Poison Eaters and Other Stories

Overall, I didn't like this anthology. Some of the individual stories were ok, and a few I liked, but on the whole, it do it for me.

The twelve short stories contain mostly stories that deal with fey, with a smattering of vampires, werewolves, and other undead. The theme: dark. The subtheme: depressing. The stories all deal with combinations of bad romance, sex, drugs, alcohol, gay/lesbian romance, the fey folk, and even one with a devil in it (which seemed out of place, honestly).

I don't fault the author's prose, which flows and reads nicely. I just couldn't bring myself to like the subject material and the characters. I couldn't related to the story narrators or protagonists. Most are just plain stupid-decisions kind of people, and the rest are pathetic.

A breakdown:

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown - 3/5 - an interesting setting and twist of a vampire story. Might've been better had more reflection moments occurred for the protagonist. Would consider reading more of this place.

A Reversal of Fortune - 2/5 - a story about cheating the devil, it uses atypical elements, but follows a typical formula.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf - 1/5 - this one is all build-up and nothing else.

The Night Market - 2/5 - set in the Philippines about a girl trying to break an elf's curse on her sister. It got interesting towards to the middle, but flopped with an ending that made no sense to me.

The Dog King - 3/5 - a different kind of werewolf story; I liked this one.

Virgin - 1/5 - weird story about a runaway girl's fascination of a boy who has this weird obsession about unicorns.

In Vodka Veritas - 2/5 - college prom night and Bacchus cultists; just didn't work for me, lots of holes.

The Coat of Stars - 2/5 - a troubled tailor obsessed with rescuing his fairy-imprisoned boyfriend.

Paper Cuts Scissors - 3/5 - an interesting premise about being able to go into and pull characters out of books.

Going Ironside - 1/5 - a drug addict who also happens to be a fairy, meh.

The Land of Heart's Desire - 1/5 - a fairy and a mortal have a strange heart-to-heart talk about relationships; just a slice of life, in a depressing way.

The Poison Eaters - 2/5 - the titular short story, it's like a much dark version of Cinderella; I found it difficult to follow as the narrative blends multiple first-persons together. I'm still not sure who the primary narrator is.