3.0
Life Is Short and Then You Die
By Kelley ArmstrongPublisher Description
Life Is Short and Then You Die is the Mystery Writers of America's first teen anthology, edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong.
Adolescence is a time of “firsts.” First kiss. First love. First loss. First job. The first taste of adult responsibilities, and the first look at an independent life away from both the restrictions and the security of home.
And in this case, a very different type of “first”: murder.
This short story collection of murder mysteries adds a sinister spin to the joy and pain of firsts that have always been a major part of life, whether it be high school cliques who take the term “backstabbing” too seriously, stumbling upon a body on the way home from school, or receiving a Snapchat message that promises something deadly.
Contributors include Barry Lyga, Caleb Roehrig, Emmy Laybourne, Jonathan Maberry, R.L. Stine, Rachel Vincent, Y.S. Lee, and more!
An Imprint Book
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities18 Reviews
3.0
Decarabats
Created 8 months agoShare
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“This is overall the best short story collection I've read in a long time.”Believable charactersDiverse charactersMulti-layered charactersDescriptive writingFunny writingOriginal writingAddictiveSuspensefulTwistyUnpredictable
katie
Created 11 months agoShare
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“this ain't it
the most interesting part of this book was the introduction which obviously isn't a good sign
it promised "rawness of [the joy and pain of firsts] and the confusion of struggling to cope with new experiences" and went on to describe, "teens are often stereotyped as acting invincible, yet they are intellectually aware they are indeed mortal, and when they experience death, it becomes real in a way that might have escaped them at an earlier age. It is the first death that may bring them face-to-face with their own mortality." sounds interesting right?! but i never got that from this collection. so many of these stories lacked any sense of logic or cohesion.
almost all of these stories were very noticeably written by adults who likely haven't been teenagers in decades (but feels like centuries ngl). when was the last time you've heard teenagers use words like "yucky" or "grownups"? when was the last time you've heard high schoolers refer to themselves as "kids" or call someone a "freaking loser"? no that last one isn't done due to censorship as they swear on the same page. there were a lot of instances like this and it pulled me out of the reading experience every single time.
the title of the book is Mystery Writers of America Presents First Encounters with Murder, but i wasn't prepared for just how american it is. lots of stories involving shootings, of course one is a school shooting, and we also have to include a story of fighting nazis because why the hell not. yes nazis should absolutely be fought but my god it was so BORING!!!
out of this whole collection there were only one or two stories i kind of liked and even then they weren't great. i'm sorry but i can't recommend this.”
Rebekah
Created 12 months agoShare
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““By what accident or oversight are any of us still alive?”
This was a solid collection of short stories about first encounters with murder. I did like some of the stories, but overall this one didn’t really wow me. Murder mystery is one of my favorite genres, so I thought I would enjoy this a lot more, but it was just okay. Not that it was bad, but anthologies are always hit or miss, and I think this one had more misses than hits. It was still fun, though!
(CW all the stories include death and murder, some more graphic than others.)
Floater by Kelley Armstrong
★★★☆☆
Whoa disturbing
POV of a dead person—cool!
The reveal :o
The Day I Killed Coach Duffy by R.L. Stine
★★★★☆
omg what
I have no words
In Plain Sight by Y.S. Lee
★★★★☆
Wow! I loved the historical aspect
Based on a real person—the youngest female inmate ever incarcerated at Kingston penitentiary!
Daddy’s Girl by Melissa Marr
★★★☆☆
um… what
That was so dark
Summer Job by Amanda Witt
★★★☆☆
Interesting plot twist
Story was kind of boring
The Boy in the Red Vans by Rachel Vincent
★★★☆☆
I didn’t like it at first but it grew on me
Just seemed unrealistic
That plot twist though
The Company I Keep by Jeff Somers
★★★★☆
Whoa what this was so disturbing
Dysfunctional families
Well written, but extremely dark
Concealment by Eileen Rendahl
★★★☆☆
WHAT?!
Not what I was expecting
Really good at the beginning but the end was kind of a letdown; got wrapped up too easily
Night of the Living Dog by David Bart
★★☆☆☆
okay what I just didn’t get this at all
The writing style annoyed me
The MC annoyed me
The story annoyed me
Murder IRL by Jeff Soloway
★★★☆☆
Worldwide virtual baseball league
This was so weird
But like, endearing?
I totally thought I’d predicted the plot twist but then it still surprised me lol
A Killer Story by Julie Tollefson
★★★☆☆
Journalism and teacher drama
All the characters annoyed me
I totally called who the killer was!!
Gnat by Joseph S. Walker
★★★☆☆
Bullying
Just wasn’t invested
Kinda boring
A Different Hero’s Day by Anthony Franze & Barry Lancet
★★★★☆
Escaping killers on the subway
Very unrealistic but still fun
ADHD rep!
First Party Back by Emmy Laybourne
★★★★☆
It grew on me
Nontoxic male friendships where they talk about their feelings :’)
Strangely uplifting in a way
What I Did on My Summer Vacation by Jonathan Maberry
★★★☆☆
This one grew on me too
But must we abbreviate parents to ‘rents??
Family bodyguard business
I PREDICTED THE PLOT TWIST
The Things We Don’t Talk About by Stephen Ross
★★★☆☆
Three friends who were on the track team
Well written
This was so depressing
Enemy Lines by Caleb Roehrig
★★★★☆
whoa so good
WW2 French resistance spies
Reminded me of the nightingale by Kristin Hannah
The mystery reveal was so satisfying
Six Ways to Kill Your Grandmother by Barry Lyga
★★★★☆
This was so dark but heartwarming at the same time??
When your father is arrested for being a serial killer”
KayDee Osmon
Created over 1 year agoShare
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“I really enjoyed this anthology because it definitely had a unique concept of the first encounter with Murder. My favorite story was probably Night of the Living Dog.”
morganrona7
Created over 2 years agoShare
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“Some of the stories were better than others, and this is a really cool concept.”
About Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Armstrong has been telling stories since before she could write. If asked for a story about girls and dolls, hers would invariably feature undead girls and evil dolls, much to her teachers' dismay. All efforts to make her produce "normal" stories failed. Today, she continues to spin tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon. She's the author of the New York Times-bestselling Women of the Otherworld paranormal suspense series and the Darkest Powers young adult urban fantasy trilogy, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series. Armstrong lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, her kids, and far too many pets.
Other books by Kelley Armstrong
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