Brandon Taylor gives us a collection of short stories that share some subtle and more explicit similarities with his debut hit, Real Life. In a somewhat unique arrangement for a short story collection, this book breaks up several short stories following the same characters by interspersing other short stories in between this storyline. It's different, but it works well as Taylor makes even seemingly mundane interactions interactions in relationships interesting, just as he did in his debut. As someone who comes from academia, I also enjoy how Taylor uses that setting both in Real Life and again in the main storyline in this collection. This storyline is the most captivating and the thread that unexpectedly ties the others together in a very strong collection that continues Taylor's literary rise.

Bradon Taylor knocks it out of the park with his collection short stories. I was intrigued, I wanted more, and he left enough space to find myself relating to so many of the stories, even when the characters were so different from me. The craft infused in each of his sentences is undeniable. I was enriched by his words and I am so thankful to him for that. Highly recommend everyone go and buy this as soon as it's out.

A beautifully written, somber collection of stories. Taylor's writing is impeccable and engrossing and I'm so, so glad his voice is published and being rightfully celebrated.

Incredible. Taylor is cemented as one of my favorite authors. He writes fraught relationships so well, wether romantic, familial or platonic. I feel like his prose is the perfect amount of removed and observational while still feeling intimate and accessing the interiority of his characters. My favorite of the collection is the on the book is named for, Filthy Animals. So heartbreaking and raw.

Special thanks to Penguin Group Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this short story book, if you know me it's one of my favorite genres.

Filthy Animals was an unexpected book I came across and I'm so glad that I did. Some of the stories connect with others which was clever. These books are about intimacy, restraint, and cruelty etc. I think my favorite story was the 2nd story of the book about a babysitter, who watches twins, small, not sure of the age, but little enough. The twins are a boy and girl, the boy speaks with what he wants in just one word, the girl, a little smarter, speaks in sentences. The babysitter called them beasts because the little girl plays in dogshit, and needs two baths in one day because unbeknownst to her parents, she also has a dirt pile in her closet with worms (grubs) and twigs and the bugs get all tangled in her hair, while she should be napping, not playing in her closet. . Sound like a babysitter's nightmare. But who's the real nightmare or beast in this story? Because the babysitter, seemingly qualified as she's cutting potatoes and baking French fries from scratch (with cinnamon and salt, I've never heard of cinnamon on French fries but still I love homemade hot fries, Anyway sounds interesting), is definitely a beast herself. I would say she gets her jollies from treating them horrible,, but I'm not sure the things she does even gives her satisfaction. The things she does to the kids is downright beastly. The girl who is smarter notices there is something not right about how the babysitter physically HURTS them, while seemingly caring for their needs, but the boy is oblivious. I don't want to give away the story altogether, but I will stop there. It's just my kind of sick story haha. And I love kids. Go figure.

Most all of the stories were good, if not interesting.

Anyway, I liked all the stories. It's always easy to tell when you read EVERY story in a short story book, that it's a good one! 4 stars and I'd love to read the author Brandon Taylor's book from 2020, titled Real Life, I believe.

I loved REAL LIFE but really think Taylor has compiled his best writing in FILTHY ANIMALS: crisp, incisive prose that makes me feel profoundly alone, like an outsider who is also hypersensitive to the awkwardness in social interactions. There is deep, hidden pain and stark vulnerability in these stories. Why are people so casually cruel to one another? Does it matter since we're all in pain, all messed up in our own ways? How much value does a small gesture of kindness hold?

I initially balked at the length of the collection (it showed up as 500+ pages on my iPad), but the writing here is so immersive and addictive in a way that made the pages fly for me. I blinked and was 100 pages in, then 300, then finished. I have several highlighted passages saved on my phone that I can't wait to share once the book is published.

Massive thank you to Riverhead and NetGalley.

I'm not usually drawn to short stories and unfortunately despite Brandon Taylor's keen writing of social interaction, I felt the same here. Filthy Animals is a collection of eleven short stories, every other one relating to one central story/plotline, and the others interspersed demonstrating the sort of melancholic social reflection that he demonstrated so well in Real Life. It often took me time to feel pulled into the story and characters, and by the time I did so the story ended abruptly. Pulling out of the "main" storyline also disengaged me further, and while Taylor writes the social anxiety of the university story exceptionally well, I felt like I was reading an earlier draft of Real Life sometimes and vastly preferred his novel. I still enjoy reading Taylor's prose and think he is a wonderful writer especially in depicting moments of fraught intimacy, but the structure of this book didn't connect with me.

Thanks to Riverhead for providing me an ARC through NetGalley.

This was an impressive short story collection from the author of the Booker prize-nominated Real Life. It’s clear that many of the same themes from his novel were still preoccupying Taylor as he was writing these stories, and while I wasn’t uninterested in those themes, I was hoping to see him try something new. However, each story here was thoughtful and well-written, and I was also interested by the way the collection was organized with every other story focusing on the same group of graduate students. I look forward to reading Taylor’s next work!

I thought alot about structure while reading FILTHY ANIMALS by Brandon Taylor--the intention in unfurling the interconnected stories in this every-other-story pace rather than releasing the narrative as a stand alone novella. There was an urgency I felt while in-between reading Charles and Lionel. Their initial awkward dialogue doesn't really disappear as their connectivity loosens and then keeps re-tightening. There's a sense that their ability to open to each other is tempered by factors orbiting in their own separate lives, teasing out themes around vulnerability really beautifully.

The opening story captured more than just the fumblings of dinner party conversation, the unfiltered responses and small talk in this case layered with sexual tensions and careless language that tapped into recent mental health struggles. The stories that follow read as stand alone reflections, deep character studies that mined the complexities of desire and vulnerability, and this unquenchable thirst for both amidst what are mostly unforgiving circumstances. The use of structure to give the reader that intentional time away from Charles and Sophie and Lionel was aided by the myriad ways these themes made me reflect when we did return to this central narrative. One story that particularly stood out for this was ANNE OF CLEEVES, Marta particularly stirred so much reflection on the ways the world around us shapes our vulnerabilities, and our unconscious biases. The way these bleed into our psyche and taunt our ability to seek desire or allow ourselves to be vulnerable. The story is such a masterclass in writing tension and character depth within the short story form, it was exquisite!

For me the prose was at its peak in moments of small intimacies, whether it be the brush of hands under a blanket or the ways lips touched a coffee cup, and the electric way that Taylor wrote tension. By the same measure, there was a deftness to the way he wrote the feel of inconsequentialness in moments (usually sexual) of intense intimacy--there is an "act" in ANNE OF CLEEVES compared to shuffling along a chair for a stranger in a doctor's waiting room (oof!). The ways these were juxtaposed was striking and subtle at once, and has made some stories more than others stand out in my memory.


Many thanks to Riverhead/Netgalley for a review copy.



4.5 ⭐️

Another fantastic read from Brandon Taylor. After recently reading and loving REAL LIFE, I was excited to have an opportunity to read this collection of stories, and it solidified for me that nobody writes about the inner turmoil of underrepresented young people quite like he does. I had trouble putting it down because each story resonated so deeply with me.

I will be reviewing this on my IG closer to pub date, and will include a link then.

4.5 stars
I am so glad I’ve been going out of my comfort zone and reading more short story collections this year.
I loved how the most of the stories were interlinked. Short story collections are usually iffy with me because I want more. I felt the way these stories synced with each other gave me the “more” I always crave.
These stories explore race, sexuality, gender, and more. The portraits that are painted of these people all feel very intimate. All of these people are questioning life and what it means for them and what it gives them. They’re all a little bit fragile, and that’s okay. They’re making their way in their own time. I appreciated how their vulnerabilities were shown.
I have not yet had the pleasure of reading his other works, but you can bet I’ll be getting to them ASAP!

After recently reading Taylor's debut, I was thrilled to have the chance to read Filthy Animals too. At first I was hesitant - the first story parallels so much of the plot and characterization in Real Life. However it was the way that this initial plot thread is drawn through the other stories, which are always varied and from different perspectives, but are interlinked in some small or significant way, that really interested me. Taylor does a great job with character sketches - each individual feels authentic and flawed. Some stories were stronger than others, but I especially loved the ones that took off in a strange or new direction, like the babysitter dealing with a feral charge, or the young gay dancer experiencing a health scare and reflecting on his relationships with his siblings. This collection is really lovely.

This is a really impressive short story collection. I'm a fan of the author's first novel and this collection did not disappoint at all. The author writes about sexuality, race, class, and grief with deft tenderness and originality. As a negative, however, the stories are all in the same POV and the same style; this works well for me personally, but I can see how some readers may not click with the author's stylistic choice, and some people might crave more versatility. Still, I definitely recommend this collection overall!

I loved Real Life and I was pleased to find that this book is just as brilliant. I didn't realize it was a short story collection until I started reading it. It's interesting that some of the stories connect to each other and some don't, or not in any way that I could perceive. There is something about Brandon Taylor's writing that feels classic yet bleeding edge at the same time. I can't think of any other living author who writes the way he does, and I am here for every bit of it!

One of the most exciting authors writing right now. These beautiful stories fit together perfectly while also standing tall individually, a feat that's absolutely not easy to pull off. Can't wait to read more from him!

I liked Taylor's novel, Real Life, but these stories did not grab me in the same way as other collections do. Maybe it was the format on which I read it (digitally). The first story in the collection felt identical to Real Life.