Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - The Office of Historical Corrections

Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans

19 reviews

thebakerbookworm's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this collection. I listened to it in one sitting and once again the audio was stellar. Each story had a new narrator, so they stayed distinct from each other while the themes running through them kept them connected.

A lot of these stories felt really timely to today, and I guarantee they will make you think and give you new insight. I sometimes find that I have a hard time connecting with the characters in short stories but that was not the case here. Each story is character-driven with complex and real characters. (Though I will admit that I was disappointed each time a story ended because I wanted more story!)

I think my favorite one was the title story (maybe because it was the longest), but I also really liked Alcatraz, Why Won’t Women Just Say What They Want, and Anything Could Disappear. But honestly, I enjoyed them all. I’m thinking of getting the print book because I already want to reread this and I like rereading in a new format.

Read if you like: literary fiction, correcting people’s mistakes with post-it notes, not being told what the right answer is.

Content Warnings

araeofbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“The shame of the U.S. past wasn’t genocide or terror but the fact that it hadn’t completely worked yet. It was nothing I hadn’t heard before, but it was rattling. It was the ubiquity or it was the persistence. It was the way the Free Americans and their claims on being the only Americans transcended facts and time and progress, the way they always seem to be around the corner, the way, however lacking in general insight they might be, They could hear the ticking clock of the question, the ‘Do they know I’m human yet?’ the way they took delight in saying no, the way they took for granted it would always be their question to answer.”

Ok let me gush about this book for a sec by saying I am not typically a short story person. I just don’t gravitate toward them usually. I feel like I want to get attached to characters and in my brain a short story is too short. Anyway, scratch all of that because this collection gave me so much to chew on in each story. These stories are all so different, but throughout there are consistent threads of grief, identity, race, and the power dynamics of who has voice. Evans so beautifully creates these dynamic characters and environments that feel completely whole in 30 or so pages. I would dive into expanded version of any of these stories, but I also feel wholly content where she left them. I have a few favorites that I think will be in my mind for some time to come.

Content Warnings