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Smoke and Mirrors
Neil Gaiman

Smoke and Mirrors is very much like Neil Gaiman's second short story collection Fragile Things, which is to say, somewhat disturbing. But sometimes people need to be disturbed. And where Fragile Things felt like a haunted disturbing, Smoke and Mirrors is a bit more of a twisted disturbing. That's just the tone of the book as a whole though. The first story, entitled "Chivalry" is especially sweet actually. And "The Price", about a stray cat that protects his family is just... neat.

I think I've discovered what draws me to his short story collections though. Gaiman writes as though he were a visual artist instead of an author. If that makes any sense. He approaches his themes and mysteries as if with paint or clay and only gives as much information as someone working in that medium might. The only difference is that he perhaps uses several different paintings or sculptures. And this is probably why he has such a close working relationship with Lisa Snellings-Clark, often writing stories based on her works, and she making sculptures based on his stories.

I also appreciate his blurbs about each individual story in his introductions. It's a nice little peek into the mind of the author.