Rhiannon

I do love collections of short stories, but unfortunately more of these didn’t really land for me than did. The collection focuses on themes of shame, desire, identity, a lot of parental trauma, much of which is told through allegorical whimsy or surrealism. Some of the literary devices work, some just were unbearable or fell flat for me. I found a lot of the experimental writing aggravating or tiresome – and I generally tend to like experimental structure or writing.

But the stories that worked for me, I really liked: Smear the Queer, The Failed Messiah (which had a sharp sense of humour to it that surprised and delighted me), similarly Siren Island had that edgy humour. And Alex Adams… was clever and interesting as a Peter Pan gender flip in the real world.

So, although I was mixed overall, I do think I’d enjoy a novel length work from this author and will be looking further into their catalogue.

My thanks to NetGalley and The Dial Press for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.