This is one of the biggest flaws in “Vampires in the Lemon Grove,” both as a standalone story and as a larger collection. Then we reach the story’s end, which feels unfinished and wrong because it doesn’t feel like an ending at all. Quite a few lines stood out to me, like, “They flow from cliffs that glow like pale chalk, expelled from caves in the seeming billions.” Russell is uniquely able to plant the perfect emotive image in the minds of her audience, and the story’s slightly detached narrative adds volumes to Clyde’s meditations on marriage. Clyde’s musings about mortal love, commitment and addiction introduce us to Russell’s exceptional prose, which definitely deserves its praise. Our main character Clyde was once a fiery vampire until he settled into domesticity with his wife Magreb.

It begins with the title story, which follows an immortal married couple that sucks the juice from lemons in order to satiate their thirst for blood. “Vampires in the Lemon Grove” covers 256 pages of magical realism.

But amidst the critical praise being heaped onto her latest book release, I have to say: it was good. I felt an uncomfortable sense of guilt as I finished the final page of Karen Russell’s new collection of short stories, “ Vampires in the Lemon Grove.” Russell’s accolades are so impressive that they’re frankly intimidating she’s been on seemingly every “Best Writers” list, she nearly won the Pulitzer Prize and she was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2011, so I had high expectations when I began reading.

Vampires in the lemon grove sparknotes