Portalmania: Stories
There is an impressive neutrality to Urbanski’s portrayal of characters in opposition, despite how close these subjects clearly are to her heart. No character’s beliefs are held up as being more obviously correct than another’s ... Offers no easy answers, but it does present myriad possibilities ... Powerfully unique and thoughtfully written.
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Every story in Portalmania is distinctive, vital, and sophisticated; the whole is an almost perfectly constructed debut collection that brings into sharp focus an impressively cohesive project ... The precision with which Urbanski balances the speculative...and realist levels...is astonishing ... After the exhilaration of this book, I’ll follow wherever her writing takes her.
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Eschew[s] the traditions of the portal fantasy subgenre ... Innovative ... Urbanski rarely allows her stories to consider what it would mean for a marginalized person to be accepted on their own terms, and the collection suffers as a result ... I picked up Portalmania expecting to love it. Instead, I encountered stories only tangentially about portals or fantasy, many of which recreated the violent and hateful points of view leveled against me and my communities daily.
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