinav rated it really liked it.

Throughout the tale Chekhov explores how social and economic improvishment leads to moral decadence. Dennis is charged with stealing the rail nut, and is put on trial for it. Within the course of the trial, it becomes conspicuous that Dennis has been doing this all his life, and for which he has no sense of remorse, for this is the only economically viable alternative available to him to make ends meet. He uses the stolen nut to keep the fishing net, immersed in the water, to catch fish.

Denis fails to understand his crime and believes he is being convicted for something, which is so trivial. He refuses to believe that something as innocuous as taking a small nut off the rails can have such grave consequences. The story is a beautiful dichotomy of laughter and sorrow - mostly sorrow! There are several themes that emerge from the tale - Could you enforce the laws of society upon ones who are made to remain ignorant of these laws by the same society? If state does nothing to educate and enlightened people about the laws of the Society, could the same state punish them for not adhering to these same laws?

While state takes lot of pains to punish the improvised for not following the laws of society, do they put sufficient measures In place to educate them about these laws in the first place.

Another theme that comes out conspicuously is whether survival is more important than social and moral conformance - if one has to choose from the two, what would one choose? The judge refuses to consider the circumstances under which the crime was committed by the Denis. He even neglects the fact that an officer while apprehending Denis on the scene of crime manhandles him. Could justice consider the social and economic condition of the convict before pronouncing justice? If so, punishment, that serves as deterrence, if reduced, could be interpreted as a positive invitation to crime.

Apr 08, Taryn rated it did not like it Shelves: I only got to The Kiss and The Duel. The cover was misleading, love was not really a theme in either.

Well, not real love. The better of the two. I'm not sure what the message was here. The mystery of love or mystery is love or love is a mystery? I should have known I wasn't going to like this when the main character was going on and on about Anna Katerina like they were kindred spirits. You know, since he decided he never really loved his lover and m I only got to The Kiss and The Duel.

You know, since he decided he never really loved his lover and most of all hated her hair like Anna Katerina hated her husband's ears Jan 01, Jessica added it Shelves: The short story "The Kiss" was fantastic, and the novella "The Duel" was absolutely masterful. May 20, Brandon rated it liked it. Though perhaps too reliant upon the context of 19th century Russia for a millennial American like myself to fully appreciate, this collection of Chekov's short stories is of some merit. The writer's concern in much of these tales is chiefly with issues of class, and the disconnect he saw between the attitudes of the wealthy Russian upper class and the poverty stricken peasants and newly emancipated serfs.

Chekov stunningly travels between these two perspectives, exposing the struggles and daily Though perhaps too reliant upon the context of 19th century Russia for a millennial American like myself to fully appreciate, this collection of Chekov's short stories is of some merit.

Chekov stunningly travels between these two perspectives, exposing the struggles and daily toils of peasants while all the while drawing attention to the cruel indifference and lack of sympathy shown by the wealthy to their less fortunate counterparts. His abilities shine with masterful subtlety; class struggles are always present in these stories, even if only eerily haunting the reader from the margins, as Chekov strives not to overbearingly lead us towards any definitive interpretations.

Also of note is the way the author exposes the emptiness of a life of leisure. Chekov's characters struggle to find meaning in their existences, and are stopped in their tracks when they realize that love, money, and power cannot fill the void in their barren lives. This collection of stories comes together as a searing indictment of a generation Chekov found lacking in morality, culture, sympathy, and passion. The highlights here are: All in all, this is a quick and interesting read, but is by no means essential, especially for someone as disconnected from the time period and culture as myself.

Mar 19, David added it. Ryabovich received mistakenly a kiss in a dark room, had lasting longings and then disillusionment, after which "he viewed the whole world, the whole of life, as a meaningless, futile joke. On to the next: Good descriptive writing like the others, but of routine life occurrences, no engaging surprise events or actions, quite banal, even his death. Next was 'A Case History' usually titled 'A Doctor's Visit', of a professor visits a factory to resolve the rich old woman's daughter's illness unresolved by the factory's doctor.

Very fine story of personal understanding and empathy. Best of these in my eyes. Skipping the very long 'In the Gully,' I then read 'Anna Round the Neck' which depicts a high-ranking official age 52 marrying a beauty of 18 who conquers His Highness' Court. I also read one said to be Chekhov's "most moving story," a fairly short one titled 'Misery' about a horse-drawn sledge who lost his son, very sad, as the cabby gets solace by telling the horse all about this misery. This is 45 of stories by Chekhov, all on web site - http: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian playwright and short story writer, considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history, a prolific writer, and died age 44 of TB.

No hubo un cuento en el que no me conmoviera, o con el que no me quedara pensando. Emociones humanas, destino, debilidades No hay uno que no sea maravilloso. Jan 06, Chloe rated it really liked it. Chekhov really is the master of the short story. His characters are very human; his observations of the psyche are as real as they are insightful, and thus it is easy to empathize with his characters: It's hard to forget any of Chekhov's characters, no matter how trivial they may seem, for the way he describes them and their emotions, which often involve some form of conflict.

It's also hard to forget his settings, simply because they Chekhov really is the master of the short story. It's also hard to forget his settings, simply because they are where the characters play out their existence. An example here would be the way he describes the room from what I remember, a breeze, an open window, the scent of lavender, poplars. Another thing I like about Chekhov, as I do about Lawrence, is how he ends his short stories and plays -- always subtle and observational, but with an impact because it rings with irony and the truth.

Mi primer libro de Chejov. Un gran libro de cuentos. Obviamente, algunos son mas bellos que otros y mas llevaderos, pero se merece las 5 estrellas. Feb 01, Carol rated it really liked it. Chekhov has picked up on such a subtle thing. This woman's inadvertent kiss has reminded Riabovitch of all he has been missing in his life. I am surmising that he is getting a little bit older and more mature and is ready for a new stage in his life, but until now he has not realized this.

This is a man who is finally ready for marriage. Until now he has been contented to lead the vagabond life of a soldier -- to be told where to go and what to do. He has enjoyed the excitement of battle, the op Chekhov has picked up on such a subtle thing. He has enjoyed the excitement of battle, the opportunity to discover how brave he is or not and it is now time to move on.

None of this is told to us in the story but we can surmise it. Oct 24, Fabiano rated it really liked it. Chekhov could be writing about today with these tales of exploitation of the poor, class and rigid social structures. There are no heroes in these stories, just a cast of pathetic, petty and willfully ignorant people. Redemption comes with nature and a nice walk in the country. Dec 10, Chet Taranowski rated it really liked it.

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