Jessie Ren Marshall is a very talented writer. Like most anthologies, there was mixed quality, but the stories that didn't work for me were still very well written. She has unique plots for a lot of the stories, but I really appreciate the ones that are subtle sad girl vignettes. My favorites were Annie 2, Dog, Late Girl, and The Birds in Trafalgar Square. My least favorite were My Immaculate Girlfriend, Mrs. Fisher, and Sister Fat. Some of the stories felt a bit like "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" where the characters are supposed to be reprehensible, but I don't think it worked in these stories. I'm interested to see what she'll write in the future.

A set of stories/essays about women who push against society.

I didn’t realize this was a collection of stories when I requested it. The synopsis did make that very clear and I think it also should have been on the title. I don’t love story collections so probably would have stayed away from this one if it had been clearer it was stories.

I SCREAMED WHEN THIS ONE SHOWED UP ON MY FRONT PORCH!!!

I am so thankful to Bloomsbury Books, Jessie Ren Marshall, and Netgalley for granting me advanced digital and physical access to this beauty before it hits shelves on April 2, 2024.

Women! In! Peril! is a beautifully produced collection of feminist narratives that are both relatable, heartbreaking, and empowering. We've got tales of sex robots who want to be loved and cared for in their host home. There's a tale about the Immaculate Lesbian "Mary," who is about to bring a miracle into this world and gains the acceptance of a local church looking to patronize her. There's a tale about the last woman on Earth, now in space, looking to survive this world and cohabitate on a new planet. There are breakup stories and coming-of-age narratives that are sure to shed a tear and leave you wanting to give all the hugs in the world to these unfortunate women, for they are in peril in every situation, and it's real.

This was so well done and I look forward to more of our author's work to come.

Thank you to NetGalley/Bloomsbury USA for a copy of Women! In! Peril! in exchange for an honest review.
Jessie Ren Marshall’s Women! In! Peril! has a great title and a great cover. I’m also so impressed that the same author wrote all 12 stories. That shows a lot of breadth. Marshall has a way with language that is raw and real (I’m not surprised she’s a playwright).

Unfortunately, only a few of the stories in this collection stood out to me. I loved the book’s first story, which centers on a sex robot and her desire to please, which is, in fact, her only desire in life. The story is chilling and rich with humanity.

Another standout is about a woman who may as well be called a “womban,” on a ship with other “womben” on their way to help populate “Planet B.” It’s of the moment but still far enough away that “enuf” is the acceptable spelling.

The third story I liked was about a dancer who’s great but not excellent. Then, she gets into an accident and loses her memory of the event.

I am trying to figure out what I didn’t like about the other stories other than they bored me somewhat. But what about them bored me? Every story in this collection features women (in peril). Perhaps the other stories are more mundane. Maybe I need something high-action.

I’m certain that there will always be some stories that one person likes more than another, but I can’t help but shake the idea that the ones I liked were, in fact, better than the others. Short stories are challenging to write. They are much less forgiving than novels. And they require more of the author and reader than flash fiction.

Should You Read It?
I do think that Women! In! Peril! is worth reading for the three stories I mentioned. But you’ll probably want to check it out from the library instead of forking over nearly $20.00 on it.

Women! In! Peril! comes out on April 2, 2024.

I have a high pain tolerance for oddities. I picked this because it looked like it was right up my alley, but each story was just uncomfortable enough for me to say, “well…” I understand that nothing “happened” but I had to draw the line with the teacher falling in lust with a 15-year-old. I don’t think it is a good subject for books, or movies or anything. When a student has a crush on a teacher, I understand that story. The teacher isn’t an active participant. This was too much. Sorry.

this book was … fine! it’s definitely a “weird book for weird girl” type of book. the variety of short stories was nice to read, and I thought each short story was full-fledged. each story was confusing as you were reading it, but by the end of the selection, everything made sense, like for every single short.

please check TWs for this book!

thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for allowing me to read this early! I was pleasantly surprised with this collection of short stories. There were a handful that I really enjoyed and a few that I didn’t. But overall, this is a really great collection of stories. I think it is interesting how it spans over a few different genres but has an overall Women’s Literature Fiction genre to it. Makes you interested to see what is coming next.

in the way of most short story collections, this one had its hits and misses, though those misses for me had less to do with quality of writing and more to do with personal preference. i found the comprehensive collection overall to be excellent, with themes of womanhood, maternity, grief, yearning, and identity explored.

i am still thinking about some of the sci-fi stories that were in this collection - a genre that the author REALLY excelled. the first story called <i>annie 2</i> absolutely is the knockout star of the whole thing and i haven't stopped thinking about it since - a mom buys a robot for her son, grieving the end of a relationship, with the idea that the robot can, uh, service him. here, we explore the "rules" of the robot (if she is penetrated, then she can't be refunded), the expectation that if she's not being used for pleasure then she's used for housework, a scratch on her skin being considered her fatal "flaw", how she walks off a cliff at the end at the direction of her owner because she's been sucked of all her use. wow. wow wow wow wow wow.

there was another sci-fi gem here - women! in! peril! - taking place on a spaceship where groups of women able to get pregnant are being transported in cryogenic sleep states to a planet populated with virile men in order to preserve the human race. this story is cleverly told in "blurts" aka short snippets of dialogue from a character that's been woken up from her sleep state to get her scheduled exercise and goes through what happens when she realizes the ship has gotten off course and is headed for catastrophe. loved, loved, loved.

there was also a gorgeous sapphic treat in late girl, a story about a dancer who has been in an accident and lost her memory, about the memory in her body for her dancing and a love that she may have forgotten. i could have read about a million extra words on this story and loved it.

other stories - those culminating in the end of marriages to cheating husbands and motherhood (i am sorry, child-free lesbian here) - were still very good, but not things that meant as much to me out of preference, though i do think that people other than me will get a lot out of them.

jessie ren marshall is a highly cinematic, visual writer. i felt drawn-in and engaged in every sentence and i was impressed with the way her tone oscillated to suit each story and character. i would reaaaaaaally love a full-length novel from this writer and judging from the variety of stories that we're treated to in this collection, i think anything she writes in whatever genre she chooses will, in fact, be an absolute banger.

AHHH! What did I just read? I cried, I laughed, & I wandered through the plains of existential dread. I had a blast reading these. Each story paired well with a morning cup of coffee & an evening cup of a tea before bed.

The social commentary paired with humor in these short stories is nothing short of epic.

This collection of stories are all so stylistically different from each other that I thought there was more than one author. Each story is diverse & immersive. Perfect lengths too.

Highly recommend.

Women! In! Peril! not only has an incredible title, but this collection of short stories is jam-packed with a variety of quirky, misunderstood, and strong female protagonists. Each story is its own little universe, and I was impressed how much character development and world building was contained in each one. From sex robots to a miraculous conception to a space journey to Planet B, this book covers a lot of ground and held my interest the entire time. Like any collection, I gravitated to some stories more than others, but I loved that the writer didn't hold back with big topics like queerness, Asian identity, complex romantic and familial relationships, and navigating the world as a woman in what is typically a male-dominated world. I look forward to future books!

thanks to NetGalley for the eARC

⭐️=4 | 😘=5 | 🤬=4 | ⚔️=3.75 | 🍺/🚬=3 | 18+

summary: short stories about: Asian American women, android women, sci-fi/dystopia spaceship women, stuck-on-an-island women, lesbians mysteriously impregnated by God—all the women!!

thoughts: the first few stories were really great, but the rest ranged from meh to what just happened to okay?? so like read the first three (they’re so good!) and then maybe skim the rest

content note(s): racism, sexism

it's always kinda odd to see a bunch of rave reviews on a book you didn't end up caring much for! this was fun and some stories were a lot stronger than others, but ultimately I feel like it fell a little flat for me. something about the voice was hard to get into, and a lot of the stories felt goofier than I think I was in the mood for.

I did love the queer + feminist themes throughout a lot of them, and still found it to be an interesting and creative collection overall. a couple of the stories definitely packed a punch and I would still be interested in reading more Jessie Ren Marshall if she writes anything else!

3.5 rounded down. thanks netgalley and bloomsbury for the arc!

I was admittedly drawn to this short story collection in part due to its title but also the cover, and I ended up with more than I bargained for — in a good way.

This short story collection will make you laugh but also make you feel something — I love the blend of humour and social commentary, touching on subjects related to women, our experiences, the way we're perceived by others and ultimately treated by male counterparts.

One of the things I liked most about this collection of stories is how different they were both in writing style and in subject matter while staying on the theme of girlhood.

The last story was probably my favourite. I think what impressed me the most about the collection overall was so much character depth in a short story collection.

Thank you Bloomsbury for the eARC!

Women! In! Peril! by Jessie Ren Marshall is a sharp and thought-provoking collection of short stories that reflects upon the experience of womanhood, coupled with intersectional identities. Marshall does an excellent job of highlighting the scrutiny and judgement women are often placed under, tackling subjects of bodily autonomy, race, and relationships (among many more) with innovative stories and plots.

In the eponymous story, Women! In! Peril! Marshall uses science fiction to comment on the dire state of our planet, as well as the disheartening manner in which women are treated upon it. This approach was incredibly engaging and inventive, while perfectly communicating very serious topics.

I loved that Marshall didn’t pull a single punch with this collection, and I would highly recommend it!

A fantastic unique group of stories Realy enjoyed each one. From the books title the cover the wonderful writing I enjoyed this book from beginning to end.#netgalley #bloomsbury

This collection does a fantastic job of being both literary and entertaining. The author is a very talented storyteller with a wonderful attention to language and detail. These stories contain dark humor as well as wise insights. Some of them contain elements of the absurd and others bring in a science fiction/fantasy angle. I found them wildly inventive and fun. Some readers might find some of the topics to be disturbing, so content warnings would be helpful.

Highly recommended for fans of experimental fiction, similar in some ways to Carmen Maria Machado.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance e-galley; all opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

So, this collection starts off the bat with some really powerful stories– the story the book is named after, "Women! In! Peril!" is probably one of the best short stories I've ever read. It's a speculative story told from an incredibly unreliable narrator, where you are almost urged to try to fill in the blanks, but when you do, you come up more confused than you previously were. It's a fascinating story that I hope to be able to discuss with others when this is published. So you can imagine my disappointment when the other stories in the book felt boring and kind of cliche? Like, the one direction after "Women! In! Peril!" which is mostly a woman dealing with a divorce, or one in which you are in the mind of a teacher who forms a crush on her high school student in the midst of life crises. These stories aren't bad–arguably, they're technically flawless– but they're not nearly as gripping as the few standouts of this collection. I've left the decision to recommend this for the IndieNext list up to the owner of the bookstore itself. I do think the titular story is worth the whole book, but I can't promise the whole book will be everyone's cup of tea.

Worth a read for the titular story alone, Women! In! Peril! explores uncomfortable womanhood, displaying intentionally unflattering angles of femininity that aren't usually given space in storytelling. Discomfort, selfishness, misogyny, and all sorts of negative traits are at the forefront here, exposed without judgment and explored honestly. Jessie Ren Marshall is a new voice in literary fiction to be reckoned with.

Wow! Riveting short stories, From "Annie" to "Immaculate" to "Our Country Daughter" - here is smart, wry commentary, playful language, and inventive storytelling. I loved the list form in "Immaculate" and the character's interior monologue (felt like a sister or cousin of Miranda July). All in all, very enjoyable.

I included this amazing book in a round-up article on books I am looking forward to in 2024 at Michigan Quarterly Review. Here is what I wrote about it:

" This collection is a gift of humor and an extraordinary imagination combined with astute insight into the inner lives of characters and the social pressures that constrain them. Jessie Ren Marshall’s work shows a command of her craft but also a love of play, experimentation, fun, which I love as a reader. I cannot wait for these stories of ghosts, sex robots, Deep Space, queerness, parenting, divorce, and identity to be out in the world."

I immediately loved this book from the first page. All the stories were centered around women's experiences and some stories also dealt with themes on Asian American identity. Every story was unique and darkly comical. I loved everything about it. After reading it I wanted to read everything Jessie Ren Marshall has written and will ever write.