Hellions

I always find it hard to rate or review short story collections since each story is different. One could be so amazing and another could be, well, a dud. That's also the reason I'm not a big fan of collections. However, this one honestly blew me away. The stories are captivating, tense, emotional, and most often feel complete. The characters are full people with quirks and charms, and described so well that you can clearly picture them. This is my biggest rave about Elliott's writing: her descriptions. Everything in these stories is alive. I could see it all from the people, to the furniture, to the landscape. The landscapes, too, are a character. Each story has amazing nature imagery. The author always takes time to describe something going on out there. She brings our focus to nature in each story. It's beautiful.

The only reason this is 4 stars instead of 5 is because there are about two stories that seem to want to do too much, and therefore don't feel complete. I wanted more from them and felt let down. Also, not every story worked for me even though I could recognize how they were well-written. I think there were one or two stories I didn't enjoy very much. That doesn't mean they were bad or seemed out of place. They just didn't click for me.