Reviews
Advance Praise for Vampires in the Lemon Grove "Consistently arresting…startling…profound…Even more impressive than Russell's critically acclaimed novel." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Russell doesn't work small. She's a world builder, and the stranger the better…Russell's great gift-along with her antic imagination-is her ability to create whole landscapes and lifetimes of strangeness within the confines of a short story." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Russell returns to the story form with renewed daring, leading us again into uncharted terrain, though as fantastic as the predicaments she imagines are, the emotions couldn't be truer to life…Mind-blowing, mythic, macabre, hilarious." - Booklist (starred review) And Praise for Swamplandia! "Ms. Russell is one in a million…A suspenseful, deeply haunted book." - The New York Times "[Russell] has thrown the whole circus of her heart onto the page, safety nets be damned….Russell has deep and true talents." - San Francisco Chronicle "Vividly worded, exuberant in characterization, the novel is a wild ride…This family, wrestling with their desires and demons…will lodge in the memories of anyone lucky enough to read Swamplandia! " - The New York Times Book Review (cover review) "I can't recall the last time I came across a character who shines as brightly as Ava, or a first novel that made such a rich and lasting impression." -Carl Hiaasen, Advance Praise for Vampires in the Lemon Grove "An eight-tale adrenaline-delivery system packed with long-married, problem-beset monsters, abandoned children whose lives are in dire peril, teens with creepy sixth senses, and masseuses with inexplicable healing powers…Darkly inventive, demonically driven narratives set in the author's inimitable imaginative disturbia." - Elle "Delightfully weird." - Esquire "Consistently arresting…startling…profound…Even more impressive than Russell's critically acclaimed novel." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Russell doesn't work small. She's a world builder, and the stranger the better…Russell's great gift-along with her antic imagination-is her ability to create whole landscapes and lifetimes of strangeness within the confines of a short story." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Russell returns to the story form with renewed daring, leading us again into uncharted terrain, though as fantastic as the predicaments she imagines are, the emotions couldn't be truer to life…Mind-blowing, mythic, macabre, hilarious." - Booklist (starred review) "The offbeat lusciousness of [ Swamplandia ] seems to be repeated in Russell's new story collection…Don't miss." - Library Journal "Karen Russell casts another spell with her otherworldly collection of stories…Is she a Southern Gothicist? A parabolist? A moralist? Do her stories expand upon old histories, or create new, fantastical explanations for them? But the stories, without ever confining themselves to one genre or tradition, speak for themselves." - Bullett Magazine And Praise for Swamplandia! "Ms. Russell is one in a million…A suspenseful, deeply haunted book." - The New York Times "[Russell] has thrown the whole circus of her heart onto the page, safety nets be damned….Russell has deep and true talents." - San Francisco Chronicle "Vividly worded, exuberant in characterization, the novel is a wild ride…This family, wrestling with their desires and demons…will lodge in the memories of anyone lucky enough to read Swamplandia! " - The New York Times Book Review (cover review) "I can't recall the last time I came across a character who shines as brightly as Ava, or a first novel that made such a rich and lasting impression." -Carl Hiaasen, Advance Praise for Vampires in the Lemon Grove " Vampires in the Lemon Grove shows Ms. Russell more in control of her craft than ever…Ms. Russell deftly combines elements of the weird and supernatural with acute psychological realism; elements of the gothic with dry, contemporary humor. From apparent influences as disparate as George Saunders, Saki, Stephen King, Carson McCullers and Joy Williams, she has fashioned a quirky, textured voice that is thoroughly her own: lyrical and funny, fantastical and meditative…Underscores her fecund and constantly surprising storytelling gifts…In these tales Ms. Russell combines careful research with minutely imagined details and a wonderfully vital sleight of hand to create narratives that possess both the resonance of myth and the immediacy of something new." - Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "Hilarious, exquisite, first-rate…It's hard not to reflect on the origins of this wildly talented young writer's ideas…A grim, stupendous magic is at work in these stories…Her work has a velocity and trajectory that is little less than dazzling and a tough, enveloping, exhilarating voice that cannot be equaled." -The New York Times Book Review (cover review) "An eight-tale adrenaline-delivery system packed with long-married, problem-beset monsters, abandoned children whose lives are in dire peril, teens with creepy sixth senses, and masseuses with inexplicable healing powers…Darkly inventive, demonically driven narratives set in the author's inimitable imaginative disturbia." -Elle "Delightfully weird…moving." -Esquire "Consistently arresting…startling…profound…Even more impressive than Russell's critically acclaimed novel." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Russell doesn't work small. She's a world builder, and the stranger the better…Russell's great gift-along with her antic imagination-is her ability to create whole landscapes and lifetimes of strangeness within the confines of a short story." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Russell returns to the story form with renewed daring, leading us again into uncharted terrain, though as fantastic as the predicaments she imagines are, the emotions couldn't be truer to life…Mind-blowing, mythic, macabre, hilarious." -Booklist (starred review) "The offbeat lusciousness of [ Swamplandia ] seems to be repeated in Russell's new story collection…Don't miss." -Library Journal "Karen Russell casts another spell with her otherworldly collection of stories…Is she a Southern Gothicist? A parabolist? A moralist? Do her stories expand upon old histories, or create new, fantastical explanations for them? But the stories, without ever confining themselves to one genre or tradition, speak for themselves." -Bullett Magazine And Praise for Swamplandia! "Ms. Russell is one in a million…A suspenseful, deeply haunted book." -The New York Times "[Russell] has thrown the whole circus of her heart onto the page, safety nets be damned….Russell has deep and true talents." -San Francisco Chronicle "Vividly worded, exuberant in characterization, the novel is a wild ride…This family, wrestling with their desires and demons…will lodge in the memories of anyone lucky enough to read Swamplandia! " -The New York Times Book Review (cover review) "I can't recall the last time I came across a character who shines as brightly as Ava, or a first novel that made such a rich and lasting impression." - Carl Hiaasen, Advance Praise for Vampires in the Lemon Grove "An eight-tale adrenaline-delivery system packed with long-married, problem-beset monsters, abandoned children whose lives are in dire peril, teens with creepy sixth senses, and masseuses with inexplicable healing powers…Darkly inventive, demonically driven narratives set in the author's inimitable imaginative disturbia." - Elle "Consistently arresting…startling…profound…Even more impressive than Russell's critically acclaimed novel." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Russell doesn't work small. She's a world builder, and the stranger the better…Russell's great gift-along with her antic imagination-is her ability to create whole landscapes and lifetimes of strangeness within the confines of a short story." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Russell returns to the story form with renewed daring, leading us again into uncharted terrain, though as fantastic as the predicaments she imagines are, the emotions couldn't be truer to life…Mind-blowing, mythic, macabre, hilarious." - Booklist (starred review) "The offbeat lusciousness of [ Swamplandia ] seems to be repeated in Russell's new story collection…Don't miss." - Library Journal "Karen Russell casts another spell with her otherworldly collection of stories…Is she a Southern Gothicist? A parabolist? A moralist? Do her stories expand upon old histories, or create new, fantastical explanations for them? But the stories, without ever confining themselves to one genre or tradition, speak for themselves." - Bullett Magazine And Praise for Swamplandia! "Ms. Russell is one in a million…A suspenseful, deeply haunted book." - The New York Times "[Russell] has thrown the whole circus of her heart onto the page, safety nets be damned….Russell has deep and true talents." - San Francisco Chronicle "Vividly worded, exuberant in characterization, the novel is a wild ride…This family, wrestling with their desires and demons…will lodge in the memories of anyone lucky enough to read Swamplandia! " - The New York Times Book Review (cover review) "I can't recall the last time I came across a character who shines as brightly as Ava, or a first novel that made such a rich and lasting impression." -Carl Hiaasen
