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lucyduller's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is a short story collection I’ve had gathering dust on my shelf for about a year, possibly even longer.
There are eleven short stories in this book by Katherine Heiny, the first book I’ve read by her.
I am usually quite keen on short stories as they can feel like vignettes into different lives and stories. I found it hard to get stuck into this one, I really wanted to lose myself in a book about one story and the first two stories I found boring, so it sat on my bedside table for a few weeks.
However, there are some real gems in this book. My particular favourites were
- Twist and Shout
- Turn Back, Turn Back
- 561
Twist and Shout is a story about a woman who now has to look after her aging father and starts with him eating his hearing aid because he thinks its a cashew. She resents her father as they have very different political views, he is a Fox News watching climate change denier, and she is not. However, the last page is on the third slide and it was so special.
Turn Back, Turn Back took me on a rollercoaster and I think was my favourite story out of all of them. It’s about mother discovering her husband’s affair by her daughter’s reaction to a fairytale. It felt like I was right there with her.
561 is about a woman having to bond with her husband’s ex-wife, and how they had spent some significant life moments with one another, despite hating each other.
I loved how all of the stories had interweaving themes and links and you could probably draw a diagram linking them all. Overall, they were good stories, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to everyone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Infidelity, and Death of parent
aileron's review against another edition
funny
reflective
fast-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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Infidelity
Moderate: Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Alcohol, Drug use, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Eating disorder, Abortion, Death, Death of parent, and Dementia
peachani's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Vomit, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Sexual content
Minor: Sexual harassment, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Gaslighting
kateflood's review
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Having read both of her short story collections I’d say it’s clear that Katherine Heiny has a talent for capturing relationships, both romantic and familial, in snapshots. I definitely enjoyed this collection, and though I wasn’t a massive fan of all of the stories I really adored some of them, specifically Twist and Shout, 561, and Turn Back, Turn Back. These stories all delivered such a gut punch that I felt like I was left reeling after reading them (in a good way).
I do feel like Heiny seems to have a tendency to focus her short stories on tales of WASP-y families and affairs so her writing can sometimes begin to feel a bit one-note, but then again she is so good at writing this sort of story that I can understand why she stays in this vein.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual violence, Death of parent, Suicide, and Infidelity
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