Books
The Color Master
“Her growing canon of stories is like an army that destroys boring writing.” -Kevin S., Powells.com
“At a time when realism reigns supreme over the literary landscape, one can argue it is absolutely imperative that Aimee Bender be spotlighted for what she is: a vital MVP of modern letters, period.” — L.A. Times
“Along with the idiosyncratic George Saunders, she now stands as one of the reigning masters of the eccentric American short story.” –NPR Books
“15 new tales that dazzle, confound, electrify, disturb, incriminate, and empathize…. It is absurd. It is remarkable.” –Chicago Tribune
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
“Oddly beautiful.” —The Washington Post
“The fabulist elements of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake are stunning, but what makes this novel a keeper is the sheer beauty of the language Bender uses to describe love.” —NPR, “Books We Like”
“Bender gives you the three dimensions plus the two we hide behind. You love the cartoon family. You love the fairy tale. But when Bender pulls aside the curtain and shows you the dark swirling truth, you cannot look away. You feel – that rare and beautiful gift from a truly great book – woken up and unalone.” — The Globe and Mail
Willful Creatures
“Prose so animated it seems almost capable of writing itself.”
— The Atlantic Monthly
“Willful Creatures is an essential work that should be required reading for any who delight in deft prose and truly empathetic portraits of the human condition.”
—Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“Willful Creatures achieves what many story collections do not: it leaves an emotional impression that transcends the individual stories, but does not erase them. This may explain why her readers are so devoted: we feel as though we’ve witnessed the miraculous rebirth of the short story.”
— Alexis M. Smith
An Invisible Sign Of My Own
“Line by line, the reader is rewarded with a masterful prose style and an artistic vision that ruthlessly breaks down and dramatizes the arbitrary but necessary strategies people employ to keep themselves from never leaving their houses.” — Village Voice
“Aimee Bender is one writer who is shouting clearly and beautifully from the hilltops that our lives are most definitely not ordinary and typical.” — The Denver Post
“Intelligent and engaging… [A] fanciful and original take on the quietly helter-skelter world that lies within.” –The New York Times “Light as a zephyr and unique as a snowflake.” – The Washington Post “An achingly idiosyncratic story…rendered…with eloquence, hilarity, and ominous precision.” –The Boston Globe
The Girl In The Flammable Skirt
“Bender’s is a unique and compassionate voice, and her debut is a string of jewels.” — Publisher’s Weekly
“Thank God for Aimee Bender and her short story collection…She has screamed more life into the short story than anyone since Flannery O’Connor. Bender’s stories introduce the world to honest, inspiring, brutal and beautiful people.” — MSNBC