Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century

These visions of modern life wrestle with themes of death and technological consequences, guilt and sexuality, and unmask the contradictions that exist within all of us.

There are some absolute bangers in this collection of short stories.*
*Edit: I actually just increased the star rating. The more that I think about it, every one of these short stories were bangers in their own right. I was trying to come up with what I may not have liked but even the story that I liked least had some phenomenal moments that made my skin crawl so like... bravo?

I think the ones that resonated the most with me were:

Pre-simulation Consultation XF007867- This is like the darker side of the holodecks from Star Tek.
Time Cubes- A dystopian nightmare, honestly.
#ClimbingNation- Me, a non-thriller reader: this would be an amazing plot for a Thriller novel. I will always support women's wrongs.
Twenty Hours- Remember that Netflix show, Altered Carbon? But make it with 3D printers and the weird middle-aged white couple next door.
Bridezilla- Actually this one reminded me of an essay titled "We Swarm" by Sabrina Imbler in How Far the Light Reaches where they are discussing salps (which kind of have a similar if not entirely more benign description as the sea monster in this short story.) Totally unrelated I guess but I think about that essay a lot.

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abitbetterbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

This was an impossibly strange and delightfully fascinating book. I love short story collections because there are so rarely firm answers or full pictures, just snapshots in time. The worldbuilding has to happen so quickly and the characters develop and are challenged in such fascinating ways.

I loved this very close-future speculative fiction perspective. The first story had me hooked right away and was probably my favourite, but I also loved Twenty Hours, Bridezilla, and Liddy, First to Fly. Some of the stories I really didn’t think I was smart enough to understand or didn’t quite land with me though, which sometimes can happen in a collection like this. Still would recommend! Would be a great read for fans of Black Mirror.

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vincci's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I don't usually read short stories,nor do I read a lot of sci-fi/fantasy, and felt myself oscillating between "not getting it" and "getting it" as I was reading this book. Sometimes, the stories (which almost always ended with a bit of a cliffhanger) felt too short to fully develop the plot and characters. Other times, this felt like it was what made the stories so clever, as it was left up to the reader to fill in the gaps. Pre-Simulation Consultation XF007867, #ClimbingNation, and Do You Remember Candy were my favourites.

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