Great stories that really hold your attention. Definitely a must read book - definitely pick this book up and enjoy the read you won’t regret it

With the word "witch" in the title, and what appears to be a raven on the cover, I had expected these stories to be different to what I found. The title story has has some shadows of weirdness, but overall these are realistic pieces, with starving artists being the most obvious thread of cohesion (and even then not in all of them).
It was a relaxing read. The writing is good and the stories are well paced.

I was attracted to this book because of the title and the cover is too gorgeous to look away. It’s a collection of short stories. The writing is commendable.

Each story has an interesting title. The stories have many different themes that may appeal to most of us.

Overall, if you are someone who enjoys short stories (that doesn’t interrelate to one another); with varieties of themes, this is for you.

This was a beautiful compilation of varied stories. Suzanne Feldman's writing is beautifully simple, while at the same time capturing the nuances of human nature. I love short stories as you can read them all at once - and hers are ones you keep thinking about afterwards.
Thank you for my review copy!

Book would not download properly. Could not read due to issues with the way the book downloaded. I will not be able to review this book due to not being able to read this book..

A little uneven (but it’s rare to find a short story collection that’s completely solid), but a promising talent from an unfamiliar writer. Highlights include the title story and “Untitled #20” which shows the undercurrents of malice and cruelty in a womens art exhibition. Looking forward to more from Feldman.

An interesting collection of 4 stories and 2 novellas that can best be classified as ‘short tales in literary fiction style’.

I couldn’t detect any common underlying thread to the six stories. The characters range from a butcher’s assistant to a woman artist to a suspicious neighbour to a terminal patient. The locales and the eras also vary. What IS common is the problems faced. Each of the characters is battling either a real or an imagined issue, and trying their best to bring it to a resolution. The varied characters, their vulnerability, and their courage make this an unusual collection. Some of the tales are funny while others are more poignant; all of them, without exception, are thought-provoking.

Because of the nature of their writing, the tempo of the book is slow-to-medium paced. But the character sketching and plot development make it a satisfactory experience. A couple of the endings left me a bit disappointed, but not because they were bad. I wanted more from the story.

As always, I rated the stories individually and each of the six tales reached or crossed the three star mark for me. In other words, there was no bad story. My absolute favourite was the title story, “The Witch’s Bottle”. Not only did I enjoy it for its tongue-in-cheek humour, but also for the fact that it created such an impact while being written in second person – a tough voice to pull off well. Another favourite was “the Stages”, where a woman who has just been told that she has six months to live, is dealt with an unexpected blow by her teen daughter. The mother’s helplessness and despair has been portrayed beautifully in this story.

3.6 stars, based on the average of my ratings for each of the stories.

My thanks to Washington Writers' Publishing House and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Witch Bottle and Other Stories”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

First of all, I would like to thank the publisher for sending me the ARC copy of this book.

It deals with an easy book to read, which is full of stories of women who struggle for their happy ending.
Everyone of them has taught me something.

I really enjoyed reading this book, also because it helped me to space out from my usual readings.

The narration style is fluent and sweet, it seems to be in a fable.

Very interesting book based on short stories and novelets. Each story has a reading to it and you can tell this by the title when you start reading it. The stories are very interesting because everybody has problems bit has problems but they seem to resolve themselves at the end and the end and you read this and then it catches your attention. The titles are very interesting as well. The 1st one is called self portrait I'm an artist named Lisa And her ex boyfriend name boy. She was so strong I don't want to break up she cuts her hair. She stays home for a long time but at the end she kind o Finds yourself. It's interesting how women have to strive much harder in the art world It's interesting how this author may make her aware of this problem and show how storm she could be. The next story was called the stages. This dealt with Heather Who had cancer And her daughter who Gina was very billis. And how she fell from the man called Danny and And wanted to marry him. She becomes pregnant by him. And this is really has a lot of twisted terms and you'll find out why she became pregnant. It shows how situations lead themselves into this craziness. The next story was called LAP ED child This is about a boy named Morton. He came to Lexington Mississippi to work with her his cousins because his mother and father could not keep him up in Boston because of the depression. He finds out a lot about the colored people down there especially a doctor and things are a lothings are of all around With the mute. Very interesting story. The next one is called witch and the bottle and that's the title of the book. This one is about how the husband stays home and the wife works and the next door neighbor does all this crazy things. Husband is just curious what it goes on over there so one day he does go over there and it's a very interesting take what happens. The last one is called goat island this 1 brilliant was very quite involved and very interesting. This girl called Ellie Who did ceramics. The story takes place in truth and consequences in New Mexico. The goats actually lived on an island in t Real Grand River. She decided to start a new life there with her Uncle lamed Roy And his son. She was at a crossroads what to do with her life and the wife and her Uncle was dying of cancer. She left this man named Larry who was the head Ceramics i In this town. It was interesting how she found herself doing really well and she got away from the East Coast and there's a lot of good points in this how she found out who she really was. She also became fascinated with the native Americans there as well. She got ideas for her ceramics there as well. It hasn't really good ending as well

I really love a good short story-and what a collection of special shorts! The true gem in this collection in my opinion is The Lapedo Child. Truly Southern Noir at its best. And I was especially pleased with The Witch Bottle - and loved that the main protagonist is the husband, so unlike most stereotypical fraidy cat stories - and Goat Island, which takes place in New Mexico, right around the corner at Elephant Butte Lake. Ms. Feldman paints Truth or Consequences and Elephant Butte with a realistic but kindly brush. But these stories were all exceptional and thought-provoking. I shall add Susan Feldman to my 'Favorite Authors' list.

I received a complimentary ARC of this collection from Netgalley, the author Suzanne Feldman, and publisher, Washington Writers' Publishing House. Thank you for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this work of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work.

I have been a fan of Suzanne Feldman’s books for awhile so when I heard she had a collection of short stories, I was intrigued. I read this on kindle which causes an issue because the short stories started in certain pages and I couldn’t bring up the page numbers. The stories were also not clearly separated so if I wanted to read the third story first, it was hard to do. Book layout aside the short stories were interesting. I loved the first story, Untitled #20.
The cover is also beautiful. The yellow and green five off a serene vibe for the book, which fits with the stories. If you enjoy collections of stories about different things, you will enjoy this book.

If you enjoy odd short stories, this is the book for you. I expected the stories to all connect in some way but I don't think they did.

A very entertaining collection of short stories about the messy lives of artists and dreamers, The Witch Bottle And Other Stories by Suzanne Feldman is a gem of a book with brilliant, diverse characters and writing styles. Some of the stories here will make you laugh, some will make you cry and some will leave you with that aching feeling of loss that you get when you finish a really good book. Definitely recommend it!

The Witch Bottle and Other Stories is a well-written compilation of short stories, all which show the multi-faceted, messy, and complicated lives of people. Suzanne Feldman is great at capturing the art world and I enjoyed the stories centered around artists. "The Stages" was one of the stories that stuck with me the most: a particularly heart-wrenching story about a woman coming to grips with mortality.

This was the first time I have read anything from Feldman and I want to read more from her in the future.

The problem with short stories is that within a collection there are good and not-so-good, even bad ones. And one bad story can destroy the entire experience.
Thankfully in this collection, the are no bad stories, only one not-so-good AND I loved all the rest. This is a rarity.
The Self Portraits I found a bit odd, melancholic and I simply couldn't connect with it. The Witch Bottle I found really fascinating and I would love to see how this story evolves into a short novel.
My favorites: The Lapedo Child and Goat Island are just beautiful. I love the climate in them, the characters, and all the problems that are being signaled in them like racism, poverty, education, health issues, and relations within a family to mention just the most important topics. The Lapedo Child I think has the potential to become a full novel and a successful one.
Overall I am delighted by this collection and will keep an eye on the author's name because she is worth remembering and I hope we will see more of her work soon.

I find this book a bit too varied in its story telling, and I tried to find a thread to tie them, but the Witch Bottle story really threw me off as being really odd, Some of the short stories on their own are fabulous with a central strong woman or two, such as the dying mom and soon to be grandmas. But, I don't feel they are inspirational or special - just real. Maybe that is the point, but I live reality every day and have no need to read about it.

A strong set of diverse stories. I can see the author's talent, and I look forward to her future work.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!