Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Friday Black

This is a collection of short speculative fiction. There is a decent amount of variety, but there are a few stories that tackle similar themes/topics, especially consumerism and racism. Many of the stories are set in a world similar to our own, where one or more aspects of our own world have been exaggerated to the point of absurdity. As a result, the stories often have an extremely dark sense of humor and expose the absurdity inherent in real-world concepts like racism, violence, consumerism, and truth. Some of the stories have a different tone, but I never quite felt the emotional weight behind the ones with a more pensive, poignant feel. To me, the writing was much better at evoking feelings of rage, shock, despair, and defiance than sadness or regret.

Some stories were more interesting than others. A couple were a bit dull, but my favorites were the ones that really leaned in to the ridiculousness. I especially liked The Finkelstein 5, Friday Black, Zimmer Land, and Through the Flash. Nothing really blew me away, but this book was certainly unique and unexpected. Overall, this is a pretty thought-provoking, well-written collection of stories.

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eve81's review

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dark tense medium-paced

5.0

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leahjanespeare's review

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medium-paced

4.0

I'm not a huge reader of short stories, but I LOVED Chain-Gang All Stars so I wanted to give Nana's debut collection a shot. I could guess that this came earlier because the writing (while excellent) wasn't as good as his novel, but the ideas are unflinching and it's pretty out there (and yet not at all out there). I hope his next published work is another novel rather than short stories, but will read it all the same either way!

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