Hello everyone! Today we’re going to do something a little differently by reviewing a novel that is not from the YA genre. It’ll also be different in the sense that’s it’s a collection of short stories, rather than one story. We’ll be reviewing Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman and we hope you enjoy it.
Series: None
Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: Fiction, Short Stories
Publisher: Headline
Pages: 303 pages (Paperback)
So first off, we’ll provide a list of the short stories in Trigger Warning so you know what the short story titles are.
Now to the actual review: we must admit, we were quite underwhelmed by the book. We’ve read Smoke and Mirrors as well as Fragile Things, so we were expecting Trigger Warning to pack a punch, only it didn’t. On the title cover of Trigger Warning, it says there are ‘disturbances’, but honestly, it isn't even that disturbing. An example of a disturbing short story by Neil Gaiman would be Snow, Glass, Apples - that was disturbing, but also very well written. Nothing in Trigger Warning even comes close to it.
Our favourite short story in this collection would be ‘The Truth is a Black Cave in the Mountains...’ It is such a straightforward manner of narration, but the simplicity is what makes this short story so enjoyable. A quote from Sun that we agree applies to this story is that it ‘drags the fantastical out of the mundane’. A quick overview of the tale: a dwarf (Luna got Tyrion-vibes from the protagonist) visits a man who will take him to a mountain with enough gold to last him a lifetime, and thus, their quest begins. We don’t want to spoil anything, other than the characterisation and writing is stunning. We loved it.
However, on a sour note, there were quite a few stories we simply didn’t enjoy. A Calendar of Tales was quite confusing, and literally, like the short story title, it’s a collection of short tales within a short story. Another one we weren’t too fond of is A Lunar Labyrinth. It was a good story, no doubt, but it is a bit too predictable, so there isn't any suspense that made us want to read more.
We suppose that the main setback is that this book isn't very rich, if you can understand what we mean. Gaiman’s ideas are exceptionally creative as always, but there was something lacking in his writing. He didn’t capture our imaginations and pull at our heartstrings as well as his other stories.
But in spite of that, there were moments when Trigger Warning is exceptionally gripping. The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury has a very touching message, and this is our favourite quote: ‘God who knows all things, I have no prayer books and I do not know any prayers by heart. But you know all the prayers. You are God. So this is what I am going to do. I am going to say the alphabet, and I will let you put the words together’.
To sum up, Neil Gaiman has delivered another short story collection titled Trigger Warning. It’s not his best work, but it’s quite nice. Our ratings are below. Please drop a comment below and tell us what you think of Trigger Warning and Neil Gaiman!
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