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A review by peeled_grape
Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin
3.0
All of these stories are vague, which works (really well!) in some cases. The vagueness often contributes to this sense of "almost-horror," where dread is created by the way characters act in an unquestioning manner without explaining their actions. In other stories, though, I think this keeps a story from being as smart as it could've been. It feels lazy, like an "I don't want to tell you what this is because I couldn't think of anything it could be" type feel. There's 20 stories in this collection, and the vagueness is at play in every one of them. In other words, you start to anticipate it, and it gets less effective. Things start to lose their punch. However, the shorter length of the stories made them easy to get through, especially if you like me and find it hard, at times, to finish short story collections.
My favorite stories were "Toward Happy Civilization," "Mouthful of Birds" and "Underground" (with "Butterflies" as a runner-up). "Toward Happy Civilization" was the most unsettling to me (nothing bad happens but there is this desperate sense of a need to escape throughout it, and this is managed beautifully), though "Mouthful of Birds" was definitely the creepiest. "Underground" and "Butterflies" have nice plot twists.
My favorite stories were "Toward Happy Civilization," "Mouthful of Birds" and "Underground" (with "Butterflies" as a runner-up). "Toward Happy Civilization" was the most unsettling to me (nothing bad happens but there is this desperate sense of a need to escape throughout it, and this is managed beautifully), though "Mouthful of Birds" was definitely the creepiest. "Underground" and "Butterflies" have nice plot twists.