makegood 's review for:

The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans

4.5

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Danielle Evans writes characters in a very specific context, which is the second decade of the 21st century, primarily Black American women who coming into new awareness of their deepening emotions, priorities, family and aspirations in early adulthood. Her stories often alternate between reflection and current-day plot, which moves the stories along well and also helps the reader experience events as the characters experience them. She’s particularly adept at writing women’s relationships to each other, and the relationships often take unexpected and non-linear paths. The novella, for which the collection is named, created a fascinating and well-executed web connecting the relationship between two high-performing academics, tied throughout their lives by their parents’ success, the muddy history of one upper midwest town, and the violence that underlies so many American history events. I also loved Anything Could Disappear, in which a young woman cares for an abandoned child and Boys Go to Jupiter, which follows the path of a young white woman who has a deep relationship with Black family, loses her mother as their mother is sick, and acts out with racist symbols, sleepwalking through her actions, the outcropping of grief and dysfunction. I believe I’ll return to this collection again many times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence