Persephone of the Crows, by Karen Joy Fowler

Persephone of the Crows was a finalist for the 2018 Locus Award.  Not too long to read, it was quite entertaining but it seems more like the first chapter of a book, with a few bits tacked on, than an independent story.  The scene is set with a charming sequence where Polly's family is visiting another family, linked by their father's work and friendship.  The dads mainly get together to drink.  Polly is playing with Isabelle, who has seen a fairy.  Polly does not believe in such things.  Things go downhill when Isabelle's father shows everyone an erotic painting with his wife as the model. 

It's a standard setup, and would no doubt go someplace interesting, but where it does in fact go is told only in a few brief, interspersed paragraphs.  I imagine it as something Fowler started many years ago, and does not actually intend to pursue, but thought it worth getting out there.  Since it got an award nomination she is right.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler

Karen Joy Fowler writes very literary speculative fiction--heavy on character development, speculation to enhance it.  This is the pattern in We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves as well. 

The narrator, Rosemary, takes us through her life, which is challenging but not particularly extraordinary until she reveals that her sister was, in fact, a chimp.  Taken in as her psychologist father's experiment.  Her complex relationship with her sister and mostly absent brother carries us through the book.

We get to know Rosemary awfully well.  She's not a particularly colorful person--not close to anyone, not violent, not...really very much.  Her life is a reflection of the people (and primate) around her, and she pretty much knows it.  Rosemary seems a familiar sort--a rather dry person who simply never expects to be happy, and made peace with that a long time ago.

It's pretty challenging to make an interesting story out of such a person, with no gunfire or magic to sustain it, but Fowler manages it pretty well.  The book is entertaining and satisfying in a personal sort of way.

I'm not sure how I feel after finishing--not exhilarated, or bored, or intrigued.  Just there.  Rosemary and her ape sister Fern make their animal rights point fairly gently and move on.  Read this as an interesting side track.

Younger Women, by Karen Joy Fowler

A short story this time--Younger Women, a World Fantasy 2011 nominee in the short story category.  Short stories really have to bowl me over to get me to like them, and this one doesn't, quite.  Part of the wave of vampire stories.  This is a more mundane encounter, which is different, but the characters don't get a chance to stand out.  It's nice, but not nearly as strong as the other online nominees--The Paper Menagerie and The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees.  Just two stars, for average.

The Elizabeth Complex, by Karen Joy Fowler

The Elizabeth Complex was nominated for a Nebula in 1997.  It's a meditation on the disrespect women faced, I think mostly in Queen Elizabeth's time, but part of the artsy appeal and eventual difficulty of this story is that it starts wandering around between different Elizabeth's lives (possibly not Elizabeths at all).  It's an interesting device when lightly used, but by the end of the story it pretty much just confused me.  OK, not great, 2 stars.