This is one of those "What the heck did I just read?" books.

In this collection of short stories, Haslett's characters wield terrifying power over others--such as through years long deception or through the fear of accurately predicting someone's death--yet somehow the stories have an undercurrent of deep love and equally deep sadness and hope instead of abject horror. How!?

This is definitely one of those books I see myself returning to: at the risk of sounding pretentious, reading these short stories left me with a sense of contentment. Kind of like... we're all messed up, but really we're just doing our best, right?