Welp. I thought I would get some interesting meditations on solitude and loneliness here, and mostly what I actually got was a sort of secret spilling, confessional booth for writers, which was not what I expected and as I learned while reading it, also not what I wanted.

Credit to the writers featured in this collection for their honesty and candidness. But I think most of what they are “confessing” here, while deeply meaningful to them, doesn’t necessarily play well for a general audience.

A lot of pandemic stuff here too, which is unsurprising, but not something of interest to me as a reader because, quite frankly, I just recently lived it and it sucked. Addiction stories too are of no interest to me, and there is a good bit of that sort of content here as well.

There are a few stories here that I did like and are worth your time, all of which felt more in line with what I thought this collection would be rather than what most of it turned out to be.

-At the Horizon, Maggie Shipstead
-Maine Man, Lev Grossman
-Alone Time, Lena Dunham
-Trading Stories, Jhumpa Lahiri

These four are absolutely worth a read, the rest you can take a pass on.

I was drawn right away by the title but then what drew me in was the authors listed on the front. This was a great book. I thought it was going to be really sad but it wasn’t. Some stories were so moving but yet others, even though sad, were uplifting. I love books like this because it is one that can be read here and there and you can come back to it at any time and not have forgotten where you left off.

It's always hard to rate collections because there are some stories I'll love and others that will leave me uninterested. In <i>The Lonely Stories</i> edited by Natalie Eve Garrett, I enjoyed almost each story on loneliness as they vary from narrations about the pandemic, FOMO, solo travel, racism, hospital stays, solo travel, being a nonnative speaker in a foreign country, and relationships.

My favorites include:

- <i>To Speak is to Blunder but I Venture</i> by Yiyun Li
- <i>A Strange and Difficult Joy</i> by Helena Fitzgerald
- <i>The Body Secret</i> by Aja Gabel
- <i>The Perpetual Foreigner<i> by Jean Kwok
- <i>Letting Go</i> by Maya Shanbhag Lang
- <i>At the Horizon</i> by Maggie Shipstead
- <i>Ward</i> by Imani Perry
- <i>Mother-Wit</i> by Jeffery Renard Allen
- <i>Alone Time</i> by Lena Dunham
- <i>The Woman Who Walked Alone</i> by Amy Shearn
- <i> Notes from the Midpoint of a Celibate Year</i> by Melissa Febos

I had a difficult time engaging with the stories. Not a fault of the book, in my opinion. Each person's loneliness is different and I was looking to view something similar to my experience in this book and didn't really get that but I would still recommend this book to others.

An uneven anthology of stories focusing around the topic of loneliness. Some essays were difficult to get through, and others were a delight. Overall, a good read to pick through the musings of some really talented writers (i'll read anything melissa febos writes!), and to skip the stories that don't interest you.

I think I picked this book up at least twenty times (no exaggeration) to finally make it through. This book had a lot of potential, but it really fell flat for me. The writing felt abrupt and random throughout the book. I kept hoping for at least one story that I could really resonate with, but it never came.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

i love short story collections and this one was wonderful!!! such great contributors!! i would highly recommend!

Wow, just wow. Maybe I found this particularly resonant having weathered the pandemic alone in NYC, or maybe having experienced the profoundly painful loss of a parent right before the world shut down, or maybe because I’m an extroverted only child or, maybe, just because it is full of gorgeous fully felt feels for which I’ve always been a bit of a sucker. Call me a mush bucket, but this deeply personal essay collection has 5/5 stars from my head and my heart. Beautiful, funny, heartbreaking, inspiring, and immensely thought provoking. @nevegarrett what an accomplished curation that introduced me to some new voices and added all of their works to my mountain of a #tbr list 🤭 thank you!

THE LONELY STORIES is a compelling, interesting collection of stories on solitude and loneliness with contributions from some of my favorite authors: so I was thrilled to receive this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This collection was carefully curated- at times poignant and vulnerable, and emotional throughout. I read this across several settings, as the topic is heavy and the stories can be a bit repetitive. Overall, it was an enjoyable read and fun to see many favorite authors contribute!

This was a really great collection of essays that focused on loneliness. There were a few that I didn’t relate to, but it was still interesting to read each writer’s essay. There were quite a few essays in the collection that have been republished in this book. If you are familiar with some of the writers’ work then a few of the essays may be familiar.

A great collection. I was worried that writing about loneliness can come off as a time sink into depression or trying to be uplifting, but this careful curation of contributions from all-star writers is never condescending or trying to be too relatable. This is a great essay collection to round out anyone's bookish library!

Some of the stories were very touching and poignant, but I felt that some fell short. It is a good collection with varied stories that I am sure everyone can find something to love.

A good collection of stories! AS with any story group I really liked some and slogged through others but overall a good read!
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me an arc for an honest review.

Whew. That was pretty heavy. I wish I hadn't read it in one sitting, mostly because it got a bit repetitive, and I feel like it would have been sweeter over the course of a few days. Definitely something it's best to be in the mood for. This book of personal essays from established authors about loneliness leans into the experience of the exceptional — but it's melancholy with a twinge of hope for the rest of us. It opened my mind to the beauty of enjoying my own presence.

Favorites include essays by Imani Perry, Lena Dunham, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jessamyn Ward, and Melissa Febos. I was also surprised to see Jeffery Renard Allen involved given his recent legal controversy.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved "A Strange and Difficult Joy", "The Body Secret", "Perpetual Foreigner", and "Notes from the Midpoint of a Celibate Year". It was really vulnerable and emotional. All the stories were well-written and beautiful.

A balm for those of us who wander the world alone, by either design or fate.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

As with all collections of short stories, there were some that I would consider to be better than others. I really enjoyed some of them, whereas others I wasn't inhume fan of. Overall I would definitely recommend this collection to those looking for some short and insightful stories about a ranging group of topics all centering the feeling of loneliness. In some ways this was very healing to read coming into our third year of the pandemic.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

This is a great book. I recommend it.

Agh, this was somehow a wonderful and horrible anthology to read these past few months. A lot of the authors wrote these short stories (or more aptly mini 'memoirs') while stuck at home and the writing (and even the narratives) range from middling to mind-blowing. But hot damn, this collection as a whole was a punch to the stomach. Depending on your mood, the authors' observations will either catapult you into the realm of existential dread or their musings will serve as a reminder that feelings of loneliness (and dreading loneliness) are universal.

My favourite stories included: Ward by Imani Perry, 75 x 2 by Maile Meloy, Letting Go by Maile Meloy, and the best of them all... Trading Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri.

This felt like something I would like, but it didn't grab me. I ended up not finishing this title. I really think that others will enjoy it though.