Bits, bobs and my significance and importance :)

booksandneedlepoint is lukewarm about Red Spikes. Well, technically, about three stories in Red Spikes, which is all she could stomach. :)

Mr Hornswoggler is shaping up to tackle Tender Morsels, and so is Colleen Mondor, who says of me:

...she is a very intense and sometimes disturbing author. But the thing about Lanagan is she is significant and important and pushing boundaries in how stories are told. I will read Tender Morsels but I don't know if I will like it—what might happen though is that I am moved by it, and sometimes that is even more important.

Bob is also

looking forward to TENDER MORSELS by Margo Lanagan. She surprises me every time. Her mind just thinks differently than mine and yet it all makes beautiful (and often) painful sense.

Rantin' 'n' ravin' Rob also has his copy:

Lanagan has written some acclaimed short stories and this novel looks like a pretty interesting tale.

It is, Rob, it is!

OF Blog of the Fallen has got through 50 pages, and says:

... this is a very promising start, as before I had read only her short fiction. It is shaping up to be one of those dark, brutal, yet touching stories, one that seems to address some very harsh and uncomfortable topics (for example, the lead character seems to be the victim of parental incest) that might make a few "critics" *cough*Truesdale*cough* eager to scream "pornography" to the high heavens. Needless to say, such people would have missed the beautiful pine forest for a few pine needles jabbed in their eyes and orifices.

Jeff VanderMeer is a third of the way through already, and he says it's brilliant.

Harriet Klausner has read the whole thing, and concludes, over at Genre Go Round:

This is an intriguing dark character study that looks deep at the human psyche through a lens of “two border worlds” representing the extremes of humanity; one side is abusive and brutal, and the other is caring yet boring ... Although the plot can turn overwhelmingly moody and introspectively slow at times, TENDER MORSELS is an engaging tale.

Finally, how nice is this? Kelly Link is interviewed about Small Beer's republishing Joan Aiken's The Serial Garden (personally I think they should have called their children's arm Small Bear Press), and she says:

Link, especially, would like to publish more of Aiken's work, since she regards her as one of three writers—along with Roald Dahl and Margo Lanagan—who have influenced her writing the most.

(at Publisher's Weekly, via Chasing Ray)