The only thing that linked these stories is that they each had a strange, detached, unresolved ending. I was listening to the audiobook, and for many of the stories I had to check the ebook to see whether the story had really ended the way that I had heard it. My reaction to each story was “is that all? I don’t recommend this collection, but many readers seem impressed by it

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

I heard so many rave reviews about this book and it didn't disappoint. Beautiful writing, and I was lulled into these powerful, poignant stories.

While the title story was compelling enough, the first two stories kept me from having any onte5in reading the rest of the book.

Wonderful stories!!! What a writer. The way the characters are explored is JUST right. She's balanced the need to show and tell. Highly recommend.

This is a very creative book of characters who are very relatable despite very extreme circumstances, roughly arranged in order of modernity/technology -- from a rural woman in the early 1900s or before who finds more belonging in an empty cave than her home while her husband is travelling, to a genetically engineered septuplet and a person living after contact with aliens that doesn't work out so well for humanity.
All of the characters vividly describe their circumstances and how they lead either themselves or those close to them to amazing choices that go from conventionally accepted versions of living to very different or drastic steps.
The title comes from the Muslim practice of referring to God by names based on 99 attributes (merciful, just, compassionate...), which figures prominently in a great story of 2 women who have learned how to hypnotically bring men under their spell, and use it to get some freedom from their captors/"husbands" from an ISIS-like extremist group. These and many other topics of identity, righteousness, and belonging run throughout the stories with powerful coping. A very thought-provoking read.
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. This was a really powerful collection of stories. I'm really looking forward to seeing what Sachdeva writes next.

One of the best short story collections I have read in a long time. Each story creates its own universe. The topics, style, and content are all so unique it is amazing it is all in one book.

We find a young women likely abandoned searching for her family and belonging in a very dark way. We see how a father and daughter can reconnect during a disaster. We see a recently divorced couple reunite based on dark happening.

Each story has such a unique flavor to it. I loved them all and look forward to her future works.

Such a wonderful collection of short stories. There is so much range and depth in each of them and I was in love with Anjali's writing by the flip of the first page. The glass lung was my favorite, but it was difficult to choose just one because they are all phenomenal. I can't rave about this book enough. *ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Bravo! Very, very cool. Hope to read more of Sachdeva's stuff.

Title should be 'All The Names They Use For God and other short stories'.

All the stories are humanistic, macabre, a discovery of some sort, with a tinge of supernatural and horror, and a guessing game as to how it would end for the protagonists (and others). Just absolutely lovely. Had trouble understanding some of the images that ran with the various titles (for e.g. what does the totem mean in that 'Anything you Might Want' story?).

For those wanting a bit more info (without giving any hint of the real story, any reveal or any spoiler):

The World by Night: 'Shifty-eyed' Sadie's loneliness.
Glass-Lung: Van Jorgen's journey.
Logging Lake: Industrial chemist Robert L. and his relationships.
Killer of Kings: Blind John's epic on heaven and hell.
All the Names for God: Promise and Abike's revenge.
Robert Greenman and the Mermaid: self-explanatory.
Anything You Might Want: Gina becomes a lady.
Manus: Draft, upgrade, freedom, and the unnamed architect.
Pleidas: Trial of seven sisters.

I like short stories and All the Names They Used for God is an intriguing and unique collection with nine stories that examine how our lives go awry.

In “The World by Night” a young newly-married Sadie explores a series of caves beneath her home, getting lost in the beauty of the caves. This was a gorgeous story that I got as lost in as Sadie. In “Glass-Lung” a worker is injured in an industrial accident that seems to ruin his life, but then he finds a new lease on life. In “Logging Lake” Robert’s adventure with a woman he met online goes awry, probably more for her than him. While not specifically named, we are privy to John Milton’s conversations with angels in “Killer of Kings.” The title story “All the Names for God” introduces us to a woman kidnapped as a school girl and forced into marriage, quite likely inspired by the atrocities of Boko Haram, as she was forced to convert to Islam. Another girl from her school teaches her a valuable skill. “Robert Greenman and the Mermaid” is exactly that, a fisherman sees a mermaid and is entranced. “Anything You Might Want” is the story of a woman who loves too much until she realizes maybe not. Imagine if our first contact was with a species of blogs whose touch poisons us. Imagine how we might resist. That’s “Manus.” In “Pleiades”, two married scientists create identical septuplets by splitting a fertilized egg into seven. This is the story of one of the sisters.

Wow! That is an amazing variety of time, place, and people. There is continuity, though, a common theme of the unexpected, the intervention of fate, angels, science, and not necessarily for the better, taking people on a new trajectory away from their old lives and into the new.



I loved All the Names They Used for God. Anjali Sachdeva writes like a poet. There is this lucid quality to her prose, she uses restraint, writing with simple clarity. You can lose yourself in her work as in a dream. It all makes sense when you are reading it, even going down into caves or controlling your husband with magic or attaching a hand to your chest.

I love the variety, the creativity, and the fresh and imaginative stories. I can’t wait to read what Anjali Sachdeva has for us in the future.

I received an e-book of All the Names They Used for God from the publisher through NetGalley.

All the Names They Used for God at Penguin Random House
Anjali Sachdeva author site

Although I'm not usually convinced I should invest my time in short stories, there have been a handful of authors in the last year or so who have changed my mind, and Sachdeva is now one of them. She's out-of-this-world (ha!) competent and certainly an author to watch. Her ability knows no limit of genre or period setting. She shows off her skill by flawlessly moving between both throughout her collection. In my eyes, the indicator of a great writer is one who simply can't be pigeon-holed by such labels. I'm so glad to have picked this up and held each story on its own, with plenty of space between the last & the next, and plenty of time to consider of masterfully Sachdeva painted the characters into their endings. Loved it.

Loved this collection! Sachdeva created so many unique and vibrant settings for these stories, yet they're all tied together with the theme of fate.

A very inventive collection that I found really surprising and exciting. So original, I can't stop thinking about it.

What a strange and lovely collection of short stories! Anjali Sachdeva refuses to be pinned down to a certain time or place, and the shots of magical realism she injects into her tales are perfect.

Thank you to Spiegel & Grau and Netgalley for my free copy of ALL THE NAMES THEY USED FOR GOD for review. All opinions are my own.

This one took my breath away. I’m not a *huge* fan of the short story genre. Mostly because I end up feeling cheated or like I’ve started something in each new story that I will never possibly get to finish.

This was an entirely different experience. Sachdeva explores themes of extreme isolation and the facing the unknown as a single isolated entity. The scope and breadth of what she has created in this collection is unfathomable. It took me a while to process after I had finished it (though it took me very little time to devour it in its entirety), because she creates freshly in each story a whole entire world. Sometimes it’s dystopian. Sometimes it’s kitchen-sink historical fiction realism. Sometimes it’s sci-fi with fantasy elements.

And yet in each one, she presents us with such meticulous care to the truth of the human experience, yet in the face of insanely wild circumstances. Each story has an obstacle that the character must face that is so far removed from any kind of reality that we could imagine and yet in each one Sachdeva manages to tap into a very universal, recognizable place of how we as humans feel, think and behave.

I can’t get over this one. And for once, I didn’t feel cheated by a single one of these short stories. Yes, I was left wanting more in a very big way. But each one is perfectly complete – the ends tied up, though they will resonate with you for quite a bit after.

*3 words: solitude, vastness, unknown

*what I loved: every single story could have been the start of a very different novel that I would have LOVED to read.

*what I questioned: I have no complaints or questions except, when will Sachdeva give us a novel? Or another collection? More please!

*overall rating: 5 solid and surprising stars from me

** Find my bookish posts and reviews on Instagram at @mlleboaz.bibliophile !!

The World By Night (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Glass-lung (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Logging lake (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Killer of Kings (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
All the Names for God (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Robert Greenman and the Mermaid (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Anything You Might Want (⭐️⭐️.5)
Manus (⭐️⭐️)
Pleiades (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

“All the Names They Used For God” is a short story collection of 9 stories and the majority of these were very moving and beautifully told.

I personally love strange stories. The stories that have that element of something extra that can’t really be explained, but can funny enough be relatable to ordinary life. About 5 of the 9 short stories did this and I absolutely loved them!

The collection opens with a lonely woman who discovers a cave in her backyard and the place she discovers underneath the ground, next we have a man who works in a mill when one day an explosion goes off causing glass shards to enter his lungs from a scientific discovery of a glass object that was made by lightning hitting an Egyptian desert, the stories continue with a recent single man who finds a woman on a dating site and they go hiking together in the mountains and she oddly disappears, then my personal favorite of the collection: “Robert Greenwood and the Mermaid” weaves a romantic story of life at sea and a mysterious find, to wrap up Sachdeva tells a unique moving tale of septuplets.

Though I would have wished all these stories would of had an easier connection to each other, I do feel the author tried to show all these characters had a similar life: one of isolation and loneliness.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and I feel like some of these stories are worth coming back to and re-reading and possibly deciphering more of their beautiful context.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group for sending me an advanced copy!

This collection is riveting, each story refreshing and hard to put down. Anjali’s imagination paints the unexpected into what seems, at first, commonplace. I probably would have finished it all in one sitting, but I had to sleep.

Some of these stories, especially the earliest ones in the collection, blew me away. The characters were relatively basic, yet their interactions and experiences were not. The stories also have an unexpected fantasy element where you don't question if it's possible or believable, but simply absorb it as truth.

"ALL THE NAMES THEY USED FOR GOD" consists of twelve short stories.

Anjali Sachdeva is an author with a tremendous gift, the gift of story telling.


Short stories are not my preferred read, yet I enjoyed her immense talent, wishing for one more story. I will certainty keep an eye on this author, be it Short Stories or a Novel should she decide in this direction.



I have no favoured story, all shine!

"THE WORLD BY NIGHT" 5.5

"GLASS LUNG" 5.5

"LOGGING LAKE" 5.5

"Killer OF KINGS" 5.5

"ALL THE NAMES FOR GOD"

"ROBERT GREENMAN AND THE MERMAID" 5.5

"ANYTHING YOU MIGHT WANT" 5.5

"MANUS" 4.5

"PLAIADS" 5.5


I underlined much throughout every story, however until I have the the final copy I am unable to add to this review as requested by publisher.


Thank you NetGalley and Spiegel & Brau ( Random House) for a chance to read this advance reader copy.

All the Names They Used for God by Anjali Sachdeva is a delightful collection of stories that hook you from the start and drag you off to the imaginary world Sachdeva creates. 

Short story collections are hard. The stories need to be brief but not so brief that the story details are lost. The stories need to be engaging--which is hard in only a handful of pages. Should the author have a theme for the short story collection, or is each story a unique standalone? There are a lot of factors to consider when compiling a short story collection, but as a reader, I can say that Anjali Sachdeva does it well in All the Names They Used for God. 

The quality of writing is superb in this collection. The words flow smoothly and gracefully paint the pictures in each story. The pace of each story is quick. There's never a dull moment or a time when the collection seems to drag. 

The plot and concept in each story is unique in fascinating--truly. The only story I didn't love was Manus. The rest were a joy to read. What's most impressive is about this short story collection is how engaging each story is. I found myself invested in the characters almost immediately and enjoyed following their plights and adventures. I've read a lot of short stories over the years and never have I felt so connected with the characters, so this was seriously well done. My favorite stories were Glass-Lung and Anything You Might Want. 

The story endings were thoughtfully constructed. A couple ended a bit too abruptly for my tastes, but overall, the endings were great.

The characters in this short story collection are the crowning achievement. Again, I've always had a hard time feeling connected to the characters in short stories, but in All the Names They Used for God, I felt a near-immediate connection to all of the characters. I loved this!

If you enjoy short story collections or want to give short stories a whirl, this book is for you!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing the Kindle version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This review will be posted on my blog on April 11, 2018: http://thriftybibliophile.com/