The
Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender
One
The Rememberer B+
Call My Name A
What You Left in the Ditch C
The Bowl A
Marzipan B
Two
Quiet Please A
Skinless B+
Fugue A+
Drunken Mimi B-
Fell This Girl B-
Three
The Healer A+
Loser A
Legacy C+
Dreaming in Polish C
The Ring C+
The Girl in the Flammable Skirt B-
The
Girl in the Flammable Skirt
I
really liked the book as a whole. I didn’t read a story that I strongly
disliked, I just liked some stories more than others. In each story, there was
either a sexual element, a supernatural element, or both. Bender also had a way
of telling almost the whole story without using a single character name. In
“The Bowl,” we never learn our main character’s name. This story is also
different because it’s the only story that isn’t either in first or third (he,
she, they,) person. Bender likes to put the action either just out of view
(like in someone else’s POV,) or for the action to happen completely outside
the story.
“Fugue”
This
was one of my favorite stories I read. It really kept me reading. The big thing
about this story is that it follows three different characters; a woman (and
her husband,) “the muttering man,” and Haggie (with his roommate Mona.) Bender
does a great job of building tension, giving a slight bit of release, then
jumping to another POV. What made this one of my favorites though, was the end.
It felt like a twist, even though she gave the reader all the information they
needed.
“The
Healer”
I
really liked the supernatural elements in this story, which is one of the
things that drew me in to the story. This story is in the POV of a classmate of
“the fire girl” and “the ice girl,” names Lisa. She keeps some of the action
toned down and in the corner of your perspective, but the biggest point of
action happens so fast, you barely have time to react. She used sex and
sexuality in a different way too; pain = pleasure in this story. The poor “fire
girl” is being used by her classmates, but no one actually likes her. There’s
also the contrast of “fire girl” always destroying and the “ice girl” who has
healing powers. She is also just being used for her power.
“What
You Left in the Ditch”
If I had to choose a least favorite,
it would probably be “What You Left in the Ditch.”This story just feels like a story
about a wife wanting to cheat on her husband, feels bad about it, then realizes
how much she loves him.
You can buy her books from:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
penguinrandomhouse.com
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