Press

Praise for MAY WE SHED THESE HUMAN BODIES

Best Small Press Debut 2012 Atlantic Wire:  Harper Perennial’s Cal Morgan says, “I haven’t gotten more pure pleasure out of pleasure reading this year than I have from this collection. ‘It is easy to make new people, but difficult to grow them,’ she says in the title story; anyone got a sharper summa of the human dilemma?”

Publishers Weekly: “Sparks’s debut story collection swirls with a Tim Burton-like whimsy…modern fables in which epiphanies replace moral lessons and tales unfold with Grimm-like wickedness.”

Flavorwire: Named one of their 10 “must-reads” for October 2012: “Sometimes all it takes is a few sentences to knock you off your rocker. Or at least that’s the case in Sparks’s debut collection, which packs 30 short short stories, each its own modern fable, whimsical and wicked in equal measure, into one handsome book.”

HTMLGIANT: “Sparks uses myths and fairy tales like a sculptor creating art from found objects. She harvests the bones of dead stories to make something new and revelatory.”

Books on the Nightstand: “I am absolutely loving May We Shed These Human Bodies by Amber Sparks, a collection that is perfect for fans of Karen Russell, Kevin Brockmeier and Aimee Bender.”

Fanzine: “We ask for proof of fairy tales in an age that has moved beyond allegory and Amber Sparks hands us a map––May We Shed These Human Bodies.”

The Collagist: “Amber Sparks, the fairy godmother of rebirth, has a wicked genius about her that transmogrifies the ordinary and makes us long to befriend the unusual gamut of quirky fiends that occupy her pages, even if it means losing a little skin in the process.”

Outside Writers Collective: “Sparks’ talent is to ask the what ifs—what if a living child was born among ghosts, what if a city wanted to see the world?…Luckily for us, Sparks goes beyond asking and sends us toward surprising answers, both the serious and the ridiculous.”

The Nervous Breakdown: “And this is how she pulls us in and tears us apart—by using history, mythology, magic and the unknown to tell us her fables and dark truths.”

TNBCC’s The Next Best Book Blog: “Her stories read swiftly, sting fiercely, and then retreat quickly to make room for the next. Each little world she creates breathes hard and fast and lingers with us long after we leave it behind.”

The Coffin Factory:  “Sparks gives us the canon—from the initial story of Death as a kind bureaucrat dealing with overcrowding, to magical bathtubs and fairytales and heartbreak and sibling rivalry, May We Shed These Human Bodies does exactly what its title seeks, and leaves us surprised and unskinned, clutching our hearts.”

Mid-American Review: “Reads like a call to arms for fiction everywhere.”

Bob Einstein’s Literary Equations: “Sparks is just the right amount of ribald and surreal. She mixes them nicely. She mixes them earnestly. I know she’s a fan of George Saunders, whom I have to believe would think this collection a very worthwhile literary effort indeed, though certainly all Sparks’ own.”

Anobium: “Following Aimee Bender’s school of the fantastic fable with short tales full of tense moments that tease away mature eyes and force a world of adult complexity into Saturday morning cartoons.”

JMWW: “If you’re not sure what you like, it’s not hard to find something to like; there are so many options in Sparks’ collection that something will strike even the pickiest of readers.”

Largehearted Boy: Book Notes:  “May We Shed These Human Bodies is an exceptional debut, one filled with dark, fantastic, and often surreal stories that never lose touch with our modern world.”

Vol. 1 Brooklyn: “Sparks has intelligence aplenty on display, a talent for humor, and the ability to blend mythical resonances with contemporary anxieties. But her fiction is also rooted in the tactile and the physical, and it’s that quality that makes these works truly haunting.”

PANK: “Amber Sparks’ May We Shed These Human Bodies is a menagerie of twisted fairy tales, ghost stories, and wild fables. Her stories are often fantastical but her prose is almost scientifically precise. No muss, no fuss. Sparks is our fairy tale cartographer, mapping a world of modern magic and human error.”

Necessary Fiction: “The thirty stories…portray a perspective of life unseen throughout much of contemporary fiction and make a strong case for Sparks as one of contemporary fiction’s true mad scientists. At turns magical, fable-like, and realistic, her stories crackle with imagination yet never shy away from emotional intensity or artistic integrity.”

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