A Storm of Stories

All we have in life is the stories we tell each other and the stories we tell ourselves. A Storm of Stories is about that exchange of stories, a woman hits a man with her car and while they struggle waiting for help they exchange different tales with each other. Each story exists on it's own and yet fuels the larger narrative; even though the two are sharing stories to kill time they are also revealing more about themselves in the process. It's a way of them being both intimate while maintaining the distance of strangers who find themselves understanding each other more as it goes on. I found it to be bold and fearless how the author uses the stories to draw the reader deeper into who the characters are and it made me oddly introspective of the stories I tell and what it reveals about myself.

It's not a book about short stories, it's about two people communicating with the most primal way of communication that people have used since we tried to explain how we learned to make fire, with stories. It evolves into something more as it goes on and by the end the reader is as connected with the characters as they are to each other. I loved it.

What a magical book! I haven't enjoyed reading something so unique, thought-provoking and compelling in a long while (and that's saying a lot because "reading" is my avocation). Although short, it's length is perfect because the chapters in a Storm of Stories are dense and intertwined, each distinct and almost a world unto itself, but echoing and interfacing with experiences elsewhere in the tale in a way that is quite satisfying to an alert reader. I highly recommend this new work to anyone looking for a little gem by an entertaining and thoughtful young writer!

Yes, Canterbury Tales comes to mind for sure, or perhaps an abbreviated Scheherazade. The framework of two stranded strangers--young people trapped together in a blinding snowstorm--sharing their hopes for love and gradually opening up to each other as they await rescue or death, is ingenious. Other reviewers have described the interactions of the young couple well. One aspect of the tale I might add: the characters, Julie and Peter, are storytellers, one already a writer, the other becoming one. This is not just a Storm of Stories, this is an exploration of storytelling itself. When Julie tries to explain where her stories come from, how she has hundreds of them in her mind and her dreams, and how difficult it is at times for her to separate imagination from "reality", one is getting insights, I believe, into the writer and the writing process. In short, in a beautiful and unobtrusive way the author appears to be confessing how the creative process works for her and what it means to be an aspiring writer, even as she inspires us with the very content of her stories. I can't wait to hear more of these stories that are spinning out of her creative mind!

Just finished the book and came on here right away to give it a review. It was so enjoyable to read. I said it with her first book, "Painting With Fire," and I'll say it again - Jensen's talent for writing descriptions of the tangible and intangible set her apart. You see what her characters see and feel what they feel. As I was getting toward the end of the book, thinking about reviewing it, I was debating four or five stars. I don't give out fives lightly. The last chapter, however, felt so beautifully real and wrapped it up in such a compelling way that it bumped it up from 'like' to 'love.' I highly recommend it!

I can finally check this one off my summer reading list! Storm of Stories was a great read filled with stories of love and life that kept me intrigued throughout the stories all while intertwined with the main story. Being from Wisconsin and living in Chicago, I loved the regional aspect too.

Great summer read. A love story with a twist containing several love stories each with their own twists. A page turner that makes you think and gives you insights about yourself.

A page turner! I was hooked from the start!

"The wrong kind of food with the wrong kind of wine," a line from one of Jensen's stories. Every story in her book made me asked, What is the right kind wine? What is the right kind of food? And, even if I know, in the final analysis. will it matter? A Storm of Stories is a thought-provoking book seasoned with the right amount of humor that starts well and ends well.

Vivid and engaging, this book pulled me right along. I especially appreciated the interconnections between the main story and the sub stories. Nicely done.

It starts with a blank page, snow against the white sky. An accident leaves two strangers trapped in a desperate situation. What else is there to do, but tell each other stories? Stories of doomed love, desperation and dead dogs? What else is there to do as we wait for rescue or for death?

Isn't that what we are all doing?