Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories

Starred review from January 8, 2018
The eight short stories and one novella in Newbery Medalist Barnhill’s collection are haunting and beautifully told. Each tale features characters, mostly girls and women, who chafe at rules and rebel in ways both quiet and extraordinary. The titular widow of “Mrs. Sorenson and the Sasquatch” dismays her neighbors by taking up with a huge furry humanoid. In “Elegy to Gabrielle—Patron Saint of Healers, Whores, and Righteous Thieves,” the young pirate Gabrielle Belain frees slaves and is defiant to the end. The poignant novella “The Unlicensed Magician” tells the story of a young woman, known as the Sparrow, as she quietly brings prosperity to her small town despite her country’s murderous dictator. Barnhill skillfully incorporates fairy tale elements and makes them freshly unsettling: many of her heroines have unusual effects on animals, and the title character of “Notes on the Untimely Death of Ronia Drake” faintly echoes Cinderella’s dead mother. Each story is written in intensely poetic language that can exult or disturb, sometimes within the same sentence, and evokes a dreamlike, enchanted mood that lingers in the reader’s mind. These tales are made to be reread and savored.

February 15, 2018

In "Mrs. Sorensen and the Sasquatch," sightings of the creature, along with several other unusual animals, begin right after Mrs. Sorensen's husband dies. A young pirate witch faces execution as her life story is told in "Elegy to Gabrielle--Patron Saint of Healers, Whores, and Righteous Thieves." In the titular tale, the power found in the imagination becomes a reality for four women. This collection of eight stories concludes with the World Fantasy Award-winning novella "The Unlicensed Magician," in which a young girl once left for dead wields a strange magic. Barnhill's exquisite prose leads readers down many fantastical roads through imaginative prose, while the themes of love, grief, power, and hope tie the individual stories together in a masterly way. VERDICT In her debut short story collection for adults, YA author Barnhill (The Girl Who Drank the Moon) highlights fantasy's breadth with unusual settings and extraordinary characters living outside of the realm of reality. A magical volume for fans of the genre.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2018

The Newbery Award-winning author expertly pens eight exquisite short stories and one heartrending novella for this collection. The fantasy elements Barnhill is known for is on display here, but this work contains even more twists and turns than her children's books as well as the occasional tale dealing with topics such as marriage and divorce. Most of the characters are full of love; it magically spills out of them as they heal, hope, and make the world a better place. The novella, "The Unlicensed Magician," focuses on magical children who are sacrificed to the Minister until one special infant survives to grow into a teenager who defies him. Though brief, the title entry packs a punch, describing four women who murder children and create natural disasters. Teens will find themselves marking well-worded passages in these pieces that are reminiscent of fairy tales and written with a deliberate and delicate turn-of-phrase. VERDICT Perfect for readers of the weird and fantastically wonderful. Give to fans of Alice Hoffman, Laura Ruby, and Seanan McGuire.-Sarah Hill, Lake Land College, Mattoon, IL

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2017
Lyrical stories about love, sex, and death from Barnhill (The Girl Who Drank the Moon, 2016, etc.).A Midwestern widow who loves animals rejects her mortal suitors to run off with a Sasquatch. A refugee from the London Blitz, exchanging letters with her husband, slowly comes to understand that she is, in fact, already dead. A professor who happens to be an insect and the last of his kind finds himself drawn to an astronomer who has never been alive. With lush imagery reminiscent of Ray Bradbury or Angela Carter, Barnhill explores passionate relationships frustrated by greed, malice, and--ultimately--death. In her world, witches are as likely to be holy women who heal the sick and make common ground with prostitutes ("Elegy to Gabrielle--Patron Saint of Healers, Whores, and Righteous Thieves") as they are to be evil stepmothers who steal husbands ("Notes on the Untimely Death of Ronia Drake"). She has an affinity for the symbolic vocabulary of contemporary literary fantasy--automata, insects, taxidermy--which can feel overused, though she deploys it skillfully enough. Her language, poetic and evocative at its best, can sometimes cloy, but the fire and bitterness of her themes generally cut the sweetness.Whether Barnhill's settings are contemporary, historical, or dystopian, she mixes the feeling of fairy tales with the psychological preoccupations of literary fiction; her longer stories tend to be her better ones, allowing her room to develop her characters from symbols to people.

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December 15, 2017
Newbery medalist Barnhill (The Girl Who Drank the Moon, 2016) dazzles in her short story collection for adults. Featuring a few previously published short stories, along with the World Fantasy Award-winning novella The Unlicensed Magician, Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories proves that Barnhill is a born storyteller. The dreadful young ladies in question are both dreadful and enigmaticladies who are not quite what they seem. In Mrs. Sorensen & the Sasquatch, the titular heroine finds love with an unlikely partner. Elegy to Gabrielle is a story about the lengths a mother will go to to keep a child safe. And in The Unlicensed Magician, we meet a man who will do anything to bring his mother back. This is a well-crafted short story collection featuring elements of magic realism while touching on the themes of love, grief, hope, jealousy, and more. Fantasy readersespecially fans of Neil Gaiman or even Kelly Linkwill appreciate this spellbinding collection.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)