ALA Booklist (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

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 enigmatic dies 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 readers pecially fans of Neil Gaiman or even Kelly Link ll appreciate this spellbinding collection.

Kirkus Reviews (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

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.

Publishers Weekly (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

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. (Feb.)

School Library Journal (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

The Newbery Awardwinning 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