Kindling, by Kathleen Jennings

If you are looking for lovely fantastical short stories, such as a perfect for savoring on a cold winter night (or hot summer day if you are antipodal), I enthusiastically recommend Kindling, by Kathleen Jennings (Small Beer Press, January 23, 2024).

Reviews of short story collections are hard to write.  I want to speak of each story individually, but that would take ages and spoil the lovely twists of them.  I could generalize, and say that the writing is lyrical and lovely, except that this is trite, and "lyrical" is, I feel, an overused and rather meaningless way to say that the words paint pictures in the mind, and call feelings from the heart and thoughts from the mind.  I could say in equal fairness that there's a very pleasing range of story collected here, ranging from fairy tale-esque to horror-esque, and I was never bored (though this is a boring sentence).

But I am an INFP, and the book through which I learned this says of me and my ilk that "metaphors come easily but may be forced" or words to that effect.  And so here's a metaphor that captures how I feel about these stories.

Some collections of stories are like eating cookies I enjoy, one after another, rather mindlessly, in a single sitting, and when I get the bottom of the bag of double chocolate milanos aka the end of the last story, I feel full but not deeply appreciative.

Others are like a collection of artisanal cupcakes, each a distinct flavor, some weird, some familiar, each beautifully ornamented so that one must stop and appreciate each before biting into it.  And each so rich and full in its own right that binge eating/reading is not possible.  Kindling is a box of such cupcakes.  I read no more than one story in a single sitting, because that was enough.  

As is the case with a box of mixed artisanal cupcakes, some were more to my taste than others.  The first story was the one I liked least, as I felt the writing got slightly in the way of the story, but all the rest of them I enjoyed lots and I am happy to have them in my mind's library now to revisit at my leisure.  

And I will keep the ARC on my shelf, for when all I need is one really good short story.  And when I have paid for my new roof and can buy new books again, I will see this ARC and replace it with the finished copy, and hope for more books from Kathleen Jennings. (I have shelved it between Kelly Link's books and Ursula Le Guin's books, as sown below, where I think it is happy.  Except that there is now no more room on that shelf, and though there are sadly no other Le Guin's to buy, there will be more Kelly Link, and hopefully more Kathleen Jennings, and so I guess I will have to move Connie Willis, which is ok because I'm not sure how well she plays with Le Guin.......)

In any event, thanks very much to Small Beer Press for the review copy!