O. Henry Award-winning author Rebecca Hirsch Garcia dazzles with her first collection of short stories, fourteen tales of ordinary lives that shift in extraordinary ways. Often employing magic realism to incorporate fantastic elements into scenes of common life, Garcia introduces us to a woman who escapes an unsatisfying marriage by becoming a cloud, another who saves the life of a man who becomes her stalker, a young girl who meets her father's mistress when his spare keys sing out her address, a child who has come to accept that her father is a serial kidnapper and murderer, and a wife struggling with the reality that her husband's a werewolf. Garcia's stories are sometimes disturbing but also deeply moving, making her characters seem real even when their circumstances are not, and there's a powerfully engaging naturalism in her prose. Let this bright new literary voice take you to some unexpected places.

I am a sucker for short stories, especially those centering around women. I really enjoyed most of the stories, a few I didn't enjoy quite as much. With so many different characters, views, themes, "lives," etc. I appreciate these odd and eerie stories! Very unique, light and spooky horror with a little magical realism. Some of them reminded me of Goosebumps. Definitely recommend for anyone that is a fan of short stories!

This was such an interesting collection, centred around being a woman, and the dissociation required to get through the day to day. I would 100% turn into a cloud if I could and float around with no responsibilities. It felt like Canada's answer to Watching Women & Girls but far more speculative and full of magical realism. The audiobook was great, I'm getting a real kick out of short story collections as audios as of late.

The very definition of a mixed bag, some of these stories are excellent, some are not so great. It's a shame really as many of these stories could have been flushed out into more fuller novellas that utilise Garcia's storytelling more profoundly.

Really great book with amazing characters and a great plot. Was easy to get into and it was very engaging. This is a book that I can see a lot of people in lit fic genre would love .

An amazing compilation of short stories!! Some were better than others but I ate all of it up! Highly recommend!

it is some times a little to hard to get stuck into a collection of short stories, I def preferred some more than others but I did enjoy the writing of this book even when I did not necessarily love the story

The stories in this collection tug at the heart, in a way that we can relate to their emotional content and also be transported with the magical elements, extraordinary happenings that take place in these pages. I found this combination, of emotional relatability and magical imagination a charming one and enjoyed reading them.

An aging woman dissatisfied with her body turns into a cloud. Two outcast teenagers find solace in bullying each other. A woman is (benevolently?) stalked by a man she saved from certain death. Rebecca Hirsch Garcia’s debut short-story collection explores the deeply human with a fabulist touch.

There are some good stories in this book! I particularly liked “Damage Control” and “Mother,” which I thought were the two tightest works in the collection. The titular story is also a very effective allegory for imperialist extraction and an interesting take on the old fairy tale. However, some of the other stories kind of faded into the background for me, and I found myself pushing through to the end on a few of them. The first story, “A Golden Light,” I thought had particularly weak prose, which was disappointing, as it didn’t reflect Garcia’s general skill and set a strange tone for the rest of the book. That being said, the stories certainly picked up from there, and I feel comfortable giving this a hearty 3 out of 5 cumulonimbus clouds.

A selection of stories that hit hard and stay with you. All the issues the author brings up are a must think in this contemporary world.

This was a really good collection of magical realism short stories, though I liked most of the others better than the titular story. The comparisons to Carmen Maria Machado and Angélique Lalonde are apt. Really beautiful writing. Hope to see more from this author!

Unavle to read and review.

Has the archive date changed for this? I came to download and found the archive date to be 2 months before the books release.

A strange and unusual selection of short stories, reminiscent to me at least to Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber in the feminist underpinnings and subliminal messaging found within each story, how women often compromise, putting their dreams on the back burner for others - an inability to break the cycle.

Certainly an author I'll keep track of, as I did find the selection within intriguing though perhaps a little rough around the edges.

Thank you NetGalley and ECW Press for the ARC, it's certainly given me a lot of food for thought.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review.
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I was intrigued by this title (and the cover) when I saw it was under the horror genre and the synopsis made it seem like it was a collection of dark and fascinating stories; unfortunately I didn't think it came close to what I take as horror and most of the stories themselves didn't keep me as gripped as I was anticipating.
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The main positive thing I can say about every story in this was how brilliant the writing is— this was about the only thing that made me want to read on and get to the next story each time. Rebecca's prose and how she builds certain scenes was genuinely addictive to read and like I say, was the number one motivator to keep going with the book.
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I was really hoping for more with the majority of the stories in this collection but one that I did really enjoy was Common Animals— I understood what Rebecca was trying to capture and I thought it was really well done, to the point I could feel for the main character in this one. A Golden Light and The Girl on the Metro were another couple I liked but other than that, there weren't many I really connected to or understood as deeply as I felt I should have. I also feel as if the main title should have perhaps been called Woman into Cloud since that was the story that seemed to take the most % of the whole book but that might just be me being picky.
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Overall, I'd say this was just an average collection of mildly strange short stories. They didn't do much for me personally but because of how much I liked the writing in each one, I'd still recommend to most people if this seems like it could be more your thing.

Breathtakingly strange. Loved every story. Five stars. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

This collection of short stories was edgy, and relevant. However, most of them felt confusing and incomplete to me and didn’t seem to flow well within the theme of the collective book. When I’m reading a cook of short stories, I prefer them to all flow well to hold my interest and I didnt Get that from this.

Thank you for this opportunity! This was an amazing series of short stories. Each one gripped the mind and would not let go. I throughly enjoyed myself.

These stories capture the dissociation required to exist in a femme body. Rebecca Hirsch Garcia uses surreal narratives to show how a woman’s body can be both a miracle and a curse. There is beauty and horror in this collection. Every single story was a gem that felt like it was born from the collective body. Many of these stories will haunt me because they spoke to feelings I never thought to share.

I received a digital advance reader copy from NetGalley and ECW Press in exchange for an honest review.

Completely brilliant. It’s so rare to read a collection of short stories where every single one hits its mark, and this is it!

it is always difficult with a collection of short stories, I def preferred some more than others
but I did enjoy the writing of this book even when I did not necessarily love the story