Age of Calamities - Review

Author: Senna Ahmad

Genre: Short Stories

Format: Paperback

Pages: 240

This was actually more of a 3.5 stars. Like with any book of short stories, there were some I liked, and a couple that I didn't like so much. They were all well-written stories, ones that you always seem to want a little more of. The twenty-some pages never seem enough. Even though they really are complete stories in just a few pages. Senna Ahmad is an author I can't wait to see what they'll do next.

I will say I almost DNF'd this book with the first chapter, "Let's Play Dead." It's not that I'm not intrigued by Anne Boylen, or her husband, I am, but the weird mix of timelines had me confused for pretty much all of this story. I struggled to get through it, and found myself wondering if I even wanted to finish this story. Or, even go further into this book. So after I finished the story, I took a break from the book before jumping back in.

I'm glad I jumped back into this because there were a handful of these stories I really enjoyed. The Wolves is the story of werewolves in the era of Genghis Khan, loved this. One of my favorites was Our Lady of Resplendent Misfortune, which is a story of Joan of Arc possessing a girl years later. It's both creepy and heartbreaking. It's one of the stories I would have read a book on. 

Then some were just weird, like the ones with the Neoplanons that were just appearing out of nowhere. And maybe they had powers, or they were ending the world. We don't really know, or I didn't really know. It was a weird little story. Then the last one, Choose Your Own Apocalypse, was also really weird. I love the idea of an adult version of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, and this totally fit the bill and worked as one. I even like the choices where blacked out, like a file would be. So you had to be clever about your jumps. I also liked that it felt like we didn't get the story.

All the stories inside here were weird, which fits the bill of what I usually read. It was also a fun book, wacky in places, and extremely different from what I usually read. Still, I did enjoy this book, and it was totally worth the wait of getting it from my library. It was a fun way to look at history and weave it into the now, or a "what if" kind of scenario. And like I said, Senna Ahmad is an amazing author. It takes a lot of talent to tell a solid story in barely twenty pages. Something she did in every single story. Whether I liked them or not, it doesn't mean they weren't well written.

A solid debut by this author, and I can't wait to see what they'll do next.

HAPPY READING!!