An unforgettable cluster of entertaining, topical, and hard-hitting stories.
This debut collection of flash fiction satirizes politics, pop culture, and self-expressionism.
The title of “Beware of the Charlatan,” an early entry in this book, gets straight to the point. The Charlatan is a leader who proclaims that Pi is simply 3.14, not an irrational number; anyone who disagrees with that or whatever he preaches is demonically possessed. Several characters in these 19 stories hold similar positions of power over others. These minityrants include politicians and a domineering village head. In “The Empathy Development Experiment,” Dr. Singh subjugates his test subject—a convicted murderer. Fullah ridicules attention hounds on social media as well as those who idolize status symbols or other humans. The author also tackles serious topics, like misogyny and racial and sexual discrimination. For example, “The Politician,” written in response to the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade, follows a family man whose plan to outlaw abortion has a disturbing motive. Like most satire, these condensed tales revel in dark humor, and many take unsettling turns that end in violence and/or death. But there are touches of additional genres as well. The SF “Across the Universe,” for one, showcases a NASA astronomer trying to form an emotional connection with newly contacted aliens. “The Anti-Incubus” plays like a horror story, featuring a diabolical presence that seemingly invades dreams.
Many of Fullah’s stories abandon subtlety; the villainous source of corruption tends to be an amoral politician or a narcissistic celebrity. In the case of “A Village With Only Men,” the narrator opens blatantly with: “I hated women. They had ruined my life. A misogynist? Incel? I gladly accepted those labels.” The author doesn’t often veil the satirical target; in “The American Dream,” Vlad’s scheme against citizens in a New England town begins with using a local physician to create a host of oxycodone addicts. Nevertheless, certain stories take a more understated approach. In “Life in Blue,” for example, Penelope can’t see the color blue and strives to see what others can; it’s a cutting, critical assessment on conformity and waning individuality. The collection’s most discernible theme is, unexpectedly, isolation, either by choice or circumstances. In one tale, a popular violinist further separates himself from his starry-eyed fans by convincing them to turn on one another; in another tale, Lyla, who’s grown weary of adjusting her “multiple identities” to suit others, prefers solitude. A few stories might have been even better if they were slightly longer. That’s certainly true for the hilarious “Ancestors,” in which the afterlife may not be all it’s purported to be. The narrator spends posthumous days in the cosmos with his late ancestors, people of clashing cultures and personalities whose perpetually annoying traits could spark more enjoyable scenes.
An unforgettable cluster of entertaining, topical, and hard-hitting stories.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
This luxurious novel is set to take the world by storm.
The true story of Axis diplomats detained in the U.S. at the start of World War II is transformed into a dazzling historical novel set at a sumptuous West Virginia hotel.
Bestselling YA fantasy author Stiefvater’s adult debut introduces a writer whose prodigious imagination and distinctive prose style have combined to create a novel that will remind readers of why they fell in love with reading in the first place. At its center is the captivating June Hudson, an erstwhile Appalachian orphan who was taken in by the wealthy Gilfoyle family, owners of the Avallon Hotel & Spa, a high-society retreat built over underground mineral springs. At his death, the patriarch bequeathed ownership to his playboy son, Edgar, but made June the general manager, as she had spent her life learning the business—and also shared with Gilfoyle Sr. a rare gift relating to the “sweetwater” springs, a fantastical element of this otherwise realistic novel. Aside from the magical waters and a few other fanciful details, Stiefvater’s fictional world is based on extensive research into high-end hotels of the period, creating a version of luxury so appealing that readers will wish they could check into the Avallon and stay on indefinitely. In fact, the novel revolves around the true meaning of luxury. To June, it has nothing to do with wealth; it is more connected to joy, and to the book’s title: “June had long ago discovered that most people were bad listeners; they thought listening was synonymous with hearing. But the spoken was only half a conversation. True needs, wants, fears, and hopes hid not in the words that were said, but in the ones that weren’t, and all these formed the core of luxury.” Also brilliantly managed is the rest of the ensemble cast: sexy FBI agents; June’s inimitable staff; the delegations of Japanese, Germans, and Italians detained at the hotel, some quite nasty, but among them a strange, special, totally silent child. And on top of all this, a delicious love story!
This luxurious novel is set to take the world by storm.Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593655504
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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