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Bitter Grounds
Coffee, New Orleans & Zombies.
17 pages, ebook
First published April 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
November 14, 2017
A bleak, zombie-type short story by Neil Gaiman, and an online freebie here at Tor.com. Brace yourself for the strong possibility of being confused on first read ... like I was. A huge thanks to karen for helping me to interpret this story (see the thread to her review for our discussion, but be warned there are major spoilers in those comments). Our discussion, and a reread of this story after, led me to increase my rating from 3 stars to 4.
Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
“Bitter Grounds” is a Gaiman story (like “A Study in Emerald”) that has layers and elements that reveal themselves more fully with study and rereading. A fan of Hurston or Haitian voodoo would doubtless find fruitful ground here. I would love to discuss and unpack this story in a literature course, complete with a study guide and a knowledgeable professor to help explain and analyze its elements. Even reading it twice, I felt like I was missing a lot … but I appreciated what I was able to catch.
Initial post: "Bitter Grounds" is Neil Gaiman's take on Haitian zombies in a New Orleans setting. I have to say, my first read of it has left me bewildered (which isn't an uncommon reaction, based on the other GR reviews here). Is the narrator a zombie (and an unreliable narrator in that case) or is he just a man who's lost his way in life and is drifting? I'm not sure ....
Maybe karen will explain it to me.
Content note: Several F-bombs.
Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
In every way that counted, I was dead. Inside somewhere maybe I was screaming and weeping and howling like an animal, but that was another person deep inside, another person who had no access to the face and lips and mouth and head, so on the surface I just shrugged and smiled and kept moving.He’s a man running away from his life (there are hints of a failed relationship), driving away from his home and then continuing to just drive, throwing his cell phone out of the car window, withdrawing all of his money from his accounts. He meets a stranger along the way, Jackson Anderton, an anthropologist who studies young Haitian girls who sold coffee door-to-door and were rumored to be zombies. When Anderton mysteriously disappears, the man gathers Anderton’s ID and scholarly papers and slips into Anderton’s role as an attendee and presenter at an anthropologists’ conference in New Orleans. There he meets more people who drift in and out of his life, each sharing cynical or disturbing thoughts or ideas or other things that seem to pull the narrator further along his path toward some destiny that awaits him.
People come into your life for a reason.“Bitter Grounds” is Neil Gaiman‘s bleak take on Haitian zombies in a New Orleans setting. I have to say, my first read of it has left me massively bewildered, flailing around on the internet in an attempt to make sense of what I had just read. It’s an elusive, subtle horror story, with hints of death and rot, grim humor, and quotes from Zora Neale Hurston, an African American author, folklorist and anthropologist, woven into the mix.
“Bitter Grounds” is a Gaiman story (like “A Study in Emerald”) that has layers and elements that reveal themselves more fully with study and rereading. A fan of Hurston or Haitian voodoo would doubtless find fruitful ground here. I would love to discuss and unpack this story in a literature course, complete with a study guide and a knowledgeable professor to help explain and analyze its elements. Even reading it twice, I felt like I was missing a lot … but I appreciated what I was able to catch.
Initial post: "Bitter Grounds" is Neil Gaiman's take on Haitian zombies in a New Orleans setting. I have to say, my first read of it has left me bewildered (which isn't an uncommon reaction, based on the other GR reviews here). Is the narrator a zombie (and an unreliable narrator in that case) or is he just a man who's lost his way in life and is drifting? I'm not sure ....
Maybe karen will explain it to me.
Content note: Several F-bombs.
November 4, 2017
“I was never afraid of dead folk. You know that? They never hurt you. So many things in this town can hurt you, but the dead don’t hurt you. Living people hurt you. They hurt you so bad.”
review to come.
read it for yourself here:
https://www.tor.com/2017/10/31/reprin...
May 8, 2020
A surreal and errie short story in the collection 'Fragile Things' by Neil Gaiman that deals with Zombies. Great atmosphere.
June 14, 2018
A heady mix of the dreamy and surreal, with a pungent dose of grit. I enjoyed it, though I was left with a what-just-happened-here hangover.
January 8, 2018
Best short fiction by Gaiman that I've ever read. I loved it.
Perfect. Perfect cadence, perfect sound, perfect effect. Takes a half-hour to read but will probably stick with you long, long after that.
“I was never afraid of dead folk. You know that? They never hurt you. So many things in this town can hurt you, but the dead don’t hurt you. Living people hurt you. They hurt you so bad.”
Perfect. Perfect cadence, perfect sound, perfect effect. Takes a half-hour to read but will probably stick with you long, long after that.
January 2, 2018
Quotes from the story:
"In every way that counted, I was dead. Inside somewhere maybe I was screaming and weeping and howling like an animal, but that was another person deep inside, another person who had no access to the face and lips and mouth and head, so on the surface I just shrugged and smiled and kept moving. If I could have physically passed away, just let it all go, like that, without doing anything, stepped out of life as easily as walking through a door, I would have done. But I was going to sleep at night and waking in the morning, disappointed to be there and resigned to existence."
~~~
"It took me half an hour to find my way back, as the sky grayed into full dawn. The tow truck was gone. The rear window of the red Honda Accord was broken, and the driver’s-side door hung open. I wondered if it was a different car, if I had driven the wrong way to the wrong place; but there were the tow truck driver’s cigarette stubs crushed on the road, and in the ditch nearby I found a gaping briefcase, empty, and beside it, a manilla folder containing a fifteen-page typescript, a prepaid hotel reservation at a Marriott in New Orleans in the name of Jackson Anderton, and a packet of three condoms, ribbed for extra pleasure."
~~~
"Midnight, give or take. We were in a bar on Bourbon Street, me and the English anthropology prof, and he started buying drinks—real drinks, this place didn’t do Jell-O shots—for a couple of dark-haired women at the bar. They looked so similar they could have been sisters. One wore a red ribbon in her hair, the other wore a white ribbon. Gauguin could have painted them, only he would have painted them bare-breasted and without the silver mouse skull earrings. They laughed a lot."
~~~~~
"In every way that counted, I was dead. Inside somewhere maybe I was screaming and weeping and howling like an animal, but that was another person deep inside, another person who had no access to the face and lips and mouth and head, so on the surface I just shrugged and smiled and kept moving. If I could have physically passed away, just let it all go, like that, without doing anything, stepped out of life as easily as walking through a door, I would have done. But I was going to sleep at night and waking in the morning, disappointed to be there and resigned to existence."
~~~
"It took me half an hour to find my way back, as the sky grayed into full dawn. The tow truck was gone. The rear window of the red Honda Accord was broken, and the driver’s-side door hung open. I wondered if it was a different car, if I had driven the wrong way to the wrong place; but there were the tow truck driver’s cigarette stubs crushed on the road, and in the ditch nearby I found a gaping briefcase, empty, and beside it, a manilla folder containing a fifteen-page typescript, a prepaid hotel reservation at a Marriott in New Orleans in the name of Jackson Anderton, and a packet of three condoms, ribbed for extra pleasure."
~~~
"Midnight, give or take. We were in a bar on Bourbon Street, me and the English anthropology prof, and he started buying drinks—real drinks, this place didn’t do Jell-O shots—for a couple of dark-haired women at the bar. They looked so similar they could have been sisters. One wore a red ribbon in her hair, the other wore a white ribbon. Gauguin could have painted them, only he would have painted them bare-breasted and without the silver mouse skull earrings. They laughed a lot."
~~~~~
February 2, 2015
Available here
Overall reaction:
This is one of the times I admire what Gaiman’s done, but can’t really enjoy the result all that much. Dont get me wrong, Neil Gaiman is a writer of ideas, and they are fabulous ideas, big and witty and wondrous. But the problem is, when ideas of that caliber get down in the trenches, they occasionally push other parts of the story aside. Neil Gaiman's bizarre ideas and imagery leads to a great emotional moment doesnt work the way it should every time and this short story unfourtunately suffers from that.
First of all, I liked the narrator ok? I really did. He was an intriguing fellow! But he wasnt developed properly. I wanted to know more about the him! I wanted to know what made him run away from home, and his thoughts on what was happening. He never really seemed all that scared, even after driving back to the . What was his deal, really? What made him tick? Maybe if I knew more about him, I'd understand the story better because I dont get this story the way I do Gaiman's other works.
I do enjoy being thrown into a world and a story not knowing what is going on, but usually there is some sort of hint and explanation along the way,right? None here really. NONE. Color me confused.
Me reading this short story:
Let me try to tell you what the story is about...
Umm...
Umm...
Never mind...
There are zombies and drug addicts, but while all combine to create a great atmosphere, there is more to an entertaining story that atmosphere. I liked the narrator, but I didn’t get to know him enough. I suppose I just needed something more to grab me.
Another thing;I felt like the narrator was in an almost dream-like or delirious state while he was in New Orleans, because the female characters all seemed to play off of each other and disappear when they were no longer necessary. Actually, come to think of it, all of the minor characters tended to do that.
I guess you can explain that by story's own quote "People come into your life for a reason" but I didnt like how all the freaking (that's a Battlestar Galactica cursing if you dont know) minor or side characters felt like they were only filling up a role in someone else's story to disappear when no longer needed. IT WAS WAY OVERDONE. I did find this interesting though; at the beginning he states that he wish he could just walk out of life as easily as walking out the door and it's pretty much what he does in the end.
Oh well, I don't completely get the story but there are also many aspects of it I really like. Hence, the reason why I give it a 3 stars. But I also feel like I'm giving a obligatory applause to this story. *sigh*
Do I recommend it? Weeeell...
Only if you are a hardcore Neil Gaiman fan!!!
“In every way that counted, I was dead. Inside somewhere maybe I was screaming and weeping and howling like an animal, but that was another person deep inside, another person who had no access to the face and lips and mouth and head, so on the surface I just shrugged and smiled and kept moving..”
Overall reaction:
This is one of the times I admire what Gaiman’s done, but can’t really enjoy the result all that much. Dont get me wrong, Neil Gaiman is a writer of ideas, and they are fabulous ideas, big and witty and wondrous. But the problem is, when ideas of that caliber get down in the trenches, they occasionally push other parts of the story aside. Neil Gaiman's bizarre ideas and imagery leads to a great emotional moment doesnt work the way it should every time and this short story unfourtunately suffers from that.
First of all, I liked the narrator ok? I really did. He was an intriguing fellow! But he wasnt developed properly. I wanted to know more about the him! I wanted to know what made him run away from home, and his thoughts on what was happening. He never really seemed all that scared, even after driving back to the . What was his deal, really? What made him tick? Maybe if I knew more about him, I'd understand the story better because I dont get this story the way I do Gaiman's other works.
I do enjoy being thrown into a world and a story not knowing what is going on, but usually there is some sort of hint and explanation along the way,right? None here really. NONE. Color me confused.
Me reading this short story:
Let me try to tell you what the story is about...
Umm...
Umm...
Never mind...
There are zombies and drug addicts, but while all combine to create a great atmosphere, there is more to an entertaining story that atmosphere. I liked the narrator, but I didn’t get to know him enough. I suppose I just needed something more to grab me.
Another thing;I felt like the narrator was in an almost dream-like or delirious state while he was in New Orleans, because the female characters all seemed to play off of each other and disappear when they were no longer necessary. Actually, come to think of it, all of the minor characters tended to do that.
I guess you can explain that by story's own quote "People come into your life for a reason" but I didnt like how all the freaking (that's a Battlestar Galactica cursing if you dont know) minor or side characters felt like they were only filling up a role in someone else's story to disappear when no longer needed. IT WAS WAY OVERDONE. I did find this interesting though; at the beginning he states that he wish he could just walk out of life as easily as walking out the door and it's pretty much what he does in the end.
Oh well, I don't completely get the story but there are also many aspects of it I really like. Hence, the reason why I give it a 3 stars. But I also feel like I'm giving a obligatory applause to this story. *sigh*
Do I recommend it? Weeeell...
Only if you are a hardcore Neil Gaiman fan!!!
June 14, 2018
Yeeeessssss.... a very short tale and reads like I dreamed of Angel Heart. It has it's moments, has a nice flow to it and could have made something a little more substantial.
Free to read here:
https://www.tor.com/2017/10/31/reprin...
Free to read here:
https://www.tor.com/2017/10/31/reprin...
October 11, 2020
IT'S STILL SPOOKTOBER!!
fulfilling my shortie Spooktober challenge to read one spooky short story a day.
Day one: The Magic Shop by H.G. Wells
Day two: Everything's Fine by Matthew Pridham
Day three: It Came From Hell and Smashed the Angels by Gregor Xane
Day four: Sometimes They Come Back by Stephen King
Day five: The Curse of Yig by H.P. Lovecraft
Day six: The Spook House by Ambrose Bierce
Day seven: An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Day eight: The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
Day nine: Graveyard Shift by Stephen King
Wow! I loved this and it was perfect for Spooktober! This was an incredibly layered story that was more eerie than spooky, but filled with Haitian zombies, folklore, and a hefty dose of New Orleans style voodoo. It centers on our unnamed narrator who admits in the beginning what an empty shell of a human he is after what can only be construed as a breakup or divorce of some sort. One day he gets into his car without any of his belongings and drives, throwing out his cell phone along the way. He is a drifter, feels only half alive, and waits for direction to find him.
Fate takes him to New Orleans with a prepaid hotel voucher and a new identity as an anthropology professor heading to a conference where he will conduct a talk on a paper he wrote about Haiti’s “Coffee Girls,” young girls rumored to be zombies that sell their coffee door to door in the wee hours of the morning. Fate also introduces him to a fellow academic who leads him into the seedy underbelly of New Orleans where fate will also introduce him to a beautiful priestess who seduces him with a smile and a story.
What ensues afterward hit all the right places for me and I loved it. Dreamlike and vague, but also gives enough clues to the ending throughout for those who pay attention. A tale of fate, of magic, of destiny, and the delicate lines between the living and the dead.
4.5 stars and just another reason why I am a Gaiman fangirl.
Read it for free HERE:
https://www.tor.com/2017/10/31/reprin...
fulfilling my shortie Spooktober challenge to read one spooky short story a day.
Day one: The Magic Shop by H.G. Wells
Day two: Everything's Fine by Matthew Pridham
Day three: It Came From Hell and Smashed the Angels by Gregor Xane
Day four: Sometimes They Come Back by Stephen King
Day five: The Curse of Yig by H.P. Lovecraft
Day six: The Spook House by Ambrose Bierce
Day seven: An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Day eight: The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
Day nine: Graveyard Shift by Stephen King
I was never afraid of dead folk. You know that? They never hurt you. So many things in this town can hurt you, but the dead don’t hurt you. Living people hurt you. They hurt you so bad.
Wow! I loved this and it was perfect for Spooktober! This was an incredibly layered story that was more eerie than spooky, but filled with Haitian zombies, folklore, and a hefty dose of New Orleans style voodoo. It centers on our unnamed narrator who admits in the beginning what an empty shell of a human he is after what can only be construed as a breakup or divorce of some sort. One day he gets into his car without any of his belongings and drives, throwing out his cell phone along the way. He is a drifter, feels only half alive, and waits for direction to find him.
In every way that counted, I was dead. Inside somewhere maybe I was screaming and weeping and howling like an animal, but that was another person deep inside, another person who had no access to the face and lips and mouth and head, so on the surface I just shrugged and smiled and kept moving. If I could have physically passed away, just let it all go, like that, without doing anything, stepped out of life as easily as walking through a door, I would have done. But I was going to sleep at night and waking in the morning, disappointed to be there and resigned to existence.
Fate takes him to New Orleans with a prepaid hotel voucher and a new identity as an anthropology professor heading to a conference where he will conduct a talk on a paper he wrote about Haiti’s “Coffee Girls,” young girls rumored to be zombies that sell their coffee door to door in the wee hours of the morning. Fate also introduces him to a fellow academic who leads him into the seedy underbelly of New Orleans where fate will also introduce him to a beautiful priestess who seduces him with a smile and a story.
People come into your life for a reason.
What ensues afterward hit all the right places for me and I loved it. Dreamlike and vague, but also gives enough clues to the ending throughout for those who pay attention. A tale of fate, of magic, of destiny, and the delicate lines between the living and the dead.
I thought about moving south, about continuing to run, continuing to pretend I was alive. But it was, I knew now, much too late for that. There are doors, after all, between the living and the dead, and they swing in both directions.
I had come as far as I could.
4.5 stars and just another reason why I am a Gaiman fangirl.
Read it for free HERE:
https://www.tor.com/2017/10/31/reprin...
November 20, 2016
The descriptions in this short story were beautiful, but I have to be brutally honest here. I have no idea what this story was about. Here is what I know.
- There are zombies, not the eat living flesh zombies, but the voodoo zombies.
- The narrator starts out by saying he is dead, and he does seem to sleep-walk through the entire story.
- There are zombies, not the eat living flesh zombies, but the voodoo zombies.
- The narrator starts out by saying he is dead, and he does seem to sleep-walk through the entire story.
October 31, 2017
This is one of the few pieces of Gaiman's work that has ever truly drawn me in - it gets right into the mythology and history of the zombie, pairs it with a (maybe?) unreliable narrator, and even leaves a tinge of the fairytale around the edges.
I also only realised halfway through this story that I'd read it before - it's part of the The Living Dead anthology.
Available free here: https://www.tor.com/2017/10/31/reprin...
I also only realised halfway through this story that I'd read it before - it's part of the The Living Dead anthology.
Available free here: https://www.tor.com/2017/10/31/reprin...
September 29, 2019
So I saw an Neil Gaiman short story for free on Tor.com and immediately stopped to read it. It is well written, but damned if I know what the fuck is happening. I've read some goodreads reviews that speak to Gaiman's nuance, but it was too subtle for me. I am literally just left lost with unanswered questions.
I think he is a zombie? Pretty sure he killed old boy to assume his identity even though this happens off page? Possibly he is the lost kitten bar fly references? Is the girl at the end one of the Haitian coffee girls?
Damned if I know.
I think he is a zombie? Pretty sure he killed old boy to assume his identity even though this happens off page? Possibly he is the lost kitten bar fly references? Is the girl at the end one of the Haitian coffee girls?
Damned if I know.
February 16, 2018
I guess I was expecting something else, because this didn't really hit the mark. Gaiman has a way of drawing me in with a style that promises the best is just around the next corner, but it takes me right to the end page without ever delivering on that promise.
Read it here on Tor's website.
Read it here on Tor's website.
April 20, 2018
Pretty decent, for a book written in 2006. Possibly more self-consciously trying to be like Anne Rice than he actually intended to be, and the coffee references are a bit forced - like somebody trying really hard to imitate H.P. Lovecraft, but not quite being able to, and being very aware that they're not quite as good as Lovecraft.
November 19, 2017
Set in, and on the way to New Orleans, this short story is available free on TOR.com.
It has a Haitian zombie background, melded into the story of a man who is running from his life. He gives a ride to a man in a hotel, to pick up his car, but he ends up taking his identity and attending a conference in his name.
Three stars
It has a Haitian zombie background, melded into the story of a man who is running from his life. He gives a ride to a man in a hotel, to pick up his car, but he ends up taking his identity and attending a conference in his name.
Three stars
November 19, 2017
What? When? Where? Who?
October 15, 2019
Confused af 🤣 pero its the norm daw sa first read. Uulit ako pag may time.
Read
February 11, 2021✨no rating, just confusion✨
March 15, 2018
This was a tricky one. On the one hand, it's Neil Gaiman. I've read some of his other short stories, as well as Coraline, so I thought it would be safe to assume that this would be a quality story. On the other hand, the typos were so bad that I was continually being distracted and thrown right out of the flow as I tried to figure out what the sentences with messed-up punctuation or missing words were trying to say.
Aside from that, though, this is the sort of story that doesn't really work for me. It starts so late that we basically just get an ending, to both the story and the character arc. Who was this nameless narrator? Had he been zombified? If so, where/when? Before he got to New Orleans? What happened with Anderton and the tow truck driver? What was going on with the anthropologists? Were they just a bunch of weirdos, or were they tied into the zombie stuff, too? Was everyone?
Overall, I just feel like I read the last few pages of a book and am utterly confused as to what the thing was even about.
Aside from that, though, this is the sort of story that doesn't really work for me. It starts so late that we basically just get an ending, to both the story and the character arc. Who was this nameless narrator? Had he been zombified? If so, where/when? Before he got to New Orleans? What happened with Anderton and the tow truck driver? What was going on with the anthropologists? Were they just a bunch of weirdos, or were they tied into the zombie stuff, too? Was everyone?
Overall, I just feel like I read the last few pages of a book and am utterly confused as to what the thing was even about.
January 8, 2020
I’m likely not the ideal reader for this story, because, unlike Gaiman’s suggestion, I have no desire to read it again to see if it makes more sense the second time around. I like Gaiman’s writing alright, and when he’s good, he’s great, but then there are stories like these where all the artistry seems on the surface. It’s ostensibly a zombie tale, and perhaps like Shaun of the Dead, the idea is that for some people, they might be walking around, but they’re not really living. Or perhaps I just don’t care for my stories to be too obtuse.
August 29, 2018
A nice quick short-story from Gaiman. I'm just starting to get into his short-fiction. This one...hmm, it was interesting, a neat idea, but not written with good execution in my opinion. A free read from Tor.com or other sites, it is a story about zombies, but it left me with too many questions. Many parts were well written but unnecessarily vague and though I liked the circle effect of the story I think the vagueness softened the punch of the final lines into a whimper.
May 8, 2017
Well, instead of what Gaiman said he wanted of his readers, I finished it and was like "the fuck was that about?"
I guess I'm kind of dumb maybe. Still really liked it though. It was told in a very entertaining and humorous way. Just didn't get the underlying point.
I guess I'm kind of dumb maybe. Still really liked it though. It was told in a very entertaining and humorous way. Just didn't get the underlying point.
October 19, 2020
Bitter Grounds was a creepy little story that had me happy to power through the pages. Although there were some four-star moments, there weren’t quite enough for me to round this one up. It hooked me, though, and I certainly recommend it for quick reading. Although not a favourite from Neil Gaiman, it’s another short that is great for quick reading.
April 12, 2021
Hmm... interessant. Het is een verhaal met veel mogelijkheden om het te verklaren/uit te leggen.
Ik hou van de stijl maar ben een beetje minder te vinden voor van die verhalen die helemaal zelf te interpreteren zijn.
Ik hou van de stijl maar ben een beetje minder te vinden voor van die verhalen die helemaal zelf te interpreteren zijn.
April 18, 2018
3.5 stars to this one.
I liked the concept but found some discontinuity in the flow/narration. It was a quick read and is written from the perspective of a person who is hurt (may be just out of a relationship... "sometimes i telephoned her"
“I was never afraid of dead folk. You know that? They never hurt you. So many things in this town can hurt you, but the dead don’t hurt you. Living people hurt you. They hurt you so bad.”
Feeling is the trouble. When one does not feel (zombie angle..) things are easy. Mr. Gaiman is creative i will say and the best part is - IT IS FREE!!
https://www.tor.com/2017/10/31/reprin...
It is a good read and i would recommend it.. :-)
I liked the concept but found some discontinuity in the flow/narration. It was a quick read and is written from the perspective of a person who is hurt (may be just out of a relationship... "sometimes i telephoned her"
“I was never afraid of dead folk. You know that? They never hurt you. So many things in this town can hurt you, but the dead don’t hurt you. Living people hurt you. They hurt you so bad.”
Feeling is the trouble. When one does not feel (zombie angle..) things are easy. Mr. Gaiman is creative i will say and the best part is - IT IS FREE!!
https://www.tor.com/2017/10/31/reprin...
It is a good read and i would recommend it.. :-)
August 18, 2018
A man with no feelings, running from his life, with all the time in the world, gives a stranger a ride to his car. In a weird twist of events, he ends up assuming the identity of this anthropologist on his way to a conference in New Orleans to give his paper on Haitian coffee girls. The man floats along from person to person, one encounter to the next. There are humorous parts in here, particularly the smart-ass-alecky assumptions due to the Zora/Zelda switch. Reading this felt as if I were stepping into a dream sequence with the narrator. Hopefully he found what he was looking for with the bitter coffee.
November 27, 2017
While the story is entertaining and well written, it is definitely not the best one by Neil Gaiman. It is the story of somebody that discover himself not living, and decides to escape as far as he can from his so called life. Along the road a fated encounter with an anthropologist studying ancient zombies legends will bring our fugitive to New Orleans...
December 31, 2017
This was most certainly an interesting read; one that I'll have to digest more before reviewing a little in-depth. I will say though that I'll probably re-read it, and this story will definitely stick with me. Glad it's the one that finishes off my reading challenge.
August 11, 2018
I always like Neil Gaiman's writing. It's crisp. This story is about a man running from something, his life, himself. It also pulls on Haitian Zombie lore but I wish it did so in a more substantial way.
September 17, 2019
Two things you can count on from Neil Gaiman: 1. The story is not going to end the way you expect it to. 2. The ending will be far better than any ending you expected.
Bitter Grounds proves he can do it at short story length just as well as he does at novel length.
Bitter Grounds proves he can do it at short story length just as well as he does at novel length.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews