Anoka

Anoka is a collection of short stories centered around the little town of Anoka, Minnesota.

The first important thing I want to point out to readers is the author includes a brief blurb regarding each of his stories in the back: the theme behind it and the reason he wrote it. I found this to be a fantastic addition to this collection. I enjoyed reading those after each story and it really helped me with a couple of the stories because it added to my enjoyment.

I also need to be transparent and admit that I did not finish one of the stories - Dead America. I read the first couple pages and it was about a dream concerning a certain 8-legged creature and it was insanely descriptive and....well....I couldn't make it through. I'm deathly afraid of spiders and Shane Hawk was too damn good at his craft for me to make it all the way through. LOL

I really enjoyed the stories, some more than others and I look forward to reading more works of Shane Hawk. I found his writing style enjoyable and easy to consume. I really try and break up short story collections so that I read one per day so that it can have its day for me to enjoy, but I just found myself continuing on through this one because I liked the author's style. (well, except for that ONE)