Straw House, Wood House, Brick House, Blow: Four Novellas by Daniel Nayeri

by Daniel Nayeri

Overview

“Language lovers as well as those who appreciate the artistry of a perfectly compact novella will consider this collection a treasure.” —Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)

This bold collection of novellas by Daniel Nayeri features four modern riffs on classic genres that explore universally compelling themes such as identity and belonging, betrayal and friendship, love and mortality. Included are:

Straw House: A Western sizzling with suspense, set in a land where a rancher grows soulless humans and a farmer grows living toys.

Wood House: A science-fiction tale set in a future where reality and technology blend imperceptibly, and a teenage girl must save the world from a nano-revolution.

Brick House: A detective story set in modern New York City, featuring a squad of “wish police” and a team of unlikely detectives.

Blow: A comedic love story told by none other than Death himself, portrayed as a handsome and charismatic hero who may steal your heart in more ways than one.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536223439
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	09/27/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	21 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

Daniel Nayeri is an editor and the author of several books for young readers, including Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story). He loves pastry chefing and was once an award-winning stuntman.
Daniel Nayeri was born in Iran to a family of doctors and poets. He is a writer and editor in New York City. He wrote and produced The Cult Of Sincerity, the first feature film to have its world premier on YouTube. The film was also released on PBS. Daniel has had all kinds of jobs around books, including book repairman, literary agent, children’s librarian, Official Story-Time Reader Leader, editor, copy editor, and even carpenter (making bookshelves). He’s also a professional pastry chef. He loves Street Fighter 2, hates the word foodie, and is an award-winning stuntman.

Editorial Reviews

This collection of novellas from Nayeri (Another Pan), written entirely on an iPhone, is a mixed bag; each of the four stories represent a different genre and mood, with little to link them. The strongest is the thought-provoking “Wish Police,” starring the detectives of New York City’s Imaginary Crimes Unit. Can a djinn, a leprechaun, and a talking goldfish prevent a boy’s wish from killing his family? “Doom with a View” is a tongue-in-cheek comedy set in “Old Timey Europe,” which deals with star-crossed love, ill-timed death, and a dastardly prince. There’s a narrative resemblance to The Princess Bride, but the story tries a little too hard to be witty. “Our Lady of Villains” is a thriller set in 2062, on the eve of a corporation’s new nanotech-driven campaign. With its reliance on acronyms, “leetspeak,” IM conversations, and futuristic slang, it’s intriguing, though occasionally hard to follow. The weakest offering is “Toy Farm,” a western-themed whimsy filled with living toys; while atmospheric and moody, it’s also distant and hard to relate to. As a literary experiment, Nayeri’s project succeeds more often than not, but the results are uneven. Ages 14–up. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Four stylistically brilliant novellas offer readers a range of exquisite reading experiences in this collection… Nayeri's storytelling finesse is on full display here, as he creates characters and spins plots out of breathtakingly vivid wordsmithery; each story features language uniquely suited to its ambience and desired emotional effects, whether it be through clever wordplay in chapter titles, futuristic technojargon, a deliciously turned phrase, or a particularly apt metaphor. Language lovers as well as those who appreciate the artistry of a perfectly compact novella will consider this collection a treasure.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)

Overall, provocative and deeply satisfying.
—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Four novellas representing four narrative styles ponder questions of humanity, technology, wishes and love.

The stand-alone novellas riff, dizzyingly and delightfully, on influences as varied as The Wizard of Oz and westerns, Mad Max and slang-laden teen diaries, The Arabian Nights and police procedurals, "Sleeping Beauty" and the sardonic Death of Terry Pratchett's Discworld. In "Toy Farm," toys grown from the earth wonder, as they fight for their lives: What's the difference between consciousness and humanity? "Wish Police" pulls back the curtain on the secret world of wishes—their varying degrees of strength, worthiness and consequences—as a lonely, world-weary djinn sworn to protect and serve works to prevent deadly wishes from coming true. As its punny title suggests, "Doom With a View" is a sweeping love story, complete with impossibly attractive protagonists, heroic feats of derring-do and a charming narrator in Death himself. Strong and assured, these stories seamlessly merge different styles, teasing out and playing with readers' assumptions about how westerns, fantasy and fairy tales work. Less successful is the second novella, "Our Lady of Villains," a giggling teen diary set in a paranoia-inducing, technology-saturated post-apocalyptic future. The voice is too lightweight to carry the thematic load, but this lone misstep is not nearly enough to ruin the delightful effect of the collection as a whole.

Overall, provocative and deeply satisfying. (Novellas. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews