A review by abbie_
A Beautiful Lack of Consequence by Monika Radojevic

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

5.0

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC of this short story collection! I don’t think I have a single bad thing to say about it, which for some reason always makes it 10 x more difficult for me to write a review. I devoured each and every one of these stories, which range from contemporary topics to wild speculative/magical realism vibes. Radojevic, a Brazilian-Montenegrin author, pulls off every genre like a pro, and most of these stories centre women’s issues.

There’s barely a contemporary issue left unturned with these pages - childcare for working mothers, safety at night, capitalism, femicide, internet harassment, ageing - but nothing feels shoe-horned in and there’s often a playful, mischievous energy about them (talking clitorises anyone?). Radojevic captures the myriad of experiences women live through each day unnervingly well, some of these stories are seriously unsettling.

Some of my favourites were Woman on the Internet, where a mother exacts revenge on the vile men who doxxed her daughter, How To Be Good and Love Yourself, which lays out in excruciating detail how much of women’s lives is spent concerned about our bodies, Hospitality, a genuinely unpleasant reading experience that was so necessary about workplace safety. I could honestly list about a dozen more (there are 30!), just a brilliant collection that I’d highly recommend!