Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima

Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil is an anthology or mishmash of short stories about a woman grasping with her identity in the face of the gap that immigration to another country placed on her relationships with her family back in Brazil and the people she meets in the country she now calls home.

I've been on a serious audiobook kick lately, so when I saw the title of this on Netgalley, I immediately requested it. My thanks to Dreamscape media for an advanced listener copy of this book.

Based on the title you would think the devil plays quite the role in the entirety of the series of stories. In actuality his presence is only mentioned a handful of times and not within each story. Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil is, for the most part, from the point of view of "The Writer" a young woman who has immigrated to America from Brazil and is sharing her experiences in a somewhat surreal and unsettling way.

Other chapters appear to have been written by "The Writer" or some type of nightmare/dream world. My favorite of all the stories would have to be "Idle Hands". Told through the comments and critiques of The Writer's classmates in a writing workshop it shows how not every person reading something has the same perception of it. This audiobook is just like that. I have seen comments about how you can't really tell when one story is ending and another beginning and the negative impact it had on their listening experience. I would disagree here. I loved the seamlessness of the narration. The way that you truly felt a connection to each tale because there wasn't that jarring removal or ending from one to the next.

I am not sure if Ananda Lima's portrait of The Writer or the narration evoked such incredible imagery for me throughout the book, but I will definitely be checking out other works from both Taylor Harvey and Ms. Lima. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 for this well crafted collection.

Psst! Just so you know, some of the links sprinkled here are affiliate links. If you decide to click and treat yourself, I might get a little high-five in the form of a commission at no additional cost to you. Cheers and happy reading!