So Happy Together: The Very Particular Pleasure of Linked Stories

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Ghostwritten by Ronald Malfi

I’ll commencement with the postulation mentioned supra due to the fact that the deeper I got into it, the much excited I got. (That’s what helium said.) Anyway. The demonic books successful this postulation instrumentality aggregate forms: a bare publication that resists adaptation; a publication contained nether fastener and key; a homemade pop-up book; and a choose-your-own-adventure book. As I moved from communicative to story, however, it became wide that these books came from the aforesaid acheronian place. And each clip I stumbled upon a repeated sanction oregon different clue, each of which accrued my knowing of this unspeakable universe, I felt my bosom bushed conscionable a small spot faster.

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

This enactment of acheronian fantasy/horror communicative reads similar a caller but is really made up of 8 interconnected stories. Each communicative revolves astir Atticus Turner, a Black antheral who fought successful the Korean War. Atticus is simply a instrumentality of classical sci-fi, but his beingness soon becomes alien than fabrication erstwhile helium returns location from the warfare and discovers a idiosyncratic transportation to the person of the Order of the Ancient Dawn, a radical of sorcerers seeking to entree an past power. Each communicative entangles Atticus and his household adjacent much successful this Order’s web.

There There by Tommy Orange

This stunning publication is presented arsenic a novel, but each section is told from the constituent of presumption of a antithetic character, each of them idiosyncratic from a Native community, and each of them with plans to question to the Big Oakland Powwow. At first, it’s not wide that they’re connected astatine all, speech from their communal destination. But arsenic the communicative hurtles toward its end, the characters converging, each the disparate pieces autumn into spot successful the astir satisfying of ways.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

I usually wouldn’t prime up a publication similar this — it’s the benignant of publication often described arsenic “quiet,” which is so not my jam — but I work it with my publication club. Although I went successful with debased expectations (no shadiness to Strout), by the end, I was moved by this postulation of 13 narratives, each of which bumped up against 1 singular pistillate successful the assemblage of Crosby, Maine. Olive looms larger successful immoderate chapters than successful others but, taken together, she is shown to beryllium idiosyncratic with extent and layers…someone who is deemed hard by others but who, erstwhile it comes down to it, is relatable arsenic heck.

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho

At its heart, Fiona and Jane is the communicative of a female friendship, with each of its ups and downs, its silences and estrangements, its tiny betrayals, and its moments of intimacy. What makes it unsocial is however it’s told done alternating points of view, each relationship landing the scholar astatine a antithetic constituent successful these women’s lives. Even erstwhile the relationship itself feels tangential to what each pistillate happens to beryllium struggling with astatine that moment, it hovers determination astatine the periphery.

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

I conscionable started speechmaking this 1 and I’m already loving it. The 9 stories that marque up this postulation springiness glimpses into the lives of 4 generations of characters, touching upon issues of faith, longing, love, vulnerability…all the concealed pieces of women’s lives that marque them who they are. I’m fascinated by stories successful which religion and tendency bump up against 1 another, causing interior conflict, truthful this promises to beryllium a satisfying read.

Cake Time by Siel Ju

Another 1 I precocious started, Cake Time is billed arsenic a novel-in-stories, each of them centered connected a azygous pistillate character. Leaping astir successful time, we spot the protagonist interval done beingness aimlessly, making unspeakable choices, letting her ain curiosity and tendency pb the way. There’s a purposelessness to this young woman’s story, yet these collections of random moments adhd up to a beauteous eventful life.

Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So

Finally, successful this communicative collection, readers are introduced to a rotating formed of Cambodian Americans — and their children — gathering a beingness for themselves successful California. Even arsenic each of these characters forges a unsocial way for themselves, they each transportation with them the value of a past marked by the Khmer Rouge genocide. This past drives their determination to make a caller beginning.