Creepy Girl

August 24, 2009
“Creepy” really does describe these short stories, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The title story begins as the creepy girl's father brings home a pair of cement lawn ornament statues of Chinese kids. The nameless daughter, a preadolescent, yearns for her single father's attention and soon goes to some very bizarre lengths to secure it. In “The Unimpressive Story,” Mitchell offers up a Flowers in the Attic
–style brother-sister love story; as the narrator recounts memories of her now-dead brother, she weaves truth and sexual fantasy into the narrative of her turbulent childhood. “The Carpentry Story” reads like a free verse poem, as the narration flows together without beginning, middle or end. Discomfiting themes of absence, mental illness, incest and not-right familial relationships permeate the collection. It's rare for a compilation to get under your skin the way this one does.