Six: Strange Stories of Love - Poornima Manco - ★★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Poornima Manco

GENRE: Short Story Anthology.

SERIES: Around the World, #3

RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A wonderful short story collection that contains, as the tagline promises, ‘strange stories of love’. This is NOT a romance anthology but one that focusses on the varied, sometimes darker, shades of love (and not only romantic love.) As the blurb clearly warns you, stay away if you expect mushy romance.

This is the final book in the ‘Around the World’ trilogy, a standalone anthology collection of stories set around the world. The first book (Twelve -Stories From Around the World) had twelve stories related to choices, the second one (Eight - Fantastical Tales From Here, There & Everywhere) had eight stories focussing on magic, and this third book, as you might have guessed by now, has six stories about love. I have read all the three collections, and though I am sad that the number of stories has reduced with each subsequent set (Don’t you always want more from good anthologies?), the quality has gone wonderfully upwards.

The stories in this collection are eclectic in the “love” they cover. From obsession to suspicion, from grief to disillusion, the emotions covered in the tales make each story a distinct experience. I love how the anthology tackles themes not ordinarily part of ‘love stories.’ The collection is modern and inclusive, and covers gender dysphoria as well. The endings elevated the already good stories to an excellent level.

As was the case in each book of this anthology, the stories are set in different places around the world. The author doesn’t stop only at mentioning the location or at giving her characters a culturally-accurate name, but incorporates the feel of the place throughout the story through some customs or beliefs and the use of some words from the local lingo. This enhances the experience as the variety in locations and the seemingly genuine depiction creates a memorable impact.

The writing style is quite literary in its essence, thereby giving us a detailed insight into the main character and their motivations, which doesn’t happen in typical anthologies. This also means that the stories don’t always follow a conventional start-middle-end progression and aren’t always linear. But the author doesn’t let us feel overwhelmed or confused about what unfolds on the page. Her structure works well for her style of writing.

Do note that the content is quite dark at times and covers some tough topics. For my fellow scaredy-cats out there, know that one story is from the supernatural genre. 👻 (But it was soooooo good that I forgot to be afraid!!! In other words, if I could read it, so can you. 😁)

If there was something that could have improved my experience, it is that the titles of the stories are quite bland compared to their imaginative content. No other complaints.

Here’s a mini-review on the six stories:

1. Hair – India - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Tackled some tough topics but loved the depiction of Southern India. A couple of the character & plot elements could have worked better for me, else this would have been a winner all the way.

2. The Fake Rolex – Italy - 🌟🌟🌟💫

One of the weaker stories in the collection for me, though I enjoyed the kind of ‘love’ it covered. The story gave somewhat mixed historical + contemporary signals. I know that short stories mostly don’t indicate the time period, but getting a feel of both time frames left me slightly confused about where to place the story and hence how to understand the character motivations. Plus, the title spoiled some of the fun.

3. Karolina - USA - 🌟🌟🌟💫

A bittersweet kind of story. Enjoyed the unusual relationship, but found the story a bit too meandering. Also would have liked a greater insight into the titular character. The ending was good though.

4. The Purple Ribbon – Mexico - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

The supernatural story! Loved the plot, and loved the atmosphere. Wanted a bit more at the end.

5. A New Place – UK - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Perfection! Didn’t expect that the darkest and saddest story in the collection would be my favourite. All because of the ending that provided a teeny ray of happiness. The magical-realist setting worked excellently in this work. It’s a bit confusing at the start, but stick with it. All is explained as you go ahead.

6. La Dolorosa – Spain - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Honestly, this was a 4.5 star for me until I reached the end. I loved how the climax made me question my own shallow assumptions. So I shamefacedly added the extra half-star. 😇

As you can see, I either liked or loved the stories. Definitely recommended to short story lovers who want to explore a well-written and an unusual depiction of what constitutes ‘love’.

4.25 stars, based on the average of the above ratings. (If you know my ratings, you'll know that anything above 4 is outstanding for an anthology.)

My thanks to author Poornima Manco for providing me with a complimentary copy of “Six - Strange Stories of Love”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.