Karen Russell

Presents ten short stories set in the Florida Everglades and starring children who must survive against incredible odds.

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

In these ten arresting stories filled with exuberant imagination and emotional depth, debut author Russell takes readers to the ghostly and magical swamps of the Florida Everglades.

Dearna Mulvaney

{3.5}

Ava Wrestles the Alligator: 3.5
Hunting Olivia:4
Z.Z.’s Sleep-Away Camp for Disordered Dreamers: 4
The Star-Gazer’s Log of Summer-Time Crime: 3
from Children’s Reminiscences of the Westward Migration: 3.5
Lady Yeti and the Palace of Artificial Snows; 2.5
The City of Shells: 3
Out to Sea: 3
Accident Brief, Occurrence #00/422: 3
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves: 5

Here is the debut short story collection from the author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Swamplandia! and the New York Times bestselling Vampires in the Lemon Grove. In these ten glittering stories, the award-winning, bestselling author Orange World and Other Stories takes us to the ghostly and magical swamps of the Florida Everglades. Here wolf-like girls are reformed by nuns, a family makes their living wrestling alligators in a theme park, and little girls sail away on crab shells. Filled with inventiveness and heart, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves is the dazzling debut of a blazingly original voice.

Erin 

-Ava Wrestles the Alligator: 4.5 stars. Somehow the alligator theme park is not the weirdest thing in this story. 
-Haunting Olivia: 2.5 stars. Two preteens going out into open ocean to search for their dead sister because everyone gave up is awful on so many levels. 
-Z.Z.'s Sleep-Away Camp for Disordered Dreamers: 5 stars. Somehow, better than the church camp I attended as a kid. This story was really good. 
-The Star-Gazer's Log of Summertime Crime: 3 stars. Wow I hate preteens. 
-From Children's Reminiscences of the Westward Migration: 4 stars. Just the normal minotaurs in the Midwest. Nothing to see here. 
-Lady Yeti and the Palace of Artificial Snows: 4 stars. Started out cool, but got weird at the end...I'm half-convinced that "blizzard" is just slang for giant orgy. 
-The City of Shells: 2 stars, but only for using the names Barnaby and Pappadakis which I love. 
-Out to Sea: 4.5 stars. I really liked this one. And I'd like to live in a houseboat, I think. 
-Accident Brief, Occurence # 00/422: 2.5 stars. A bit odd, but I think I would like this more if I wasn't so tired. 
-St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves: 5 stars. This was great but man oh man are there some strong allegories in this one. 

I really liked this collection, and I think it may even be my favourite out of all the Karen Russell collections I've read so far. There was the perfect amount of suspension of disbelief, and I never felt like it was too weird or too science fictiony. I think my favourite story was the titular one, but they're all so close in rating for me (mostly) that any story could be my favourite on any given day. Karen Russell has certainly become an auto-read author for me.