A compelling collection of taut and quietly terrifying tales.
Walker presents a collection of short stories about people facing stark moral quandaries.
The 20 stories in this collection range in length from a few paragraphs to a few pages—they tend to zero in on precise moments, quick flashes of moral uncertainty in the lives of characters who are often deeply morally conflicted. Pain seems to meet pain, for instance, in “I Can’t Forget,” which follows a traumatized U.S. Special Forces soldier on leave from the war in Kabul. He briefly meets a survivor of the siege of Stalingrad, and, as in all of these stories, the author avoids predictable plotting. In “The Gun,” a young woman named Maggie is driving a package across the bleak Montana countryside, warned by the locals she meets that the region is stalked by dire wolves (“Supposedly extinct for 10,000 years, but things reincarnate, climate change, and all that”). The highway encounter she eventually experiences is brief and deeply ambiguous. In “As Ye Sow,” readers meet two couples—Celeste and Charles and Peggy and Paul—who’ve known each other for years and have cheated on each other, with each other, the whole time. Murder and death haunt their latest get-together, and even in her most desperate moments, Peggy remains venal and shallow. When she is physically attacked, she sees herself in the mirror and thinks, “how utterly disgusting, staring back at me, my wrinkled skin, after all the creams, all the workouts, all the money I’d spent.” Walker writes striking prose that somehow manages to read as simultaneously thoughtful and brutal. The focus he achieves through merciless pacing provides momentum at the expense of some depth—the characters here are mostly thin sketches, and their motivations are usually limited to the requirements of the plots. This spare narrative technique, played out over long stretches of highway and across a succession of bankrupt lives, grows cumulatively haunting. Readers will appreciate how seldom they can guess where any of these quick, harsh stories will go.
A compelling collection of taut and quietly terrifying tales.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2026
ISBN: 979-8901744864
Page Count: 188
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An often poignant, if somewhat overlong, exploration of authenticity and creative expression.
A collection of short stories, reflective thoughts, and poems examining what it means to live fully and consciously.
The writings in each of the 22 sections in Resor’s debut book correspond to a letter or several—A through Z—with its title and/or theme. For example, the chapter on the letter C contains “Cages To Recognize and Unlock,” which discusses how one constricts one’s feelings, needs, and desires; “Calisthenics for the Contents of our Craniums,” which spotlights ego and empathy; and “Callings From the Deep,” which focuses on knowing oneself well enough to identify and follow one’s purpose. Each essay plays with motifs of inner peace, contentment, originality, imagination, and healing. The mixture of Resor’s own intimate experiences with her poetry and individualized answers to profound questions makes for an engaging read. While the whole work is close to 300 pages, each chapter can be read as a short, stand-alone encounter with Resor’s warm storytelling. Her writing style is playful, provocative, and personable, by turns, and the anecdotes here signal the author’s clear zest for life. It creates a sense of fluidity that’s not often present in self-help works; the overall tone is reminiscent of a casual conversation with a trusted friend. That said, later chapters start to blur together a bit, as the theme doesn’t ever evolve very much past a basic, feel-good message. Resor’s words and ideas are valid and thoughtful, but that isn’t enough to sustain 22 separate installments that all reiterate the same fundamental concepts.
An often poignant, if somewhat overlong, exploration of authenticity and creative expression.Pub Date: May 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9840353-7-3
Page Count: 266
Publisher: Joy on Your Shoulders
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A lively, pleasant look at some obscure nuggets of knowledge.
A debut collection delivers an eclectic assortment of facts.
Although readers never learn all that much about perky Mr. J B Fact Finder, he has a lot to offer. In a series of short chapters written in the form of friendly letters, Mr. Fact Finder provides trivia about topics ranging from the Olympics (the rings of the Olympic flag symbolize the “five significant continents”) to the Empire State Building (the landmark did not turn a profit until 1950) and the origins of different breakfast cereals (C.W. Post once invented a wheat shredding machine). There are also portions on kooky laws in different states (for example, in Georgia, it is illegal to “change the clothes on a storefront mannequin unless you draw the shades first”) and even a few personal flourishes. A chapter devoted to dogs includes a story about a loyal pet named Ubu. Throughout the book, a folksy, Paul Harvey–esque humor (without the politics) prevails. Referring to the many injuries incurred by actors during the filming of The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Fact Finder jokes that the “movie was a workman’s comp nightmare.” After he presents some aspects of the celebrated thoroughbred Secretariat’s life, he confesses: “I’m in love with a horse.” The information provided is certainly entertaining. And there are surprises even for trivia buffs. That 5,000 trees spell out the word STUDEBAKERin Indiana is a true American oddity. Who knew that Beethoven “really loved to cook”? Some attempts at humor do fall flat. For instance, in a “Crazy Laws” chapter, readers are told that in Colorado “tags may be ripped off of pillows and mattresses.” Mr. Fact Finder chimes in with a “Hallelujah we are now safe from the mattress police.” Both the law and the accompanying comic relief feel dated. Despite the overall buoyant tone, some passages take on darker subjects. There are a few mentions of famous people who chose suicide. While a bulleted point about a plane that flew into the Empire State Building in 1945 and killed 14 people may be memorable, it does not resonate with the same playfulness as, say, the history of Hershey Chocolate. Nevertheless, Boyd’s Mr. Fact Finder is always eager to share tidbits in his own upbeat way.
A lively, pleasant look at some obscure nuggets of knowledge.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1953904898
Page Count: 118
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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