Yellowcake

Starred review from February 25, 2013
Lanagan follows White Time, Black Juice, and Red Spikes with a fourth short story collection, featuring 10 singular tales, nearly all of which were previously published in the U.S. and abroad. She opens with the visceral “The Point of Roses,” in which a boy’s psychic ability to guess what something is—a rose, an ashtray, a toy—has astonishing consequences: “A sweet-scented shock hit Billy, a velvety punch. Down the slope he tumbled, alone in a storm of blooms.” In “An Honest Day’s Work,” a disabled boy gets a chance to be useful when the local equivalent of shipbreakers bring an aircraft carrier–sized alien down out of the “ether” to be stripped for food and spare parts. “Night of the Firstlings” is an eccentric and at times terrifying retelling of the plagues of Egypt, while the collection’s new story, “Into the Clouds on High,” recalls the author’s recent The Brides of Rollrock Island, with a woman caught between the pull of her family and that of her supernatural nature. Haunt-ing, gorgeous, and sometimes painful, Lanagan’s stories are unlike anything else in fantasy literature. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jill Grinberg Literary Management.

Starred review from April 1, 2013
Lanagan unravels familiar myths and fairy tales, weaving them into unique, sharply resonant forms in this characteristically stunning collection. Reading Lanagan, like learning a language by total immersion, involves a leap of faith. Each tale conjures a world with unique laws and lawbreakers. Rather than being coddled by comforting dollops of exposition, readers dive into the murky unknown. Spellbound, they reach the end, astonished at how far from shore they've traveled. The most powerful of these tales reworks Hans Christian Andersen's "The Tinderbox," drawing on its creepy, amoral ambiance to explore the spoils and costs of war. "Rapunzel" morphs into a sunnier tale but with an eldritch feel. Supported by his loving wife and apprentice-daughter, Charon ferries dead souls across the Styx. However strange the details (a sentient building lumbers into the sea; a fascinator plies his trade), the stories rest on bedrock human emotions. Characters act out of fear, anger, love--to stop the pain, to make sense of the senseless, to protect family. The shipbreaking underclass who take apart horrifying vessels are decent folk at heart. In a tale exploring the paradoxical complexities of loss, a mother floats away from the family desperate to keep her. Traveling such elusive terrain requires an oblique approach, and Lanagan, like Emily Dickinson, tells it "slant." Familiar roots and accessible themes make this strong collection a good introduction to Lanagan's mind-bending work. (author's note) (Fantasy/short stories. 14 & up)

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April 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-Ten tales examine unexpected occurrences of magic in everyday lives. Most of the stories appeared in various anthologies published between 2006 and 2011, but they have not been available to American readers until now. Additionally, while this collection was released in Australia in 2011, one story ("Heads") has been swapped for another ("Catastrophic Disruption of the Head") in the U.S. release. Ranging in length from 10 to 34 pages, some of these literary fantasies are wholly original (a boy's mother prepares to ascend to a higher calling, circus oddities find someone else to stare at and speculate about, a shopping mall sheds its parasitic humans) and some are inspired by other tales (Passover and Exodus, Rapunzel, Charon and the River Styx). But in all of Lanagan's worlds, the familiar becomes unfamiliar and then wondrous. Each story is tightly crafted, dropping readers into a culture without much preface, letting the events spin out and the characters be forever changed, and leaving those turning the pages haunted afterward. Less-sophisticated readers might be frustrated by the density of these selections and their focus on character rather than plot, but for those willing to invest, the payoff is powerful. This is meaty fare, layered with meaning and thick with a richness of imagination. Yellowcake is as much about the telling as it is about the tales.-Gretchen Kolderup, New York Public Library

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2013
Grades 9-12 Returning to the fertile format of Black Juice (2005), White Time (2006), and Red Spikes (2007), Lanagan's latest collection is as lovely, enigmatic, and eye-opening as you'd expect, with each story dropping readers into deep waters from which they must paddle and orient themselves. The astonishing standout, An Honest Day's Work, tells of a hobbled boy allowed to join men in a meat job the skinning, sawing, and carving up of a giant humanoid lugged in from the sea. Reminiscent of something out of China Mi'ville's Railsea (2012), it is gruesome and heart pounding and begs for novel expansion. (Well, we can hope, right?) Elsewhere is the Bradburian tale of a too-powerful kid psychic, the grim story of a vindictive fascinator, and a sorrowful look at the daughter of a Styx ferryman. Rhythms are highly unusual; often the tricksy prose feels as if it's been translated into an alien tongue and back again, and, yes, some will balk at the heavy lifting required to make sense of some of it. For those who love paying close attention, of course, this pays off handsomely. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Lanagan's literary chops are nearly unrivaled in YA lit, and any release from her will draw excitement, scrutiny, and awards consideration.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2013
Lanagan's fourth short story collection (Black Juice, rev. 5/05, White Time, rev. 7/06, Red Spikes, rev. 11/07) features ten typically strange and eerie tales (most previously published in her native Australia or in the UK; a few also appeared in U.S. fantasy collections). With little exposition or context setting -- and lots of unexpected and bizarre imagery -- Lanagan leaves readers perpetually, deliriously off-balance through language that is more imagistic than descriptive and settings that can be simultaneously realistic and extraordinary (e.g., the hardscrabble maritime community in "An Honest Day's Work" beset by a sea creature). Amidst all the weirdness, familiar elements are frequently Lanagan's point of departure. "Night of the Firstlings" is the Exodus story (sort of), and "The Golden Shroud" is a Rapunzel retelling with a horror bent and from the prince's point of view. Lanagan also plays with narrative perspective in "Catastrophic Disruption of the Head," bringing readers inside a disturbed mind (from which they will likely be relieved to emerge), and in "Ferryman" (about the River Styx's father-daughter family business). Familial relationships are a common theme: a grandfather awash in memories finds redemption in "The Point of Roses"; an adoring son accepts his mother's loftier (literally) destiny in "Into the Clouds on High." An appended "Where the Stories Started" section touches on the author's inspiration for each tale. Unsettling, startling, often gruesome -- these imaginative works demand much of their readers, occasionally providing catharsis and unfailingly provoking thought and discussion. elissa gershowitz

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2013
With little exposition or context setting--and lots of imagery--Lanagan's fourth short story collection leaves readers deliriously off-balance through language that is more imagistic than descriptive and settings that can be simultaneously realistic and extraordinary (e.g., a hardscrabble maritime community beset by a sea creature). Unsettling, often gruesome--these works demand much of their readers, occasionally providing catharsis and unfailingly provoking thought.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)