jaclyn_sixminutesforme 's review for:

Verge: Stories by Lidia Yuknavitch

4.0

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This was brilliantly wild, a collection of short stories so unique that they will stay with me long after finishing. “A fiercely empathetic group portrait of the marginalized and outcast in moment of crisis, from one of the most galvanizing voices in American fiction.” I’m not quite sure I was prepared for the perspectives we follow in these stories, to give you a sense though one of the earliest stories (and one of the standouts for me overall) was following an eight year old “organ-runner” (a black-market medical courier of sorts). What I think I found most effectively written was the way violence is explored across contexts, including sexual violence, conflict-zone violence, and also conception itself. As mentioned earlier, ORGAN RUNNER was a standout story for me, as was SECOND COMING which is probably one of the most bizarre but intriguing I’ve ever read. Not a collection that will be to everyone’s taste, but I enjoyed its dark complexity and how unexpected and exhausting the narratives were. Very cool.

Thanks to Riverhead for a review copy.