Sweet Kate

Have you ever read something and found yourself sadly disillusioned? I just re-read Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners. The first time I read this I was swept off my feet. I thought it was the best short story I'd read in a very long time (perhaps ever). I'd just discovered Firefly, and I thought it captured perfectly the poignancy of finding a show that is not only wonderful, but the sort of wonderful that you wish it really existed (the two particular instances that this is true for me are Firefly and Narnia). I thought it quirky, funny, and delicious. But reading it again in Pretty Monsters, I found that I didn't like it nearly as much. Some inexplicable element, some magic, has disappeared. Nothing is missing, but it isn't the story that I fell in love with. The funny thing is that I don't know why.