book is one I was sent for review from the publisher at my request, but this does not affect my opinions
I ADORED this book.
My friend had recommended this to me before, and I had seen it generally on other people's videos and recommendations list, but I never knew what I was missing out on.
This is an incredibly emotional, intense and deep look at family dynamics, grief, happiness, loss, personality, disease, mental health and so much more.
The stories within this deal with a whole range of different topics, and yet each is only a couple pages long, The way Carys Bray manages to completely convey the raw emotions of a particular moment or scene is excellent, and honestly I loved all but one of the stories within this collection the one I didn't was the shortest at only one page and I think thats why I didn't connect as much.
There arestories within this book and of those I would give at leastarating andof them arating with the one I didn't like getting as and so overall this is a very, very solid collection in my eyes.
Some of the stories which particularly resonated with me and had a great impact were
Everything a Parent Needs to Know a story about just how difficult parenting can be and the various troubles you face day to day
Just in Case about a woman who lost a baby
The Rescue about a young boy who falls into a life of drug addiction and how this affects his family
Wooden Mum about a family who have a child with special needs
Scaling Never about the loss of a family member and the after effects on a religious family
The Baby Aisle about how easy it is to fall into family life, whether you mean to or not, and also a commentary on class divides
The Countdown a story from the point of view of the man when a baby is involved
My Burglar a story about a lady suffering from memory loss
Bed Rest a story about a mother with preeclampsia and how her family handles this
Love: terms and conditions a story about the ideas we put around our expectations and behaviours in order to feel loved and do so correctly
The Ice Baby A story about a baby made from ice
As you can see the focus of this collection is certainly family and the various troubles, conflicts and moments which may threaten or endanger or test a family unit.
I loved all of these stories and they all felt utterly genuine and beautifully written when I read them, to the point that I just fell in love with this collection from after the first two stories.
I would highly, highly recommend that you check this collection out, It's wonderful!s : Sweet Home is a book of dark, funny short stories,
To just mention two stories, a bereaved mother borrows her next door neighbor's baby, An outsider builds a house of at the edge of an English village, . . I'm not going to share any of the other stories with you because those you must experience yourself,
The author delves into the lives of ordinary people and discloses frustrated expectations, loss and disappointment,
It is a fantastic read!!
This book will go on my reread shelf!! Bray has a beautiful turn of phrase for most of her descriptions, a wit that adds depth to their emotional core.
Emotion in these stories is mostly parental in nature: the love for an unhappy child, the pain of losing so young a life, the anticipation of being a bad father or mother.
As such its subjective appeal to me was rather hit or miss, However I did notice that grief struck me more than standard domestic issues,
While Bray is certainly skilled in most things she writes, I would hope that she steers clear of quaint family anecdotes in future works.
Notable Stories
Just in case I'm still puzzling over the ending: was it properly laid up Is the baby in danger
Sweet Home this 'sympathy for the fairytale villain' story works purely through sugary logistics.
Dancing in the Kitchen I admire how it plays with its layout and appreciate its wishes for memory, In all honesty this felt like abut I'm giving it abecause I think I did the old 'put it on a pedestal and then when
you finally read it it's not as good as you'd hoped forward slash it's not you it's me' trick.
Perhaps I savoured it too long and should've read them in a week rather than a month, Perhaps they will sink in over time, I hope they do. I hope these stories stay with me forever, They are beautiful and eerily mesmerizing leaving you with a sweet chill hovering over your spine, Some of my favourites were: 'Just in Case', 'Bed Rest', 'The ice baby' amp 'On the way home', Brilliant short stories! It's rare to find so many good short stories in one collection, This book is a collection of short stories, that although may seem like are about parenting, are actually anecdotal comparisons to the world of parenting manuals.
On the face of it, the stories may start out funny, but soon become disturbing as most of the stories have death in them.
Babies are like dolls as they are sold on supermarket shelves and stuffed into suitcases, One story: 'Scaling never' may be familiar to those who have read The Story of Issy Bradley, as it features the same characters, but focuses entirely on Jacob.
Each story was so poignant and had and unexpected twist, it's easily the best short story collection I have ever read, I'm not sure if short stories are for me, but I'm determined to find a collection I love, Unfortunately this was not it, While a few of the stories were lovely, most I found to be instantly forgettable, This has not put me off reading Carys Bray's full length novels, though, as I appreciated her skill in writing, I think it's just that I don't 'get' short stories, . . The search continues.because it was 'ok', Finished as part of Dewey'shr Readathon, April
I was a little underwhelmed by this collection, It is quite maternal, with the stories very much focusing around family, motherhood, pregnancy etc, Unfortunately, I am the furthest thing from maternal and so it fell a little flat for me, Exceptional collection that deeply examines family relationships, specifically from a mothers perspective, Funny and moving, nearly every single story connected with me in some way, After reading the splendid A Song for Issy Bradley and being thoroughly impressed with Carys Bray's ability to tackle the emotional landslide of a child's death and how a religious family are able to move forward I was keen to sample more of her work.
Sweet Home is a collection of seventeen short stories principally surrounding the idea of home, parenting and family life and I was once again struck by Carys Bray's ability to put words to the myriad of emotions which fill every home and this collection shows that she has lost none of that skill.
Admittedly some stories made more of a lasting impression than others, the first of which was Everything a Parent Needs to Know as a mother considers the futility of the many parenting manuals and the saccharine lessons that fill them and compares herself to "an actress that has learned the wrong lines" as she battles with the catalogue of failings which pour out of her daughters mouth.
The Rescue deals with the emotions of a father and emphasises never giving up on loved ones as he copes with an apathetic and disillusioned adult son with a checkered past and compares the rescue of the thirtythree Chilean miners with the long wait for his son to turn the corner and begin to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
Wooden Mum focuses on a mother caught in the conflicting battles of family life as she copes with her son's Aspergers Syndrome.
From fighting his corner at school, placating the younger child who cannot understand the special treatment dispensed to her older brother, through to the Daily Mail reading motherinlaw who looks for reasons and seeks to attribute blame for her grandsons problems.
My Burglar is a poignant portrait of a frazzled daughter hard pushed to manage a mother addled with dementia and offers a glimpse into how old age can reduce everyone to the insecurities of childhood and require the offspring to adopt the caring role for their aged parents.
In contrast The Baby Aisle lightened the tone comparing shopping for babies with grocery shopping, with the buy one get one free deal on twins and the "Archies, Sebastians and Theodores" who fill the shelves of Waitrose as opposed to what you might find at Tesco and the bittersweet Reduced to Clear section.
Of the seventeen stories which comprise Sweet Home I was impressed by just over half and found this a sensitive and at times profound read.
Carys Bray captures some of the intricacies and unspoken thoughts and feelings which hold a family unit together through so many highs and lows.
Short stories are a notoriously difficult format to master for any author and often leave readers feeling a little short changed and I confess to reading very few collections for this reason.
On balance Sweet Home is a enjoyable collection which has thoroughly whetted my appetite for future full length novels from Carys Bray and made for a very pleasing diversion from my usual staple of crime fiction and my rating reflects the fact that short stories make little lasting impression upon me.
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Everything a parent needs to know
Just in case
Sweet home
The rescue
Wooden mum
Dancing in the kitchen
Scaling never
The baby aisle
My burglar
The countdown
Bed rest
Under covers
Love: terms and conditions
The ice baby
Bodies
I will never disappoint my children
On the way home Seeing that Carys has a new book coming soon prompted me to look up her others.
Ive loved them all but this book of short stories is particularly special,
Carys Bray is a delight to read and these stories show a unique perspective,
In fact I might just read them again, This is a wonderful short story collection, It won Salt Publishing's Scott Prize, and it really doesn't disappoint, The stories will haunt you, and trouble you they'll also tug on your heart strings and make you tear up, One of the stories The Rescue made me cry, The theme of family runs through all of the tales Carys writes about the things people don't talk about, the hidden emotions of family life, the things that go on behind closed doors and inside the minds of children and parents.
She tells the story of Hansel and Gretel from the point of view of an old woman who angers a town by building a house made of of ginger bread.
There's a wonderful story called 'Ice Baby,' where a father creates a child from an ice block and tries to keep her alive when the weather gets warmer.
My favourite story is 'Baby Aisle' where, in Tesco, you can buy babies, already named and listed with hair colour, eye colour, weight and performance guarantee.
Each baby says how long it is likely to live twins are two for the price of one, and if a baby isn't bought straight away then it becomes discounted, near its bestbefore date, shoved towards the end of the aisle.
You are not allowed to return babies if they cry too much, It's a wonderfully twisted story, and I loved it, In fact, I loved the whole collection! sitelinkSweet Home is a collection of seventeen stories that talk about parenthood, loss, grief and vulnerability of adults.
The language is sparse yet punches you with unexpected twists and turns, It is a mix of both realistic tales and well as stories with magical elements in them eg: The Ice Baby reminds one of Pinocchio and Gepeto and Sweet Home is a modern take on the story of the witch with the gingerbread house.
Full review and highlights of different stories on sitelink thebooksatchel. com/sweeth .