Fancy Shop (Mini-Review)

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Fancy Shop by Valeri Stanoevich is a collection of short stories that tests what you think you know about reality and the resilience of your sanity. Sometimes the narrator is human while at other times they aren't such as in the short "The Insight". Sometimes the short is set in the present while at other times the short is set in the past such as "Time of Evil".

Fancy Shop is written in a very unique style. Most stories seek to make sure the reader knows the exact setting, characters, ect. to make sure there isn't a lot left up to interpretation. Such as Harry Potter is very clear on who the title character is and the setting of Hogwarts. Meanwhile in a lot of the shorts in Fancy Shop, including the titular short story, readers are left unaware of what is truly going on. For a good comparison I would point to any piece of fiction that falls under the cosmic horror sub-genre. That sub-genre leaves much more questions than answers. While the confusion in the short stories in Fancy Shop is admirable, sometimes it becomes too much.

My favorite short story in this collection has to be "Time of Evil". It is one of the longer shorts that revolves around a character called Waste. There is only one small section that is told by him while the other sections are told by people that have been affected by his actions. The short rewards readers for paying attention. Which is always a good thing with stories that offer no clear conclusions.

The author appears fearless for writing "Once Again For the Princess." It being a retelling of the famous "Princess and the Pea" makes it one of the more coherent stories in this collection. So what makes the author fearless for writing it? Before the author gets to writing their retelling, they state their problems with the original. What this does is make the readers more attuned to any failings in the author's own retelling.

"The Insight" is told from the point of view of a cockroach. It's always interesting to hear a story from a non-human's point of view. This short works very well as the author seems to abandon their human skin and sink completely into a cockroach's mind. Actually "The Insight" is from a fictional book called Book of Cockroaches which implies the simple insects are much more complex than we think they are.

One of the weaker shorts in the collection is "De Profundis". Even though it is one of the weaker stories, it has an extremely interesting premise. Basically in the alternate world of the story people are able to create other people from their own minds. The problem boils down to the fact that important plot details are relegated to footnotes. This means that during key moments I was pulled from the story to learn important details. Footnotes are okay in fictional books, such as in various Micheal Crichton works, but they should never be used for important plot points like in "De Profundis".

I would recommend Fancy Shop by Valeri Stanoevich to those looking for a good collection of fantasy stories.