Great book of stories, and a great audiobook. Loved the recurring characters, and the author's interactions with the Devil were a particular highlight. There's a lot of wit & humor here, but also a lot to think about.

Craft is Ananda Lima's debut novel that centers around stories the narrator wrote for the devil after meeting and sleeping with him at a party. The book is collection of short stories but they are interlinked. Some of the stories seem to be from the narrator's POV and others her stories. Overall I found the stories difficult to follow and was often confused about who there characters in the stories were. The story narrators seemed to shift and I would miss it and have to reread.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was great and I'd listen to other books she's read. But this book was not a great success for me. I enjoyed the political commentary and reflections on being an immigrant, but I only found myself engrossed in one story - the one with the bite sized Americans from a vending machine.

Technically speaking, Lima is a talented writer and if she ever writes a novel, I would look forward to reading it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for advanced access to the audiobook of Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What a debut! I listened to the audio version of this book, narrated by Taylor Harvey, and it was quite a ride. The premise intrigued me - a writer has an encounter with the devil at a Halloween party in 1999 and continues to see him throughout her life, writing stories for him that blend the impossible with the true. Lima’s storytelling is unique and imaginative, and brings in the Brazilian-American immigrant experience with quirky humor.

The imagery she conjures is vivid. The audiobook format made it a bit hard to follow at some of the more intricate parts of the story and I think I would have benefitted from having the written copy to follow along and catch more detail.

Overall, if you’re looking for something original and engaging I think this is something you would enjoy. It is a unique book with a fascinating narrative that I think is worth the read! This title was published June 18, 2024 and available now!

I've seen this book marketed as a horror story, but I feel like it is better placed in the literary or magical realism genres. The book is somewhere between a nonlinear narrative about a writer who had a brief fling with the devil in 1999 (and ocasionally runs into him afterward) and a short story collection of stories she writes. The horror is mostly contained in the short story about the vending machine, with the rest of the book focusing on the act of writing and the experiences of being a Brazilian immigrant and COVID-19.
I loved the variety that there was in the book, with parts structured like workshop critiques and short stories and stories told out of order. The stand out moments for me were the triptych, the vending machine, and the passport story.
I would recommend this to anyone interested in interesting and unconventional storytelling, but probably not someone looking for a spooky story.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This collection is mostly interconnected short stories connecting "the writer" to the Devil, a concept I found interesting. The Devil was by far my favorite character. Maybe because I've been down the MFA path, I found the writer's writing journey to be exhausting, particularly the story that goes over workshop feedback - maybe it's funny to someone who hasn't been through it, but I'm apparently traumatized or something. I could not wait for that story to end. I had/have no desire to go through a workshop like that ever again.

I received an audio version of this and the narration is done well. The Netgalley shelf app kept kicking me out after each story, though, so it took forever to get through the book. As always with short stories, I think this would be better to read on the page. It is well written and if the author publishes more fiction that doesn't have to do with writing, I'd be interested. That being said, because there's such a taboo against writing about writing, I do appreciate that she got a book deal despite that!

I also wouldn't classify this as horror. It didn't even strike me as creepy. Maybe more magical realism? The Devil is just a character in regular, everyday life (as regular as pandemic life was, which I guess was not very), and I didn't find him to be particularly devilish.

Thanks to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for an advance review copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

2.5 stars rounded up

The title of this work gives away its basic premise - a writer meets and sleeps with the devil at a party and intermittently writes stories for him throughout her life. There are various short stories in this novel with interludes between that show the writer’s life and thoughts. The stories vary in content but common themes include culture/immigration, family, marriage, and love.

Craft had such a strong start and I am obsessed with the concept. My favorite short stories were Rapture (the tale of the titular party at which the writer met the devil), Ghost Story (a woman’s older self is haunting her mother), and Idle Hands (a collection of letters from a writers workshop giving feedback on a story). The middle and end of this work seemed to drag, however, and I found myself lost as to what it was trying to achieve. The writing itself was beautiful but I felt like some of the stories meandered and lost their goal.

Unfortunately this one was just not for me. I listened to this on audiobook and while I enjoyed the narrator, I wonder if this novel would work best in print.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for access to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed certain elements of this book but not it as a whole, unfortunately.

I enjoyed reading from an own voice Brazilian immigrant living & working in America, I enjoyed the element the 'Devil' played & I enjoyed some of the ideas of the stories but as a whole I did not enjoy this book. It felt disjointed, I honestly don't understand the purpose of some of the stories or elements, this just did not work for me.

This is not a horror book, I feel like the pitch may be misleading, I would say magical realism moreso than anything else

I liked the concept of his book, that a woman made a deal with the actual devil one Halloween night and now, as a writer, she makes stories for him. Unfortunately, I found most of the stories less-than-memorable, but I see other people leaving great reviews of this book, so I'm sure it's just personal preference!

craft: stories I wrote for the devil by ananda lima 🧡 thank you dreamscape media and netgalley for an advanced audio copy!

a collection of *somewhat* connected stories where a woman meets the devil at a halloween party and continues to encounter the devil randomly throughout her life. I loved the concept of this but it just didn’t come together for me. possibly it was just a *me problem* where I simply didn’t *get it* 🪰 around the 50% mark is where it started to confuse me!

although I was anticipating some devilish shenanigans after the flawless introduction, most of these short stories are slice of life. some stories I was left wondering why I just spent the past thirty minutes reading it where others were full of the fantastical elements I was expecting. 2 stars!

This sounded like a book that I would be obsessed with, but it just fell a little flat for me. The switch up about 3/4 of the way through was a little jarring. Also, I expected it to be a bit creepier. I do think that a lot of people who shop in my store would enjoy this book. It's very well-written with a ton of great imagery.

This story follows what happens when a writer sleeps with the devil and he becomes a consistent yet sporadic part of your life. The stories follow fantastical, outrageous, and sometimes creepy plotlines in the U.S. and Brazil. The bite size Americans in vending machines may have been the weirdest story (in a good way). If you like a weird, off beat book, this is for you. Thank you Dreamscape Media for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own

I received a free Advanced Reading Copy via NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.

Ananda Lima's debut short story collection is a beguiling blend of magical realism, horror, and intimate character studies. Craft showcases Lima's talent for infusing the mundane with the fantastical and extracting the deeply unsettling from the seemingly ordinary. While the tones and narratives vary widely, the stories are unified by their gorgeous prose, sly wit, and underlying exploration of power dynamics. Lima's vivid imagination conjures everything from haunting folklore to dystopian nightmares. Some tales feel more fully realized than others, but at its best, this collection announces Lima as a unique new voice in speculative fiction with the ability to captivate and unsettle in equal measure.

Stories can save our souls.
An unnamed woman writer meets the devil in a bar. If that sounds like the start to a bad joke, I assure you it’s not. The devil convinces the woman that they are “kindred spirits” because of their cravings for stories. Drunk and a little heartbroken, she lets the devil in.

As the cover art suggests, this is a story within a story. The main storyline follows the unnamed writer’s personal life and her subsequent encounters with the devil and is weaved with short stories that she is writing. This book is labeled as horror here on Goodreads but there were no horror elements present and it read more like literary/ speculative fiction so be sure to adjust any expectations before diving in.

The author, Ananda Lima, is primarily a poet and it cuts through clear in this work as the prose is, well, poetic; ebbing and flowing beautifully. In these stories Lima addresses the Brazilian immigrant experience in Trump’s America and the fear that goes along with it. Strong themes also include womanhood and the art of writing. In addiction, it seems that many of the characters in this book seem as if they are idling in some kind of in-between land, struggling with identity.

With such a fascinating premise, I was hoping for more scenes with the devil’s presence but I think that is because of my expectations; that I assumed the role the devil would play in this story. However, this book completely defied my expectations and still, it worked. This is a savory literary piece that plays with form in an incredibly fun and dreamlike way and it is worthy of dissection and praise. It’s one that will sit with me for some time.

The narration by Taylor Harvey was executed well. Harvey adequately displayed the narrative voice and tone and it was a joy to listen to.

Thank you Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review. Available now wherever you find your books!

The narrator was fantastic and did service to the beautiful prose. I really appreciated feeling the author’s culture and experiences through the characters. The way the book was organized, especially the framework of the writer and the devil and that timeline, was confusing for me and made it difficult to weave everything together.

I loved every little bit of this collection. Bizarre and surreal and eerie and tragic. So pleasantly surprised by this read!

Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil is a series of interconnected, "slice of life" short stories. While this was advertised to me as a horror collection, I found them to be more unsettling than scary (my only major complaint about the book). Many of the stories speak about the Brazilian-American immigrant experience, with the political climate following the 2016 election and COVID-19 in the background.

I listened to the audiobook and while the narrator did a great job, I do feel as though some of the stories may translate better to the written book, particularly in the story "Idles Hands" which is told through feedback notes from a writer's group (one of my favorite stories in the collection). My other favorite of the collection, Antropófaga, was especially eerie, following a woman who is eating tiny Americans that come out of a vending machine. The writing is beautiful, and I enjoyed the interconnected elements. It is a quick read and while I'm not sure I would consider it horror, I would definitely recommend it to fans of speculative fiction.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

The narration for Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil was absolutely fantastic! Do not go into this book expecting horror- it definitely reads more as literary fiction. It's a very unique premise and an enjoyable, unique listen. 5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil is a story of purgatory, both literally and otherwise. It's a story of in betweens and frequently especially of things that should have no inbetweens. We have the story of an aunt (who is not quite a parent) and her teenage niece (who is not quite a child and not quite an adult.) We have the story of a ghost of a living woman. Narrators who feel neither complete in Brazil or in the United States, that something is always just a little bit off and that the hatred for community of far right politics in both countries prevents it from feeling safe or at home. Craft has a soft spot for the abject and the liminal with a resistance to separate fiction from reality. How do you tell a story that captures the emotions of how bizarre and upsetting anti-immigrant rhetoric is without fiction?

These feelings of unease with the inability to define take form in one of my favorite stories from this collection "Idle Hands.“ We are told this story of a Walmart and its employees in the lead up to Black Friday by not telling its story but instead having us read the critiques the author receives from a writing group with the story gleaned from perhaps simplifications of the subject matter and criticisms that range from reasonable to clearly unfounded in literary or social contexts. Lima especially impressed with this story as refuting critics in-text can be grating and a way to side step legitimate critiques by magnifying how laughable some comments can be but I just really loved how they all worked together.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for an ALC of this book.

The Writer meets the Devil at a party in 1989, and what follows is her story, intermingling with stories she's writing. Incorporating her perspectives as a Brazilian living and working in the U.S. during tumultuous politics in both places and the pandemic as well as a spectrum of U.S. reactions to immigrants, there's several lenses with which to appreciate the work.

The narrator, Taylor Harvey does an excellent job. The audiobook can be a bit hard to follow as to when you are reading the story within a story, or when it is the Writer's main story line on occasion. The focus here is not the devil and this character isn't designed to be a source of horror; he's just an omniscient party that likes stories and exists at the edges of the main arc. Though parts can be unnerving, I wouldn't necessarily describe this as horror, but there are elements of magical realism or the uncanny.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media for an ALC on NetGalley. All opinions are my own. This book is due to be published 6/18/24.

When I first came across Ananda Lima’s Craft on NetGalley I immediately requested it. Although my written copy is sitting waiting for approval, I was able to snag approval for the audiobook and was so excited! The cover drew me in as well as the title. The narration provided by Taylor Harvey was wonderful. Unfortunately, I did not connect with the material. Upon reading the synopsis of the book, I was anticipating a quick and creepy read. There was really no ‘horror’ in this book beyond mention of the devil throughout… unless of course you are terrified of American flags and MAGA hats. I always enjoy listening to others experiences, especially those from other countries. Again, Craft felt disappointing in this realm despite the author being a Brazil native. There was what felt like heavy-handed political undertones, which I really don’t enjoy when I’m reading fiction.

I did enjoy a few stories including the trip to Brazil where the writer’s mother is haunted by an older version of the writer. This felt like it had implications for mothering that I found really interesting. I felt that empathizing with the character in this story was the easiest as her mother was quite obviously guilt tripping her daughter and favoring the brother. I also enjoyed the story ‘Idle Hands,’ (although I did have an image of the movie from the 90s in my head). It was interesting to hear different writing critique. Just as with book reviews everyone tends to leave with a different takeaway and experience.

In my experience listening to the audio of this book, I did find it hard to discern from one story to the next. Some stories felt like a continuation of a character from a previous story, while others felt like an entirely new character. This made it a bit confusing each time a new story started.

Also, reflecting on the title ‘Stories I Wrote for the Devil’ – I do wonder if the devil wasn’t the devil we all think of, but something else. Perhaps a person the character interacts with and, for whatever reason, it holds a greater power than some other interaction they might have had. Also the title, Craft, feels more related to the ‘craft’ of writing versus what I initially assumed would be witchcraft. I think re-categorizing this collection away from horror and towards a more general fiction category would be helpful for future readers and listeners so that their expectations are better met.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, the author Ananda Lima, and narrator Taylor Harvey for the ALC of this short story collection.