Frail Little Embers was a book I'd highlighted to read this year, so when Neem Tree offered me a tour spot I jumped at the chance.

I really enjoyed the collection of stories, each one of them brought something else to the table; sentiments of hope and healing, wondrous stories of life, love and loss, written in ways to heighten spirits rather than darker them.

It's a beautifully written collection of short stories where myth and magic collide.

I thoroughly enjoyed the stories and I can't wait to read from from Callaghan in the future.

<b>In a Nutshell: </b>A collection of stories that dwell between realism and magical realism. Character-driven, literary, melancholic yet hopeful. A powerful debut that will work better when you are in the mood for thoughtful reading.

This debut collection contains twenty-one stories, each of which is focussed on discovering strength and hope in times of despair. Most of the stories are thus somewhat melancholic in tone.

There is no author’s note introducing this collection, but the author’s bio at the end of the book mentions that this set was “created to inspire hope in times of darkness.” It stays true to this purpose throughout. The title is quite powerful, proving how even “frail little embers” can be enough to keep the spark alive and even burst into flame when needed.

The blurb indicates that these are tales of myth, folklore and magic. Accordingly, many of the story take a step into the whimsical. None of the stories are outright fantastical, even when their cast of characters contains selkies or genies or shapeshifters. Most contain a small splash of magic, sometimes through fairytale retellings or lore-inspired fables.

The stories are mostly universal, with only a couple of them revealing the locale they are set in. Some of them are written in a different format, such as in verse (Never works for me; I’m a poetry-phobe) and epistolary (always love this style!).

Each story is character-focussed and penned in beautiful prose that speaks volumes. You cannot rush through the tales because there is so much unsaid. So this collection would work better if you pick it up when you have the time to read at leisure and to understand what’s between the lines. Every story is distinct, so there is no feeling of déjà vu across the tales.

The endings are positive without being forced HEAs. Though not all the stories have sealed completions, most of the tales part on the right note, where you can just about see the light at the end of the tunnel. However, a couple of the stories could have benefitted with more precise, well-rounded endings. (Especially ‘One Hundred Words for Loss’ – such a beautiful tale but the ending left me confounded.)

Every story is preceded by an intricate B&W illustration that makes even more sense AFTER you read the tale.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Of the twenty-one stories, nine stories reached or crossed the 4 stars mark. Most of the rest were between 3 to 3.5 stars. So a majority of the stories worked very well for me. These are my top favourites with 4+ stars each:
🌞 Life, Death, and Other Complications: A lovely story about what living really means. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌞 To the Waters and the Wild: A melancholic story about a bond that highlights the difference between true love and possessive love. Couldn’t predict how this one would end. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
🌞 Dear Audrey: An entertaining epistolary short story. I could see where it was going but the proceedings were still fun. One of the lightest stories in the book, though the situation is far from funny. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
🌞 Lost Men: An interesting spin-off about the Darling kids from Peter Pan. You'll like this better if you know the original classic. (Not the Disney version.) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
🌞 Fox Song: Absolutely not what I had expected! A beautiful combination of reality and fantasy. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
🌞 Last Wish: A touching story about a parent's love. Sometimes, even a predictable story creates a great impact through the author’s choice of words. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
🌞 The Edge of Morning: An amazing vignette-style story whose significance is enhanced if you keep the first line in mind throughout. The lack of a linear pattern created some confusion in my head, else this was an easy 5 star. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌞 Songbird: A story told from a child’s perspective. Appreciated the hopeful end, else this was a heart-breaking one. Adults rarely realise how their personal struggles also affect their children. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
🌞 The Story Doctor: The magic of bibliotherapy. Need I say more? A wonderful story to end the book with a smile on one’s face. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


All in all, this is a really impressive debut that delves into various human emotions and captures the journey from darkness to light. Diverse in characters, emotions and circumstances, this collection offers much to reflect upon and rejoice over.
Definitely recommended to short story lovers, preferably those who are literary fiction readers and also enjoy fantasy in small doses. This is not to be read at a go but to be savoured a slice at a time.
3.75 stars, based on the average of my ratings for each story.

My thanks to Neem Tree Press and Unbound for providing the DRC of “Frail Little Embers” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

I have been wanting to read more short stories and this collection of 21 stories and corresponding illustrations was a lovely start.

The writing was beautiful. The author is certainly a poet as much as a storyteller. The style was very immersive with each story taking you over, even when they were really short.

There were strong messages around sadness, loss, and grief, but I think the overall theme was resilience and finding a way and accepting to continue to live despite deep sadness.

Some of these stories will stay with me for a while an pop up in my head at random since I've read them. Some of my favorites are: The Edge of Morning, The Story Doctor, Apple Seeds, The Fleeting Ones... and the Peter Pan retelling but can't remember the name of that one.

My only complaint is that too many of these stories felt either unresolved or almost didn't seem to have a point therefore no real ending.

This is a collection of cozy, magical-realism/fantasy short stories. Some were really good, like the one told as a series of advice column write-ins by both a man and the woman he's cheating with, and some were pretty forgettable. Not at all a bad collection.

In my opinion, anthologies or collections of stories are like boxes of chocolate: there'll be ones you'll love and crave some more of, and also the ones you avoid due to being flavorless or just not according to your taste. Well, you're in luck, cause this chocolate box of stories is delicious through and through, every story is a hit, not a miss, so enjoy at your own risk of over indulging in wonderful prose.

Started with three out of five; quickly becoming a safe four and finally an overwhelming five bright shining stars.


A series of enchanting short stories with a sparkle of the supernatural. Filled with wonderful illustrations to complement and preempt the stories.

Tales with a dollop of pixie dust and shot-through with a generous measure of make belief.

I especially liked the unpredictability in the narratives. Most are left unresolved in terms of the ending; the story is complete but uncertain. Less “They all lived happily ever after”; rather, more scope for interpretation.

That is the bonus for the reader here.

Each unfolding story leaves you with something intangible. You can’t weigh it but the value is immeasurable.
Look in the mirror, is that a smile on your face?
The book that keeps on giving with each new title you read, twenty-one in all. Enough to fill you to bursting. Leaving you full to overflowing from a well of resilience and with an inner strength to see things differently and ready to embrace new ideas.

So dear reader. Please give this book a closer look. Like a course of antibiotics finish the course; 21 short tales; like the last story here; take one a day for three weeks.

This book did me good!

It was a beautiful collection of short stories and they touched my heart! Thank you soo much Netgalley for this amazing book

This book offers a great collection of short stories, each with their own unique flavour. Definitely worth a read.

I find it tough to enjoy full collections of short stories, but surprisingly, this one was one of the best I've ever read. In this anthology, each story deals with the concepts of love and loss, but within a mythical, mystical, fictional world. Some stories are more realistic with a touch of magical realism, whereas others embody Selkies, ghosts, wolves, and genies.

Here are my favorites from this book:

"Spinning Sugar" -- just for the line "you need to collect all the stories you're going to tell her" *weeps*

"Love, Death, and Other Complications" -- I loved the old man character and loved the message at the end of this one.

"Temperance in a Teapot" -- my FAVORITE story in the collection, and I'm not sure why. It has something to do with the quiet conclusion of it, the concept of magical teapots, and the prose. Here's a sneak peek: <i>"The terroir is important, yes, but so is the business. And so were the hands that shaped the clay, the generations of feet that splashed through Breer river water, the memories Nora held close of her and Niall watching herons stretch their pewter wings. Terroir was so much more than choosing the right soil with the right minerals. Terroir was in their blood."</i> I could see teaching this one to 11th/12th.

"The Edge of Morning" -- this was probably one of the more tragic stories to read because of how much this poor narrator has been put through. But it has a really great structure. She starts by listing all of the things she lost when she died, so we immediately know we're in the supernatural territory. The non-linear narrative bounces back between reflections about each item on the list and the awful story that led to the end of her life.

"After the Fall" -- this spoke to my true crime loving soul. When the narrator's sister is murdered and the alleged killer refuses to tell the family where her sister's body is, she takes matters into her own hands.

While the themes were emotional and difficult, I found reading this book to be great fun with the strange worlds and characters, the beautiful prose, and the bite size pieces Callaghan gives the reader.

This is a wonderful set of short stories, many with myth, folklore, magic or mayhem in them. They cover themes of love, loss, grief, loss of childhood, self doubt, consequences and families in their many shapes and forms.
I enjoyed them all, some resonated with me stronger than others but I took something away from each one.

The short stories in this collection are hit or miss. Enjoyable but nothing that I will remember. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for this chance to read this book.

this book was just okay. It was a collection of short stories, all with similar themes. Some of course were better than others, and the connection between stories are a bit lacking. I thought it was just a decent read

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to read this early. Review has been posted on Waterstones and Amazon.

The short stories that worked for me were really good, sadly there is a few in here that I just couldnt connect to at all.

The writing was very much a hit and miss and while some of the short stories definitely made me feel something or made me think some of them just left me wondering what the point of them was.

It also felt weird to me that some were like full on fantasy as in directly talking to a jinn, most had some kind of magical realism element which I really liked but then some of them had nothing magical to them at all.

I'd say overall this collection is solid but nothing spectacular. Definetly enjoyed that ones that were in the 10-20 pages range more than the really short ones.

Nearly two dozen short stories to rekindle your imagination

Fija Callaghan's collection Frail Little Embers features 21 short stories (unless I can't count, which is always a possibility). From very short to medium length, her stories center around a variety of themes and characters, from fairytale retelling to epistolary, romance, queer and straight, as well as poetry. Her distinct voice is evident throughout and all stories feature a magical element of some sort. Overall, I would probably categorise them as magical realism.
The title works well, as the protagonists of the stories all are, on one way or another, frail as little embers and in need of the glow within themselves to be rekindled. Most of the stories are set in English-speaking countries (if at all mentioned).

While her prose is effortless and she picks beautiful subjects, I found many of the stories a little too fragmented and brief. It is also quite difficult to read many in a row, which got me stuck between wanting more and needing a break. I suggest you enjoy them more like pralines - one at a time, with plenty of time to digest and let them sink in.

Each story comes with a simple yet well-suited illustration.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Frail Little Embers by Fija Callaghan is a collection of short stories and poems that inspire hope and the strength to move on despite the cards we've been dealt. The anthology delves into love, loss, nostalgia, revenge, and hope and deals with some pretty heavy topics. Each story is beautifully written, and I kept turning the page for more. The added illustrations before each chapter add a sense of whimsy to it.

Overall, 5 stars. This is like, THE hopecore book, so if you like that, read this.

The best short story collection I have read all year. Every story was unique and so beautifully written. Had me obsessed with it, which is rare nowadays. An auto-buy/read author from now on.

This was a good read! And I usually don’t like short stories much. I enjoyed more than half of them. Would definitely love to read something similar to this again

Frail Little Embers is a stunning collection of short stories.

Every story took it in turns to take me apart and put me back together again. The ability of an author to create something like this is incredibly inspiring. The prose is so lyrical and genuine; Fija has a truly special understanding of the writing craft.

“…kissing the fox woman was like drinking stars.”

Fox Song was a wonderfully queer surprise and the quote above is so simple yet so effective. To The Waters and The Wild was my absolute favourite; I will always love a Selkie tale. I adored how nostalgic Waking the Witch felt and Songbird was incredibly raw and real. Honestly, I don’t think there was a single story that I wouldn’t want to revisit.

I would highly, highly recommend this beautiful anthology!

I got this as an arc on Netgalley and it will come out in April. I really enjoyed reading it and it a beautiful arrangement of stories! Some stories were light, others heavy. Some fantastical, some macabre.