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The title story....well, I read it and found myself wanting to watch the television show it described. Either of them. Sorta like if watching Buffy back in the halcyon days of Bar 126 was merged with William Gibson's Pattern Recognition. How can you argue with that, I ask? How?

That, I can't argue with, plain and simple. I loved the title story the best (see here for not-my-best-bit-of-critical-writing-ever) and I liked "Stone Animals" and "The Hortlak" very much indeed. I didn't like "Lull," the cheerleader-and-devil one, so much; I wasn't convinced the playing with time was working out, and it made my brain want to nitpick. "The Cannon" seemed a bit of a throwaway, although the imagery was on occasion great.

I think I felt that yes, some stories showed a greater mastery of craft, but others, perhaps as a result, were lacking the crackle and spark of Stranger Things Happen - and we agree that it's because it's not like that first album - or, I'd argue, the album with which you meet a band, be it first, third or fifteenth, it's the introduction that makes magic.

I think she's working up to a novel, though. These stories were longer and thicker. I bet.