Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima – unique literary collection with paranormal elements

Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil is unique literary collection with paranormal elements that fans of literary fiction might appreciate. However, it wasn’t for me.

Synopsis

At a Halloween party in 1999, a writer slept with the devil. She sees him again and again throughout her life and writes stories for him about things both impossible and true. Stories I Wrote for the Devil lures readers into surreal pockets of the United States and Brazil, where they’ll find bite-size Americans in vending machines and the ghosts of living people. Ananda Lima speaks to modern Brazilian-American immigrant experiences―of ambition, fear, longing, and belonging―and reveals the porousness of storytelling and of the places we call home.

Review

Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil is a unique literary collection with paranormal elements that follows the life of a Brazilian-American immigrant writer who encounters the Devil at a young age and continues to see him throughout her life.

Craft is structured in alternating chapters: Stories written by the protagonist that includes- Rapture, Ghost Story, Tropicália, Antropógaga, Idle Hands, Rent, Porcelain, Heaven Hell and Purgatory, and Hasselblad- while Alt Chapters in between these stories depict events and situations in her life at different stages when she meets/sees the Devil. The Devil is a captivating character, and I particularly enjoyed the chapters featuring him, but other stories were hard for me to grasp.

The stories in Craft explore the struggles of immigrants and political issues from an immigrant’s perspective, illustrating how the writer’s real life and the fiction she creates intertwine. Although labeled as horror, I wouldn’t categorize it as such; it’s more paranormal due to the presence of the Devil and the bizarre events in some stories.

Of all these stories, I think Rapture, Ghost Story, Antropofaga, and Hasselblad made sense to me rest of the stories were just super weird and I couldn’t figure out the real meaning behind them. The final critique in Idle Hands mirrored my own feelings about the entire book.

While many readers appreciated the writing, concept, and stories, I often found myself struggling to stay engaged and wished I had DNFed the book due to the lack of connection and emotional impact.

Overall, Craft is a unique collection of stories that fans of literary fiction might appreciate. However, it wasn’t for me.

Book Links

Goodreads | Amazon.in | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

#Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima – unique #literarycollection with paranormal elements. Many thanks @torbooks for eARC via #NetGalley. Check out full review –> Share on X

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