Seanan McGuire's Sparrow Hill Road
This is one of those books of McGuire's assembled from various short stories she's published in various places (though it apparently takes place in the same universe as her Discount Armageddon series)--and boy, does it show. It's very choppy, and the worldbuilding feels a little all-over-the-place. I mean, the premise is great--the protagonist is the girl ghost/prom girl/hitchhiker of urban legend--and some of the stories are pretty compelling. But the pacing of some of the individual stories interrupts the flow of the book as a whole (particularly the Mary chapter). And I'm saying this as someone who really enjoyed the Velveteen books, which were similarly collected stories (though maybe I am more forgiving of superhero stories than ghost stories?). The last couple chapters are really strong, though, and I liked the way it wrapped up. I just wish it had gotten a little more time with an editor to pull everything together. B/B+.
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