| Karen Russell's arresting first novel | | | | |
| entitled St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by | | | | As the fables unfold, Russell establishes a |
| Wolves has received rave reviews from the | | | | thick, otherworldly haze that doesn't lift - |
| likes of People Magazine and The New York | | | | even between stories. An adults-only |
| Post, and for good reason. Each tale in this | | | | blizzard-themed skating party goes terribly |
| darkly surreal collection transports the | | | | wrong when the children come in search of |
| reader to the murky heat of the Florida | | | | their parents and unintentionally release the |
| Everglades and continues to haunt them even | | | | ice skating apes from their enclosures (Lady |
| after moving on to the next story. | | | | Yeti and the Palace of Artificial Snows). A |
| | | | little girl disappears with the tide while |
| Creepy, fantastical and sparkling with | | | | riding a crab shell (Haunting Olivia). A |
| whimsy, each story shares a small connection | | | | retirement community whose residents live in |
| with the rest but still seems light years | | | | discarded ships must befriend teenage |
| away from the idea of real life. In Girls | | | | criminals (Out to Sea), and a young girl |
| Raised by Wolves, young women are romanced by | | | | abandons her school trip in favor of getting |
| spirits (Ava Wrestles the Alligator), | | | | trapped in a giant conch shell (The City of |
| spectral diving goggles make ghost-watching a | | | | Shells). |
| viable hobby (Haunting Olivia) and | | | | |
| narcoleptic children go to sleep-away camp | | | | Each story is stands alone in magnificence; |
| with ones who relive historical disasters in | | | | together, they form an anthology of |
| their dreams (Z.Z.'s Sleep-Away Camp for | | | | modern-day mythology fit for every cynical |
| Disordered Dreamers). | | | | fairy tale lover. |