Beautifully written each story drew me in so thoughtful so well written. Emotional moving highly recommend #netgalley #scribner

I thought this book was interesting, but could not find my footing nor was I really engaged. Perhaps it's just a consequence of the time, but I have to DNF this one all the same. Nevertheless, thanks for allowing me to read in advance — I really love the cover!

Rutting Season is a collection of nine short stories dealing with people in times of crises. In one a teenage girl finds herself in a standoff between the police and her mom's boyfriend, in another a little girl is trying to keep her mother from selling her off in a money making scheme. My favorite was the first story, "Mercy", about a woman whose husband has recently died. It then seems as though death is following her everywhere because she cannot seem to keep her animals alive either. I did have to skip the final short story, "Animals" because it was about a family's relationship with the animals they slaughter. My stomach simply could not handle it.

Smith is unapologetic and fierce in her prose. She writes with honesty, and many times brutality as well. At moments I could not believe she went where she did, but I think she did it with a tremendous amount of tact. That being said, I am sure she will be getting a lot of heat for the story "What it Takes" about a white girl in a mostly black school who must deal with being bullied because of the color of her skin. It was a difficult story to read and I was never sure that the message was supposed to be.

I love Smith's writing style and I will certainly be looking for more from her. She is a bold voice and does not hold back in her writing.

I can tell you that Mandeliene Smith is an excellent writer - it's obvious from even the first few sentences of the first story in this collection. All of these stories made me feel incredibly anxious, nervous, sweaty-palmed. I cannot say I really enjoyed them, but they were well done!

I liked the premise of the book more than the actual writing. The blurb description of "an intimate, sparkling collection of stories by a debut writer about girls behaving badly and families on the brink of collapse" is something I knew I had to read, but once I got into it, I found Smith's characters and stories, while dealing with loss, too detached. There are terrific bits in each story, though unfortunately I don't believe it's enough to warrant a read.

Eh....not the best set of short stories I've ever read and certainly not the worst. Some of these are very...surface level, I found that I didn't care enough about these characters. I had forgotten one story as soon as I started the next.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The writing within these stories is gorgeous. These stories hold so much wisdom and stories of striving while facing hardships. I liked some stories more than others, but they all have beautiful prose. It is a compassionate, and insightful collection.

What a gorgeous writer--and what wisdom these stories hold about women and girls! Incisive, compassionate, insightful--these stories deliver and Smith's voice truly sparkles.

DNF
The stories are all surface and no depth. In cases where I've encountered this before, there was beautiful prose to keep me entertained. Rutting Season is missing the beautiful writing. I immediately forgot what the first story was about before starting the second story. Characters are more stereotypes than actual, complex people. There's nothing here to keep me reading.