Planet Grim

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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I've been dreading the day when I had to write about this book for a month or so now – I just don't know that I'm up to it. While I can't say that I enjoyed every story, there was something in each of them that impressed me. I'd do better discussing this book over a beverage with someone who's read the stories rather than in the abstract.

In a few sentences – at most a couple of paragraphs – Behr gets you into a world with fully realized characters, completely different situations – many of which you've never even thought about before. You will be disturbed, moved, saddened, surprised, fascinated, and occasionally, struck by a darkly comic moment.

I want to stress the “dark,” – Planet Grim is probably underselling it. There's not a lot o flight to be found in these pages. I'm not suggesting that you'll end up depressed at the end of every story, but you won't be chuckling or uplifted. These are real people going through some pretty real problems and situations. It's hard to slap a genre tag on these – there's the barest hint of SF (but not really, you'll see); these would all nicely fit in with a noir novel (without the knight errant); technically a lot would fit in “Women's Fiction” (but . . . no); so I guess you stick it in the “General Fiction” section, but hopefully that doesn't mean you overlook it.

A piece of advice: do not read more than two or three of these stories in one sitting. Actually, I think the volume of stories in this collection is the biggest problem with it. If there were seven of these stories in one volume, I'd probably be raving about it and demanding more. As it is, I was a little overwhelmed – there's just too much to deal with (which is why it took me 5 weeks to get through it).

I've said it before here, and I'll probably say it again, I”m not a huge short story guy. A few more collections like this could change me. There's not a dud in the batch – there are a couple that I think I didn't fully appreciate (or even “get”) for one reason or another – but there's not one that's not worth a second or third read. Alex Behr can write, period. If you give her a chance, she'll convince you of that. I can't say that I enjoyed this book, I don't know if I liked it, but man, I was impressed with it, I'm glad that I got to read it, and I know it's some of the best writing I've come across this year.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.