Anyone who grew up reading the delightful Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery will be familiar with the protagonist Anne's short-lived "Story Club", comprising a group of thirteen-year-old girls who gather together to write histrionic, torrid romances using the most flowery language they can come up with, as follows: 
 "I wrote it last Monday evening. It's called `The Jealous Rival; or In Death Not Divided.' I read it to Marilla and she said it was stuff and nonsense. Then I read it to Matthew and he said it was fine. That is the kind of critic I like. It's a sad, sweet story. I just cried like a child while I was writing it. It's about two beautiful maidens called Cordelia Montmorency and Geraldine Seymour who lived in the same village and were devotedly attached to each other. Cordelia was a regal brunette with a coronet of midnight hair and duskly flashing eyes. Geraldine was a queenly blonde with hair like spun gold and velvety purple eyes." 
 "I never saw anybody with purple eyes," said Diana dubiously. 
 "Neither did I. I just imagined them. I wanted something out of the common. Geraldine had an alabaster brow too. I've found out what an alabaster brow is. That is one of the advantages of being thirteen. You know so much more than you did when you were only twelve." 
 Angela Carter writes almost exactly like Anne Shirley's Story Club, and that is not a compliment. I liked the feministy takes and even some of the poetic descriptions of this collection, but it was all a bit...much. Carter writes at her best when forced into concision, as with the lovely two-page stories The Snow Child and The Werewolf. 4 stars for great narratives, 2.5 for the writing; taken together, a solid 3 stars.