| Title | : | I Didn’t Break the Lamp – Historical Accounts of Imaginary Acquaintances |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1948280132 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781948280136 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 344 |
| Publication | : | First published October 15, 2019 |
-- Sam Fleming, "Ludwig"
Are they in our imagination, or are we in theirs? Mad Scientist Journal has brought together twenty-six tales of people with uncertain existence. These accounts range from cheerful to dark, stopping off at frequent points between. Imaginary friends share space with witches, monsters, nightmares, and maybe a few things that have not yet been dreamed.
Included in this collection are stories from E.D.E. Bell, Jade Black, Die Booth, Maureen Bowden, Veronica Brush, Jacob Budenz, Sam Crane, Matthew R. Davis, Julian Dexter, Sam Fleming, Troy H. Gardner, Kiki Gonglewski, Cindy Gunnin, Neil James Hudson, Blake Jessop, Vivian Li, Tucker Lieberman, K. K. Llamas, Christine Lucas, M. Lopes da Silva, Ville Merilainen, Jennifer R. Povey, Lizz-Ayn Shaarawi, Kayleigh Taylor, Jieyan Wang, and E. R. Zhang. Interior art is provided by Errow Collins, America Jones, Leigh Legler, and Ariel Alian Wilson. Cover art by Luke Spooner.
I Didn’t Break the Lamp – Historical Accounts of Imaginary Acquaintances Reviews
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Excerpt from my review - originally published at
Offbeat YA.
Pros: Original, often unexpected, sometimes emotive spins on the imaginary friend trope.
Cons: A handful of the stories are a little harder than others to get into, or (in one instance) anticlimactic.
Will appeal to: Those who like to get surprised. Those who never really outgrew their imaginary friends and never will.
First off...DISCLAIMER: I have known Troy H. Gardner (one of the authors of this anthology) for 5 years and a half now, and I have both reviewed his collaborative books with Erin Callahan (another friend of my blog) and beta-read for him. I swear, though, that I'm going to be as honest about this book as I usual strive to be in my reviews. Also, he's only one of the many, talented names featured in here, none of which I'm tied to in any way.
Note: when we think of imaginary friends, we automatically think about children, early teens at best. In this anthology, people of all ages deal with their imaginary friends, and if a couple of the youngsters end up outgrowing theirs, most have gotten old in their company, or haven't necessarily stop believing in them altogether. Also because it turns out that these imaginary friends are *big shock* as real as they come.
OUT OF THE BOX
While I was going through these stories and taking notes for each of them, the most recurring word was "original". There are a few unforeseen creatures among the imaginary friends in this book (like a female devil and a dead goddess...and even a couple of A.I.s/computer interfaces), and a few "hybrid" ones (like ghosts - or sort of - and faeries), not to mention that some of them don't engage with their human in the way you would expect - but the real treat was that most of these tales were able to take me by surprise (When I Helped for the win!). Another interesting facet of this collection is that it occasionally manages to double as ethical narrative (End User Agreement, Fortress of Ash and Bone), ecofiction (Jack in the Matchbox, The Voice), even humorous analysis of poly/gay dating (See Me, Seen), and on top of that, to include neurodivergent characters (The Tutor, End User Agreement again). But even when they have us pondering, these stories never fail to entertain and bring us to unexpected places, plus melt a little piece of our heart here and there. [...]
Whole review
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Some really delightful, creative stories in here! I wasn't what to expect with what seemed like a hyperspecific premise for an anthology but this was really well put together.
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I admit, I have no regrets on supporting the project and very much found the theme of imaginary "friends" interesting. Unique subject for an anthology too!
