Reviews
I'll preface this review by saying I gave MOST of the stories 5 stars.
I am one of the people Neil mentions in his introduction who does not understand or particularly like poetry, and that is what drug the rating percentage down. But my goodness, the stories that were 5 stars really grabbed me.
Neil just has a way with words that can make the most mundane things seem beautiful and magical and interesting
Another wonderful collection of short stories out of Neil Gaiman's feather - especially exciting are the new stories about Shadow from American Gods, Doctor Who (alas, my least favorite Doctor, but still) and even Sherlock Holmes. But I don't want to indicate that those are the only good stories. Some of the original ones are also quite mind-boggling/charming/wonderful/fantastic. Just what you'd expect from Neil Gaiman. However, ironically my attention span doesn't agree with short stories so much. Some of the stories just didn't catch my attention, so I ended up just skipping ahead to the next story. I much prefer Neil Gaiman's full-length novels, and I hope there are many to come in the future.
As with any short story collection, Trigger Warning has hits and misses. A few favorites of mine: 1. "The Thing About Cassandra," about what happens when your imaginary girlfriend shows up and wants to reconnect 2. "Down to a Sunless Sea" and "My Last Landlady," about some creepy things that happen on, in, or near the ocean 3. "A Calendar of Tales" with a delighful smorgabord of cleverness 4. "The Sleeper and the Spindle" in which fairytale gals take charge 5. "Black Dog," where we get to revisit Shadow from American Gods and get some English countryside creep factor at the same time Thanks for some diverting short fiction, Neil Gaiman!
Normally I'm very fond of Gaiman so I had great expectations for this collection of short stories and poetry. A couple of the stories here are classic Gaiman and work beautifully but most are merely mediocre. A few are downright awful. Furthermore his poetry is really amateurish and reads like high school poetry.
“hodgepodge and willy-nilly”
It took way too long to finish this one, for no other reason than my lacklustre approach to reading for the second half of 2015. My laziness aside - I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. Admittedly I found Gaiman's 'Fragile Things' (an earlier publication of short stories) a bit more consistent than this; however the stories there weren't as audacious and pressing as ones found in Trigger Warning.
There are definitely some great stories in this collection. The Sherlock Holmes story is probably my favorite of the bunch, with Sleeper & Spindle a close second and the Doctor Who tie-in following close behind. That said, I've lost patience with the stock Gaiman story where he appears, thinly veiled and nameless, and narrates yet another elliptical tale about weird goings-on. Those stories just felt self-indulgent this time around, even though he's been writing them forever. Maybe it didn't help that I watched a video of him reading "bad Gaiman" parodies and some of the stories here didn't seem too far off from that - tossed off and overly familiar.
Trigger Warning contains some exceptional stories but it's not my favorite collection of Gaimans.
I don't think I'm a huge fan of short stories. These were mostly just 'okay' for my tastes except The Sleeper and the Spindle and Black Dog that were excellent. To be honest I already forgot a bunch of them D:
* Making a chair - 3/5 * A lunar labyrinth - 4/5 * The thing about Cassandra - 2/5 * Down to a sunless sea - 2/5 * "The truth is a cave in the Black Mountains ..." - 4/5 * My last landlady - 2/5 * Adventure story -3/5 * Orange -3/5 * A calendar of tales -5/5 * The case of death and honey - 5/5 * The man who forgot Ray Bradbury -5/5 * Jerusalem - 3/5 * Click-Clack the rattlebag - 3/5 * An invocation of incuriosity - 2/5 * "And weep, like Alexander" - 2/5 * Nothing o'clock - 5/5 * Diamonds and pearls: a fairy tale -5/5 * The return of the thin white duke - 4/5 * Feminine endings -2/5 * Observing the formalities -3.5/5 * The sleeper and the spindle -5/5 * Witch work -3/5 * In Relig Odhráin -2/5 * Black Dog - 4/5
I was excited to read a new Gaiman book, his writing is so fantastic and I've loved him since my mother first introduced me to Neverwhere and Good Omens back before he had gotten as big as he deserves. His short story books have always been my favorites, always filled with such a variety of writing styles and stories, all leaving me breathless and feeling odd in a good way This book, while good, unfortunately wasn't on the same level as them, that is to say that it was a very good book, but weak on his scale. I found some of the stories a little too "...what?". I enjoy the uncertain feeling you often get from his stories but some of these I felt too uncertain, like I had missed something entirely. Maybe they are just stories you need to read more than once. However, the idea of this book, how it combines stories from many years and written for many purposes, how some just seem to be word vomit, ideas that needed to be let out even if they didn't make perfect sense or have any purpose, but we're waiting and needing to exist. It's like an insight into his mind, how he thinks. They're the in betweens, the ones that come between the big, solid well formed ones. As a fan that makes this book great and interesting. This book also has such a variety, it spans genres and concepts but all have his flair to it. He's a truly talented author, and to get a peak at his ideas, and these inbetweens, though not perfect, is well worth the read.
Neil Gaiman is a genious and no matter how many books you've read, I guarantee, you havent read anything quite like this!
I wish I could say that Trigger Warning is as fantastic as Smoke and Mirrors or Fragile Things. Unfortunately, it is not. There are some really good stories, the Shadow short being a standout, but this isn't Gaiman's best collection.
Gaiman is always a solid read for me. I like his voice. He takes great care in crafting the cadence of things and if you hear him read his stories then things click. Sometimes this works well, other times it feels a bit off, a bit too manufactured in order to sound fairy-tale esk. It makes it so most his books are just okay for me, with a couple exceptions. That, in tandem with short story collections, which are always up and down. I don’t think I’ve ever read a collection where every story was great for me. Some stories are great, some I actually would just skip ahead, which is one of the joys of collections, imo. Don’t like a story? Turn 5 pages and start a new one. You’re all set.
It turns out that I don’t enjoy Gaiman as much as I thought. Never could finish American Gods, and I think I was hearing more of Terry when I read Good Omens. It’s solid work, but nothing in this book made me feel anything.
One of the best short stories collections I've read. Neil Gaiman is at his finest.
Gejmene, raskidamo. A bgm i kratke priče nešto ne želim više da čitam. Jedino što mi je leglo ovde bile su Oktobarska i Decembarska priča i The Thing about Cassandra.
Like with most short story collections, there were a few stories I really enjoyed, a majority that were simply ok, and a few that I didn’t like at all. I really enjoyed the variety of stories and genres in this collection. Everything was well written and despite not liking a few of them, which is just a matter of personal taste, all the stories were captivating.
Not his best. Some stories I really didn't like .
Unos cuentos más destacables que los otros, pero la versatilidad de Neil para escribir es indiscutible e impresionante.
⭐⭐.5/5 This was my first Gaiman, and it's entirely possible I just didn't 'get it' until the last half of the book, but I am going to be honest about the fact that I struggled HARD to get through the beginning 1/3 of this book. Once I hit "And Weep, Like Alexander" (p. 169 of 310) it was smooth sailing, which is why I'm rating half the stars, because half of this book was good. I am glad I stuck it out, even if it took me a shameful amount of time to finally get through "The Case of Death and Honey" (that story was almost enough for me to DNF this, but I just set it aside for another time...years later 😂) I own a few other Gaiman's I received as gifts - novels not short stories, and I'm interested to see how those pan out, and if my thoughts on this collection of short stories changes once I read a bit more of his work. My expectations are definitely higher for those novels, so here's to hoping 🤞
If you've never read Neil Gaiman's work, you're missing out.
