Anyone who follows my reviews knows that I'm not buddies with short stories, but that never stopped me from trying new flavors to see if I would end up making up with the genre. Craft is one of those examples.

First of all, who would write about sleeping with the devil like this?! Devil suddenly became the guy you couldn't forget but also knew that you were in toxic relationship. Secondly, the devil of immigration was included in an extremely crafty manner (a nod to the title there). Thirdly, bite size Americans you can buy from vending machines to control your hunger? That's new level of creativity.

I liked how author switched between 1st person and 3rd person point of view. Also, maybe the Devil as we had seen in this book was really misunderstood; he might be only mean to people who didn't sleep with him :D

The author's writing is poetic, transporting readers to surreal locales in the United States and Brazil. Each story has vivid, imaginative details that focus on exploring the Brazilian-American immigrant experience. The characters highlight the fluid nature of identity. The story encompasses magical realism and everyday reality to create an enchanting narrative. The devil is not a character that we think of and develops a unique spin of the idea. It allows readers to reflect on the encounters that define their lives. Anyone who is a fiction fan will enjoy this book.

Thank you, Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group, for allowing me to read this ebook.

AHHHHH! I am so thankful to Tor Books, Ananda Lima, Dreamscape Media, and Netgalley for granting me advanced audio, physical, and digital access to this book before it hits shelves on June 18, 2024.

A young woman meets the devil and sleeps with him one night at a Halloween party; from then on, that very same figment pops up in various stages of her life, and she continues to write stories for him of her life, her happiness, her lack thereof, and more. Listening to this book on audio was confusing at bits, but it was helpful to have the physical collection to help with following along.

These interconnected stories talk of ghosts, family traumas and problems, and other Brazilian-American immigration experiences, such as longing and belonging for the places we call home. This is a quick but haunting read that will leave you pondering over its pages for days to come.

I received a gifted copy of CRAFT: STORIES I WROTE FOR THE DEVIL by Amanda Lima from Tor Books!

CRAFT: STORIES I WROTE FOR THE DEVIL is a short story collection. It begins with an opening story in which a writer meets and sleeps with the devil at a Halloween party in 1999. She sees him at times throughout her life in interludes between the stories she’s inspired to write for him. The stories have variety to them, but they address issues of immigration, relationships, disease, and stories.

I really enjoyed the unique way this collection is compiled. I enjoyed seeing the different ways the fictitious author within the collection shares bits of her own life and seeing how that then influences the stories in the collection itself. Things from our real world like vaccines and masks come up, but also the supernatural with ghosts and other things slightly outside of the norm.

I really enjoyed this author’s writing and would recommend this collection!

A collection of short stories connected by the main character and the devil and their relationship through the ages. I found this one boring and it seemed like it was trying way too hard to be "artsy" with the writing style the author was using.

I believe that books like this don’t usually get to be published (or maybe even written). And that’s why they’re so special. And this is one of those special books.
It is unique because it doesn’t follow a defined line (like a novel), but it’s too connected and too loose to be a short story collection. And I just loved every word.
Some of the stories are creepy or just plain weird, but all of them are enjoyable. Those stories are the kind that stick with you even after finish reading.

To show you what I mean, allow me to share one of my favorite first lines. This one is from the story Antropófaga:

”She devoured tiny Americans that slid out of a vending machine.”

I’ll leave you with that.
If you’re into weird books that make you think, read this one. You won’t regret it.

This book was unlike any other that I have ever read in terms of both substance and form. I can tell this is going to be a rather divisive one as a result. But I greatly enjoyed it despite how challenging it was to read at times. This book is what it says, stories a writer wrote for the devil. But it is interspersed with details of her personal life as both a Brazilian immigrant, a guilt-ridden daughter living so far from home, and eventually a devoted wife (and cat mom). But after a sexual encounter with the Devil in her 20s, her life is also intertwined with that of the Devil who essentially becomes her muse.

This is a very meta story within a story narrative that can oftentimes be confusing and surreal. As the book goes on, it becomes harder and harder to disentangle what is the author’s life versus her short stories. And the stories themselves are very bizarre - from a visit to her mother in Brazil who is being haunted by the ghost of the writer’s future self to a story about a nurse who becomes addicted to a vending machine that dispenses tiny American people that she devours. There is even a chapter that is solely critiques of a story that we never actually get to read. Although this is marketed as a short story collection, I am hesitant to even call it that as the stories are all so interconnected and drive the larger narrative of the writer’s life.

I am very thankful to Tor Nightfire for first of all publishing something so unique and bold but also for my digital ARC. I highly recommend this one to readers who like a little bit of a challenge with a large reward (especially given that the book is under 200 pages). The writing in this one is almost hypnotizing, and I am so glad that I read it!

THIS BOOK IS SO STRANGE AND SO GOOD. I love short stories, but I'm often let down by "concept" collections; they can start to feel forced, but everything about this felt deliciously fitting. It kind of reminded me of the concept of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (V. E. Schwab) with the surrealism and creativity of Carmen Maria Machado and, at times, the vivid creepiness of Mariana Enriquez. Some of the observational wit of Gabriela Weiner, too. This is my first time reading Ananda Lima, and I can't wait to read more of her work. I think this book is astoundingly creative, and I'm so looking forward to carrying it once it comes out (though I do wonder whether it'll sell better in the fall - it doesn't strike me as a traditional summer release, though of course seasons are specific to where one lives on the planet!). Thanks to NetGalley and Tor for an ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

Craft was a solid novella. The main thing you need to know going in is: “At a Halloween party in 1999, a writer slept with the devil. She sees him again and again throughout her life and she writes stories for him about things that are both impossible and true.”
That concept is the main connecting factor between the stories. This novella is set up where you have main stories that serve as short stories and then basically interludes where we follow the writer and her life. Just like with any short story collection I enjoyed some more than others. There were two in particular, to save you from spoilers (I think you should go in as blind as possible) I won’t tell you the themes but they were really good. There were two others that I felt were okay.
One thing that stood out about Craft was the writing, it is exceptional, lyrical and though provoking. The authors writes about political climates, relationships, the supernatural and so much more. If you are a fan of short stories/ anthologies you don’t want to miss this one. Also if you are a fan of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

This was a very intriguing and very literary work of magical realism. It’s a short book, but I took my time reading it. It’s a book that benefits from a chance to think on. Though the book isn’t going to be to everyone’s tastes, I’d think this could spark as good a book club discussion as anything I’ve ever read.

The premise is that the writer, a Brazilian immigrant to America, ran into the Devil at a party and ended up hooking up with him. From that point forward, she saw him frequently, though they only interacted in the briefest of ways, and in ways that shaped her writing. Reading the blurb, I thought this was going to be a collection of short stories. And it is, sort of. It’s got a bunch of short stories *in* it, interspersed with passages about the writer’s life and about her *writing* the stories. (How much of it is autobiographical is unclear, but given that the writer within the book and the author *of* the book are both Brazilian immigrants, I’m assuming at least somewhat.) It’s hard to tell, sometimes, what’s a story and what is part of the greater frame story. Things definitely get intentionally blurry at times.

This is definitely a 2016-2020 novel. The anti-immigrant ugliness that was so prominent in America during those years is always near the surface here; as a Latin American immigrant, the writer is justifiably living in a climate of fear and uncertainty. Things get even worse as Covid rolls in; the author did a great job of capturing the anxiety of the early months when things were *really* bad. The writer lives in Manhattan; I’m hoping some of the New Yorkers I know will read it and share their thoughts with what it was like to live through that first wave.

On the political side, of course the writer is dealing with living under our former Dear Leader. But she’s also dealing with the political situation in Brazil. Her parents ranting about Donald Trump and not seeing the many, many similarities between him and Jair Bolsonaro is a particular sore point for the writer.

The stories within the book frequently deal with the immigrant experience, with a particular focus on balancing life in the United States with family back home. There was one thing in particular I loved the conceit of. The writer attended one of those writing workshops where people read their story, and everyone offers critiques. We don’t get the story the writer wrote for the workshop; we get the critiques everyone sent her, with their conflicting interpretations and contradictory advice. It’s a delight to read, though I want the actual story rather badly. Or at least I want Ananda Lima to let me know if the two guys ever found the cat.

The writing is absolutely beautiful. Lima has a gift for expressing emotion through imagery, and for painting a scene in the reader’s head. Not going to be to everyone’s tastes, but strongly recommended.

I absolutely loved reading this collection of interrelated narrative short stories. The novel/stories are dark, eccentric, wildly inventive, and beautifully written. At times, you forget that you’re reading a work of fiction— which is a testament to the writing, given the content and structure of the novel.

I read this while recovering from a flu of some sort. As a result, I feel like I barely scratched the surface of truly comprehending all of the interrelated complexities weaved throughout the stories. Buuut on the plus side, it really enhanced the atmospheric fever-dream esque vibe of the book, even though it touched on some very concrete and tangible subjects.

I can say with certainty that this book will not be for everyone, but I do think that everyone can take something from it. I recommend giving this one a try.

Thank you to Tor for the complimentary advance e-copy.

Once you realize this is a “slice of life.” Type book with short stories woven in between it’s quite enjoyable. Oh how I wish we’d seen more of the Devil though.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Tor Publishing Group for an advance copy of this collection of short stories dealing with a variety of issues, alienation, lost love, and lost cultures, with a surprising source of inspiration.

The author Harlan Ellison was once asked where he got his ideas from. Ellison, being Ellison answered Schenectady. There is an ideas factory there, you send them a check, they send an idea. For years Ellison was constantly asked for the address of this company, some growing mad when he wouldn't share. People are always wondering what makes an author write the way they do, where do they find their ideas, what hole in one's life allowed thoughts like this to appear on the page. After reading Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima aspiring writers might be going to church more, or engaging in risking behavior in hope of making the Prince of Lies their muse. Or maybe mentor, as I hear his writing workshops get kind of heated.

The book is collection of short stories with an overarching theme about a young writer, feeling lost one night on Halloween. Those the writer loved were in love with each other, making the writer feel ostracized. Dressed as Nancy Reagan, the writer meets the Devil, who is not costumed well but has a sense of style, and a look like an old time movie actor. As the night progresses, songs are played that are from the future, questions the writer thinks of are answered vocally by the Devil, the loving couple is broken up and brought back together. The writer and Devil have a rendezvous, and the writer begins to write stories for the Devil. Stories that deal with the sense of being a stranger in a strange land that is not very kind to strangers, odd stories, stories that don't seem like stories, or maybe are something more. These are not horror stories, nor fantasy stories, but something different, something of this weird time the world has found itself in.

A collection of short stories not easily forgotten, or easy to explain. This is a work that seems from the future, and yet the themes are so of now that it could only be written today. Some are experimental, some are painful, and some are not for me, which is fine. A world where everything is for me is a boring world, and this collection is anything but boring. The writing seems different in each story, as if Lima was trying new ways of writing for herself, and had not idea where the story would go. I liked the daring of that, something one doesn't see much of anymore. This collection might be a little much for some readers, but anyone who loves to think, loves to be challenged, and loves to find new ideas will enjoy the heck out of this.

Engaging, entertaining, and utterly original. A recommended purchase for collections where short stories circulate.

<i>Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil</i> is a collection of fiction that transcends the boundaries of common conventions to explore the craft, meaning, and importance of storytelling in human life. The collection of stories, loosely connected by a frame narrative about a writer meeting the Devil one night in a bar, is at times funny, at times heartbreaking, at times frustrating, and at all times evolutionary to how we conceive of the place and purpose of short fiction.

The thing I love most about this collection is its metaliterary intentions. The book isn't any collection of modern fiction, it's oftentimes about the very creation of short fiction. Its metaliterary awareness allows it to speak on various symbolic levels at once--as stories about individual women living complicated lives, as stories about the impact of memory or experience on the shape of our lives, or even as stories about the very act of meaning-making through story. Lima doesn't ever seem to work in just one symbolic code, instead constantly code-switching through symbolic resonances to flesh out not just definite (and indefinite) feelings about the world around us but also art's place in human life as reaction to and metabolization of (sometimes) difficult feelings and situations brought about by our interaction with the rest of society.

Lima's art becomes human politics, not just about elections and economic pressures, but about the relationships shared between people and relationships developed inwardly toward the self. These stories and their interstices become about our very ability to navigate life as human beings.

I can't think of a book that made me stop and question my own relationship to art more than this collection--and as a reader, reviewer, and podcaster, I interrogate art and my relationship to it <i>constantly.</i> But that's the magic of what Lima is doing with this collection: questioning what we need from art and its power or its powerlessness to provide for those needs.

To sum it up as a blurb: <i>Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil</i> is philosophy masquerading as short story, unashamed of exposing its beating heart and thinking mind to the world. It is a colossal undertaking, with ideas to digest for years after reading. I can't recommend it more highly.

I loved the concept of this, but it just didn't come together for me. I feel like this was a me problem. I just didn't ~get it~ despite how desperately I wanted to.

There were some moments I really loved though so I will definitely check out more from this author again.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC for review. All opinions remain my own.

Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil is a delicious hybrid: short story collection, memoir of an immigrant writer in the US during tumultuous times, and black comedy. As might be expected, the horrors are mostly the most everyday kind, and the unifying conceit of the writer’s dalliance with the Devil is less a source of mystery or fear than a kind of reassuring motif, an order-giving element to bind the book’s more chaotic elements.

Lima manages a kind of bait and switch, introducing the frame elements between the collected stories, stories of “The Writer,” the devil, etc. and then allowing this frame narrative to grow, echo through the stories themselves, and spread, eventually almost taking over the book. It’s a neat trick.

As for the stories themselves, they are varied and delightfully strange. Some are almost realistic slice of life, with writer-protagonists that are almost indistinguishable from the writer of the frame narratives (“Rapture,” “Ghosts”). Others are more surreal, such as the story about the immigrant hospital worker who become addicted to eating Americans out of the hallway vending machine, consuming a whole range of types until they make her sick (“Antropofaga”).

“Idle Hands” offers a delicious lampoon of every writing workshop, the story presented as workshop feedback so that the reader infers the main narrative and characters through the classmates’ comments about them. It’s wickedly funny, though I do wonder how the humor lands for those who have not spent a significant amount of time engaged in that particular horror.

My favorite, “Hasselblad: Triptych,” is almost a game. Employing the same elements in each piece (our protagonist, Michelle, “the girl,” Michelle’s twin boys, a backpack, and an old Hasselblad camera), each of the three sections shakes up the ingredients and reimagines them, creating a space where identity is fluid, where narrative is exposed as the random whim of a creative agent, and where, finally, the many versions of Michelle’s story play off one another in poignant ways.

Don’t come to this book expecting any kind of traditional horror, however. Beyond the playful figure of the Devil, there’s very little of that here. But, as which so much of the great work being done today, there’s a fair amount of room carved out to investigate the real world horrors of being an immigrant in a country sliding swiftly into fascism and all its attendant horrors.

Ananda Lima is certainly a writer to watch.

I stopped at 10% in. The target for this will be super niche, but likely an easy 4-5 stars for them. It’s really unique, from the style to the prose.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the ARC.

It all starts with a writer meeting the Devil at a Halloween party. A deliciously dark collection of stories within stories, I think that this collection will stay with me for a while. I may not have completely understood or connected with every story, this was a perfectly unique storytelling experience. Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Books for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Ananda Lima's writing is masterful, clever, funny, moving, full of insight. I was already a fan of her poetry and this book did not disappoint. A woman meets the devil at a halloween party is just such an amazing book premise and I was impressed by how she executed it. Can't wait to give this book to everyone I know.