Stag Dance | 
"I might as well have never learned a single English word for all that were available to me. How do you beg when you don't even know the words to beg with?"
#LGBTQ #TransBooks
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"I might as well have never learned a single English word for all that were available to me. How do you beg when you don't even know the words to beg with?"
#LGBTQ #TransBooks
Had a couple hours to myself yesterday while my mom watched the kids, and I read the first story in this book at a bar while I had a whiskey sour and calamari. Nice mother's day present! *chef's kiss*
pickFour stories exploring the experience of transness, particularly in relation to sexuality. I saw Torrey Peters at the Melbourne Writers Festival last night which added to my reading experience enormously especially in relation to the eponymous story, which I didn‘t really enjoy reading - I found the logger vernacular offputting, but she explained that it was writing in that style that gave her freedom to find the emotional truth in the story. ⬇️
pickI loved the short stories in this one a lot. The contagion and the story of the students at boarding school were spectacular. For Stag Dance I got a little lost in the middle but the ending made it so worth it!
pickThis is fantastic. Peters knows how to weave a story. I find it so interesting how she placed the stories, there are a few stories that relate to one storyline and it is mixed up chronologically making for an onion layer reveal between that are strong stories and the one novella (title story). My only complaint is that novella was a bit too long.
TW for one brutal animal scene that is upsetting in a story called The Chaser.
pickI loved her debut novel and thus was excited for this, but it didn‘t quite get there for me. I thought the 3 stories were good, but the novella never pulled me in. And had some really high quality technical aspects and a great central metaphor, but it was almost like the technical bits got in the way of the magic. A low pick for me.
so-soA few short stories and the titular novel, “Stag Dance”, which were very different and a bit jarring but a nice change of style, setting, and tone. Stag Dance is too long, could have been better as a short story. Conversely, one of the short stories could have been a full novel. I listened to the audiobook which really enhanced the Stag Dance story, as the narrator really brings out the characters and setting (lumberjacks isolated in a camp).
The character writing in these short stories is electric!
2 seconds ago this cafe was so crowded you could barely move. Now the quiet sets in.
Reading the new Torrey Peters
