watery imagery and complex sensory landscapes while exploring the theme of mundane relationships transformed by the intrusion of the mystical and uncanny. --That's accurate, and I love how you do exactly that. And luscious, yes, though the reviewer would have been more on target, I think with simply lush, and melancholy yes, beautifully so.
I'd argue with that last sentence pretty hard, though, in terms of particular points and overall thrust. You do have a distinctive style, yes, but speaking as someone who did read the collection all at once, i don't think the stories lose their subtle distinctions in the least. As for overall effect of the collection, it builds and strengthens, but for me, and I'd say for people who like and want what you're doing in these stories, that's a *desirable* effect. And it's not uniform, it's many stranded, many faceted. To say it's uniforms is like saying love stories are uniform because they deal with the topic of love, or that war stories seem to talk a whole lot about loss and damage. There's a hell of a lot of breadth in love and a hell of lot to say about loss and damage.
... Anyway. You probably didn't need that pep talk because you probably are aware of the things I'm saying, but I just want to reiterate that for your fans and future fans, what the reviewer is expressing in the last sentence, insofar as it's true--which is only in part--is a feature, not a bug.
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I'd argue with that last sentence pretty hard, though, in terms of particular points and overall thrust. You do have a distinctive style, yes, but speaking as someone who did read the collection all at once, i don't think the stories lose their subtle distinctions in the least. As for overall effect of the collection, it builds and strengthens, but for me, and I'd say for people who like and want what you're doing in these stories, that's a *desirable* effect. And it's not uniform, it's many stranded, many faceted. To say it's uniforms is like saying love stories are uniform because they deal with the topic of love, or that war stories seem to talk a whole lot about loss and damage. There's a hell of a lot of breadth in love and a hell of lot to say about loss and damage.
... Anyway. You probably didn't need that pep talk because you probably are aware of the things I'm saying, but I just want to reiterate that for your fans and future fans, what the reviewer is expressing in the last sentence, insofar as it's true--which is only in part--is a feature, not a bug.