I can't say I didn't enjoy the majority of these short stories, because I did, but something about them left me dissatisfied each time. The writing was gorgeous, the characters compelling, the plots unique and strange, but every time they ended I was frustrated by how much more I wanted from them. That's probably the point of the collection and I can appreciate that but I definitely wanted some more exploration within each story to make them feel worth reading in the first place.

2 Stars (I received an e-arc from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review)

I know that Emma Cline's books have had some polarizing opinions and I happen to be on the negative side. This the first of her works that I have read, though I only made it 33% of the way through before I gave up. The writing was simple, which combined with pointless plots, made it difficult to get through a single short story. As far as I could tell all the stories had a male main character and they were old and complained about how hard life is as a white man. And were super judgmental of everything, not something that we need in 2020.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read Daddy prior to its release in September. After reading the description and seeing the cover of the book, I knew this would be a book that I would love. I have recently discovered my love of short stories. It was so nice to be able to read each story in between books that I happened to be reading at the time. I felt like the bright, yellow of the cover provide an ironic and beautiful contrast to the dark stories included in the book. I really, really enjoyed each and every one of them though.

This book is a delicious read. Emma Cline's prose is so rich in imagery, and the fluidity in which she writes gives her stories a distinct voice. This startling set of short stories, reads from a rather unconventional and diverse set of perspectives, which are tied together by common themes of disillusionment, the presence of older men/father figures, and decaying family structure. What I love the most about Cline's writing is her tendency to describe "around" an idea (or a character), creating glaringly obvious inferences that allow the reader to be aware of what the protagonist is not. Reactions to a character, may allow the reader insight into the character, while the character him/herself in unaware. In What Can You Do With A General, for example, the lack of interest, and subtle hostility from his children, shed light on John's abusive tendencies, though his age and descriptions attempt mask this fact. All in all, I highly recommend this book, there is not really anything I would change about it, save for the fact that I wish there were more stories! The title Daddy, despite not all stories having this type of "figure", encapsulates the tone of the story, and is quite shocking at first glance. I love it!

I am normally not a fan of short stories, but I read these 10 stories in between other books and they were the perfect fillers.

The author’s natural talent for starkly honest characters came shining through even if some of these stories were emotionally draining. These are the tales of people who have stumbled in consistent ways and ended up traveling down the roads they never planned to take.

The title is slightly misleading, as it almost makes you think you are going to read Lolita-type stories but other than that this is a solid collection that I am sure will delight fans of this author.

So. Ten stories from Emma Cline, whose The Girls, led us into a hold-your-breath, something's about to happen, brink... and then pulls away, leaving you unsatisfied but deeply wanting more.

These take you to the same places. We don't know the full story of what previously happened or what's about to; all the relationships are dysfunctional; but damn it, I need just one more hit.

Daddy is going to be one of those books I keep pressing on people like a drug dealer. Cline is an itch I can't stop scratching!

Sorry, was not a real fan of this one. Some of the stories were okay, but the book really didn't hold my interest.

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of DADDY: STORIES in exchange for an honest review,

I am not typically drawn to short stories. I have read some in my life that have stayed with me for the long haul. But I usually, find myself as a reader left wanting more or feeling like what was the point of it all. DADDY is a collection of 10 short stories that rarely have to do with the title. (I must say here that I do not like this title and can think of 100 better ones). The stories all tend to deal with complex relationships and the end product of the choices we make in life.
Cline is a fantastic writer. Her words flow and pull you in. But with that said, I still can't say I loved this collection. I found it interesting and often heartbreaking, but I didn't necessarily enjoy the stories. It is a solid 3-star book due to Cline's compelling writing.

Usually the only short story collections I attempt are by authors I'm already familiar with - so I knew these would likely be poignant and thoughtfully written after Cline's excellent debut novel, The Girls. And they are - most of them immediately engaged me, but by the end of every single one, I felt a deep dissatisfaction - as if they had ended right as things were getting good. That's probably the point, but I guess it's just not really my thing? I'll be back for Cline's next full-length novel, but I won't be rushing back into the short fiction waters anytime soon.

Favourites were Los Angeles, Menlo Park, Marion, and A/S/L.

A first collection of stories by one of my favorite emerging writers, Daddy is enjoyable, thoughtful, and subtle. These stories tiptoe around secrets and unknowable truths, their real meanings elusive and slippery.

The stories struck me by their wistfulness, their nostalgia for sepia-toned better days. Yet thrumming beneath the words is the steady sense that many of the characters never had better days. Many of the stories seem to show characters at a moment of great loss, a sudden reversal of fortunes—a nanny hiding from the paparazzi after her affair with her boss, a famous actor, is discovered; a successful businessman who must cancel a weekend getaway with his mistress to retrieve his expelled son from boarding school—but if you squint, you see it's not a precipitous downfall but a loss that has accumulated, simply a new low point on what has been a slow decline.

What happens to a person caged in the insurmountable reality of who they are? For a moment, Cline lets many of her characters believe that they might find a reprieve, begin a slow climb back to somewhere they want to be, but her endings tend to lean towards an unmitigated pragmatism. The characters, no matter their wishes for redemption or something better, can't leave the place they've always been. All they can do is yearn for the bygone days, pretending those days were different.

Favorite stories:
What Can You Do with a General
Menlo Park
Son of Friedman
Arcadia

Interesting that Emma Cline chose to follow up her debut titled The Girls, with a short story collection titled Daddy. There are 10 stories about men, not all are necessarily fathers, although most are and most stories involve a female protagonist. We have girls with “daddy issues” and men struggling with abandonment, affection, ambition, success, aging, parenting and accountability. A few of these stories would make for a compelling novel and the story called Marion reminded me of The Girls.

My favorites from the collection were The Nanny, Los Angeles, What Can You Do With A General and Northeast Regional. And my favorite, Marion.

While I prefer interconnected short stories this book had enough grit and sass to keep me invested. Emma Cline has a gift for saying a lot without really saying too much. These stories are provocative and thought provoking.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for gifting me with an ARC.

First, I consumed this collection of stories in a day. Each story was a long-form story, which I felt was perfect for the pace and purpose of each little "vignette." I felt we got excellent character development and depth, and that depth helped build the framework of the setting, and by that time, a full story has bloomed. Each story felt like something was hidden, unsaid, just outside the frame of the picture, which I thought was really smart and evocative. It left me wondering about these people, and actually left my mind to continue building the story after it had finished. The writing was excellent, and I really just appreciated most everything about this collection. I actually had to go back and see if I'd read "The Girls" - I read so many books that I often find my mind pushes out older books to make way for new, but apparently I really enjoyed that first novel as well :-) Looking forward to more from Emma Cline.

Since I enjoyed The Girls, I figured Emma Cline's latest would hit the spot as well. Unfortunately, this really missed the mark for me. The stories were fine. Just fine. They were largely forgettable, really. I'm not sure what Cline was going for with this collection, but what I got was a largely bland bunch of vaguely linked stories.

I feel like Emma Cline's forte is short stories. I thought her last effort (which generated a fair amount of controversy over her disputed boyfriend's claims of plagiarism) was okay but it was so clearly a "ripped from the headlines" retelling of the Manson family that it was hard to know if she was clever enough to come up with stories of her own. This collection, although a few also seem to fictionalizations of actual events, was a lot more original and stronger than her novel which I felt relied heavily on overly opaque language and tropes. This collection showed a fair bit more range.

Emma Cline has a fantastic ability to create urgent, vivid characters. She is especially adept at creating fictional voices in characters outside of her own identity. For example, Cline is a female fiction writer, yet in a couple of stories, the protagonists are Male. She has a unique ability to write bluntly and yet with a real gratefulness. I enjoyed this new collection immensely.

I thought Emma Cline's book, THE GIRLS, was interesting, so when I saw that another one of her books was available, I jumped at requesting it. This book of short stories is wonderful. All based on the idea of Daddy; the stories are compelling, some odd, some weird, some questioning, all of them page turners. Ms. Cline is a true literary talent and I am anxious to read her next book. The way Ms. Cline uses words is profound. Every single one of these stories could be a full length novel, in fact, I wish each one were. brings her characters to full fruition and life, they could be your neighbors. This is a perfect summer read. Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for the epub.

Emma Cline is at her best complicating, humanizing, and particularizing power dynamics that might otherwise be, at this moment in history, dulled by familiarity. Her sentences are fire; the moods and turns are subtle and accomplished. I would follow Cline anywhere.

I feel very “three stars” about this book. On one hand, Cline’s writing is superb. She is very good at the art of short story prose, packing a deep gut punch in just a few pages. The subject matter is bleak, but there were a few gemlike sentences that stopped me in my tracks, they were so perfect.

On the other hand, these stories all end way too abruptly — you discover something important, some ugliness starts to just peek its nose in, and then the story is over. It feels almost like a cop-out, setting us up for something truly devastating or deep, and then cutting us off without saying what it is she’s trying to say. Most of these stories dance around something meaningful or poignant, but finish before ever achieving that.

The situations that Cline crafts are normal and strange, capturing the awful, uncomfortable feeling of unremarkably common situations. A dad reflects on his awful life when his spoiled adult children come home for Christmas. A dad tries to impress a famous and talented old friend despite being wholly embarrassed about his life and his son’s tacky artistic pursuits. A dad bails his ungrateful son out of a bad situation at the private high school, trusting that his money will get his son another spot somewhere better, teaching his son nothing.

Only after I just reflected on that did I realize that the stories I liked best in this collection were, really, the “Daddy” stories. Not very many of the stories were really about dads — in fact, only the three mentioned above are really focused on fathers. The rest are similarly bleak, almost deep stories, but about pregnant girlfriends and a sexually curious young teen and an unconventionally disturbed woman in celebrity rehab. The title “Daddy” is somewhat of a random theme chosen for a collection of thematically unconnected stories.

Overall, these were intriguing stories to pick up - not all of them will work for you, but I guarantee at least one of them will stick with you. Thank you to Random House for the ARC!

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Emma Cline's The Girls so I was excited to get a chance to read this collection of short stories.

The writing, as expected of Cline, is brilliant and flows flawlessly. The characters all have a hidden undertone of violence within them. These are not positive, make you feel good reads, but rather gritty, real, slice of life pieces. They give you just enough to draw you in and then leave you alone with your thoughts to ponder them out.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: September 1, 2020
Emma Cline, author of “The Girls”, returns with “Daddy”, a collection of ten short stories on the frailty of human relationships, and the consequences of choices we make.
First of let me say, I am not a fan of short stories. I feel they don’t give me enough, and just as I start getting into the plots and developing relationships with the characters, they switch to another story. “Daddy” was this way for me. Although the stories themselves were well-told, I felt disappointed with each and every one. I wanted more from them, and although they have minor connecting themes, the stories were not related enough to each other to allow for the flow and engagement that I desire from my novels.
Emma Cline is a great storyteller. Her characters are poignant, and her themes are thought provoking. The characters in these stories are flawed and exceptionally human, and Cline highlights their flaws in bold and upfront ways. I would’ve loved any of these stories to have been expanded on, I wanted to know more of these characters. I felt gypped, and ripped off, to be brought to the edge and left there.
Again, I am not the person you should come to when short stories need to be evaluated. But I can say, Cline is entertaining and passionate, and definitely has the creative chops you expect from a rising author. This is definitely a collection that would be enjoyable for those who can tolerate short stories. I just wish I was one of them.