Melody Murray's Books

The story from which the title of this collection comes is by David Levithan. It took me apart. Entirely. I think Levithan writes from the same place L'Engle wrote from- that calm and sure center where love lives, that place of hope untainted by delusion. He's rapidly becoming one of my favorites. I suspect this particular piece resonated so strongly with me because I can remember so clearly the time when all the beautiful boys were dying and we were powerless and afraid and fairly certain we were all in the path of that particular tornado. The sense of having dodged that bullet never leaves me, nor the sense of loss- and to hear those voices again, or Levithan's imagining of what those voices would say, was- oh, hell, I'm crying again just typing this. So, yeah. Best story of the collection, by a mile.There were some other stand-out stories from some of the usual suspects as well as some unusual suspects (like Gregory Maguire, who turned in a very strong piece about what we leave behind). Margo Lanagan, whose Tender Morsels was exquisite, gives us a haunting re-imagining of the old poem The Highwayman. Julie Ann Peters takes us inside the heads of two young women having their first sexual experience- told in dual columns with just a little overlap, it was a very effective format. Four stars because Levithan's story is so strong. Without that, I think it would be a solid three stars for me.