The Witch Bottle and Other Stories - Suzanne Feldman

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Author: Suzanne Feldman

Genre: Short Stories
Rating: 3.6 stars.

An interesting collection of 4 stories and 2 novellas that can best be classified as ‘short tales in literary fiction style’.

I couldn’t detect any common underlying thread to the six stories. The characters range from a butcher’s assistant to a woman artist to a suspicious neighbour to a terminal patient. The locales and the eras also vary. What IS common is the problems faced. Each of the characters is battling either a real or an imagined issue, and trying their best to bring it to a resolution. The varied characters, their vulnerability, and their courage make this an unusual collection. Some of the tales are funny while others are more poignant; all of them, without exception, are thought-provoking.

Because of the nature of their writing, the tempo of the book is slow-to-medium paced. But the character sketching and plot development make it a satisfactory experience. A couple of the endings left me a bit disappointed, but not because they were bad. I wanted more from the story.

As always, I rated the stories individually and each of the six tales reached or crossed the three star mark for me. In other words, there was no bad story. My absolute favourite was the title story, “The Witch’s Bottle”. Not only did I enjoy it for its tongue-in-cheek humour, but also for the fact that it created such an impact while being written in second person – a tough voice to pull off well. Another favourite was “the Stages”, where a woman who has just been told that she has six months to live, is dealt with an unexpected blow by her teen daughter. The mother’s helplessness and despair has been portrayed beautifully in this story.

3.6 stars, based on the average of my ratings for each of the stories.

My thanks to Washington Writers' Publishing House and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Witch Bottle and Other Stories”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

PS: I have no idea how the cover connects to the stories, but it is absolutely gorgeous.

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