The Creepy Girl, and Other Stories »

Janet Mitchell's debut collection displays an exuberant, playful talent for language that continually surprises. At turns funny, heartfelt, and wise, The Creepy Girl gives us 15 stories, remarkable in their variety, about families and childhood, small towns and prophets, boys and girls, life and death.

Publishers Weekly

“Creepy” really does describe these short stories, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The title story begins as the creepy girl's father brings home a pair of cement lawn ornament statues of Chinese kids. The nameless daughter, a preadolescent, yearns for her single father's attention and soon goes to some very bizarre lengths to secure it. In “The Unimpressive Story,” Mitchell offers up a Flowers in the Attic–style brother-sister love story; as the narrator recounts memories of her now-dead brother, she weaves truth and sexual fantasy into the narrative of her turbulent childhood. “The Carpentry Story” reads like a free verse poem, as the narration flows together without beginning, middle or end. Discomfiting themes of absence, mental illness, incest and not-right familial relationships permeate the collection. It's rare for a compilation to get under your skin the way this one does. (Oct.)

The Creepy Girl Story 9

The Unimpressive Story 19

The Carpentry Story 33

The School Story 45

The Aftermath Story 51

The Elephant Story 57

The Kids In The Trees Story 67

The Dialogue Story 79

The Hospital Story 87

The Momma Story 95

The Prophet Story 109

The Down Home American Story 119

The Father Story 129

The Unfinished Story 139

The Underneath Bridges Story 149