I absolutely loved Oddbody. Each story left me wanting more. Rose Keating has a way of dropping you into a fantastical world with no explanation but making it feel completely normal. The stories were visceral, fascinating and bizarre. They had a great element of body horror that left you squirming but not absolutely disgusted. Anyone who is a fan of weird girl literature will love this collection as much as I did. The writing was superb. My favorite stories were definitely Pineapple and Mouthful but really they were all incredible. I can't wait to read more from this author in the future.

I think too much of this went over my head to be a five but I’ve been thinking about it a lot so maybe it is. This short story collection is bizarre and visceral I could not look away. Lots of body horror and commentary on the human experience packed into these tales. My favorites were “squirm” in which a woman takes care of her father who has turned into a worm and “pineapple” where a woman undergoes more and more extreme body modifications. Oh hell I’m just going to go for a five. I already want to reread some of them.

Thank you to net galley and the publisher for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review. One I want to own physically for sure.

I was instantly sucked in by the atmosphere and writing style.
The characters were all very well developed .
The writing is exceptional and I was hooked after the first sentence.

What an incredible beautifully strange book!! If you like weird girl literature, this book is truly a gem!
I love this book so much! It was an easy 6/5 stars for me!

Each individual story had its own sense of magic and pizazz to it. The entire book sent me on a rollercoaster of various emotions ranging from being happy, sad, uncomfortable, grossed out, perplexed and surprised in the most amazing ways!

My favorite stories are:

Oddbody - A story about a woman being followed around by a menacing ghost. This story feels like a metaphor for depression. So well written and relatable!

Squirm - This story is about a woman that cares for her father. But, he’s a worm! It reminds me of the saying “I would love you, even if you were a worm!”

Mouthful - A short story about a woman that eats every single thing that she can get her hands on. It reminds me of Kirby and made me feel quite uncomfortable at times. But, I think that was the point!

Pineapple - A woman gets various unconventional body modifications. The wing modification was my favorite. She begins to question her relationship with her partner when he does not seem to support her choices with what she does with her body!

I really like how all of these various “strange things” are happening to the protagonists in the stories and everyone around them act like it is normal and not even strange at all. It made me feel a sense of comfort within my self as well. I could see the metaphorical depth within each one of them. These things that we consider “strange” or “unusual” is only because society tells us that they are.

Women that defy societal norms is my new favorite trope!

It feels so hard to believe that this is the author’s debut. I am so incredibly confident that others will fall in love with this book too!
I quickly pre-ordered after the first time that I read the arc!
I am excited to read all of the future books that Rose Keating writes as well!

A very big Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Simon and Schuster for the ARC in exchange for my honest review..

I love short stories. I love feminist short stories. I love feminist short stories with themes around the female body. I wanted to love these short stories, and I did love some of them. Oddbody by Rose Keating opens strong with the first two stories. One about a woman managing her life being followed by a ghost that is a manifestation of her depression/negative self-talk. The other is about a girl who is living with her father, who is living as a dog. I was impressed by the descriptive language, the visceral descriptions of the body, of moisture. I love how detailed the author is when she is describing people eating in several of the stories. Descriptive writing is the author’s strength. I felt that the author struggled with managing plot, particularly in the short form, with some of the later stories. The collection was a mixed bag. A later story that stood out involved an actress being prepared for a role that she knows little about with various cosmetic treatments and surgeries being requested by the director. This story had a narrator that would go back and forth from the story to speaking directly to the reader, somewhat provocatively. I thought the format of this story was done well and the ending lands. In other stories, the endings were lackluster and disappointing. There was one story where after reading the ending, I thought, “Did this story even need to be in the collection?”

Rose Keating is clearly a talented writer, and I think her talents would be better served in the format of a novel, which I would be excited to read from her. If you are someone who enjoys feminist short stories with graphic themes of the female body, I do think there are stories in this collection that are worth checking out. However, if you are not much of a short story person, I don’t think this collection will convince you.

The cover immediately caught my eye. It’s bold and a true representation of what to expect with Oddbody.

The stories are bizarre and might make you uncomfortable. I enjoyed some and others weren’t my vibe but I really appreciate an author that isn’t afraid to try new things and get weird!

Thank you to NetGalley, Rose Keating, and Simon & Schuster. I have written this review voluntarily and honestly.

Oddbody is a collection of ten (10) short stories and is the ultimate weird girl read of the summer! This has been such a strange and wonderful title to read, it’s difficult to pick a favorite from the collection because they are all so different and unlike anything else l've ever read or seen published.

Pineapple and Eggshells are my personal favorites for feeling like an uncanny form self exploration, Bela Lugosi Isn't Dead feels like a nostalgic sick day fever dream written out perfectly, and finally Squirm answering the question of, "would you still love me if I was
a worm?"

Oddbody is clever and strange, a total knockout set to release in July of 2025.

Thank you to Rose Keating, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for the arc opportunity! 🪱🥚

This was a solid 3.5 stars for me. This collection of short stories is definitely for a very specific type of reader, and there are many people who would not enjoy this writing at all. I think I would probably classify it as horror, since most of the stories have a theme of injury to the body, and there is lots of gore. Although some stories were super difficult for me to read, I do think Keating has such a unique perspective, so her writing does always feel inventive and incredibly original. I probably wouldn't read more of her work in the future (just because I felt sort of nauseous while reading this), but for some readers, I'm sure they'll be excited to check out more of her writing in the future.

ARC 📖 Review: Oddbody by Rose Keating
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Pub Date: July 1, 2025.

These were some of the weirdest stories I’ve read! They were disjointed and some felt like they ended abruptly.. I enjoyed the collection but I didn’t love them.

Thank you @netgalley and @simonbooks for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

👻👩🏼

In her debut collection, Rose Keating takes you on a bold journey through the intricacies of sex, shame, and womanhood. With ten enchanting short stories, she crafts an emotional masterpiece that challenges us to reflect on the movement and needs of our bodies. Strange yet utterly mesmerizing, Oddbody is a provocative exploration that feels both surprising and sincerely authentic.

these weird little stories really channel some dark, abject themes, exploring the limits of the body. as it seems with any collection, some stories were stronger than others—my favorites were “pineapple” and “notes on performance.” some of the language was a bit superfluous and extravagant, but it fed the narratives well.

Since the death of Alice Munro and the .... truth about her husband, I've been searching for the right short story writer.

Rose Keating might be it.

Body horror, ghosts..... basically if you are a weird girl...this is for you.

This isn't going to be for everyone, but it is for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a review copy.

Oddbody is a very impressive short story collection. The writing is so strong that I was very surprised to see that this is a debut collection. The stories are unabashedly weird - "literary bizarro" is the term that keeps coming to mind. Absolutely bonkers situations are presented in a very mundane way, making them all the more unsettling. 4 stars

Oddbody ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Squirm ⭐⭐⭐⭐.25
Mouthful ⭐⭐⭐
Bela Lugosi Isn't Dead ⭐⭐⭐
Pineapple ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
Next to Cleanliness ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
Notes on Performance ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Eggshells ⭐⭐⭐⭐.75
The Test ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Vegetable ⭐⭐⭐

Halfway through this debut collection, I knew that this book had topped everything I've read this year so far

Sometimes, when you're reading a book, you just connect with everything on the page. It gives you everything you're looking for, scratching every itch that you have. This was that book for me. This is Keating's debut book, a collection of ten odd yet tender stories, and after finishing this book, I shall read anything that this author comes out with from here on out. It's weird, disturbing, and so uncomfortable yet simultaneously sweet and genuine.

I could give an in-depth breakdown of the individual stories, but I feel like that would be robbing you of the experience of the book itself. I can tell you what you can expect; there's body horror, melancholy, and humor that I legitimately laughed out loud at. Some stories I loved more than others (Eggshells & Oddbody) but there was not a single story that I didn't connect with and adore. They're all bizarre and beautiful.

It's hard not to go on and on about Oddbody but let me just leave you with this: if I can convince you to read just one book from my account this year, let this be the one.

5.75/5🐑

I really liked this short story collection! I am a big fan of body horror, so this really worked for me. At times I couldn’t believe this is from a debut author. I will definitely be keeping this author on my radar for future work. My favorite stories were squirm, Bela Lugosi isn’t dead and Pineapple. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes body horror. I can’t wait to see what else this author comes out with!

In Oddbody, Rose Keating delivers a series of aloof feminist body horror short stories.

All of Keating’s short stories in this collection take on a feverish, dream-like quality as her characters privately deal with obscene supernatural elements in a version of our contemporary world that acknowledges, but rarely embraces, these phenomena. In “Squirm,” the main character isolates herself as she cares for her dad who has turned into a worm. In “Eggshells,” the protagonist lays eggs that take the shape of varying objects and entities which verbally harass her. In “Next to Cleanliness,” a woman is told something is fundamentally wrong with her as a person as she attempts a series of gruesome cleanses. And so on and so forth. Each story deals with an alienating and humiliating aspect of womanhood through somewhat abstract gelatinous dismemberment and gore. Unfortunately, when placed next to each other in a collection, their signature style and repetitive tropes cause them to blend together.

I think that some people will love this collection, but for me the feminist insights and body horror often seemed rather stale—perhaps if I had read Oddbody five years ago or so, before feminist body horror experienced a surge in popularity, I would have appreciated it more. The most I got out of the majority of the stories was a slight nudge of satisfaction when I thought, “Oh, I see what she’s doing here.” But beyond the mild appreciation of her rendering of feminist issues in creative ways, I mostly felt bored. I think the main reason for my boredom is that Keating writes these stories in a detached, somewhat absurdist manner that obscures character emotions and foreignizes their relationships with each other. It’s a common technique used in literary short stories that gives them an alien, dream-like feel: characters do and say and feel things without much explanation. I am confident enough in Keating’s ability as a writer to assume she makes this stylistic choice intentionally so as to mimic the feeling of unreality and isolation women experience in their daily lives. However, more often than not this technique led me to feel disconnected to the stories, and I didn’t find their creativity or social commentary made up for that lack. I’m confident others will connect to this collection more strongly than I did, so I still recommend giving it a try if it sounds like something you might enjoy.


Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was the strangest short story collection I've ever read. And although the stories are well=crafted and well-written, I've found I just cannot with any kind of body horror. And there was a TON of body horror in each story. From cutting off body parts to sewing on other parts, to laying human eggs, I'm just not a fan.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this digital e-arc.*

Individual story ratings:

Oddbody 4.5⭐️
Squirm 4⭐️
Mouthful 3.5⭐️
Bela Lugosi Isn’t Dead 4⭐️
Pineapple 4.5⭐️
Next to Cleanliness 4⭐️
Notes on Performance 4⭐️
Eggshells 4⭐️
The Test 3.5⭐️
The Vegetable 4⭐️

Full review:

This was a solid short story collection. While it feels incredibly cohesive and as though many of these take place in the same world, each story is distinct and has something different to say. This is also one of those collections that has a high re-readability value to it—the stories aren’t dense and are fun to read, and some of them are layered enough that I think a reader could learn or notice something new each time they read it.

The writing is strong and each story played like a movie in my mind as I read. It made for an immersive experience, and even two weeks later, I can think back to any one of these stories and those images are still perfectly clear in my mind.

Mouthful and The Test were the only two I rated less than four stars, and both for the same reason: I felt they could have been more fleshed out, and I wanted them to be a bit longer. Especially with Mouthful: it was uncomfortable to read (in a good way), and there was a palpable sadness to it, bordering on despair. I would have loved for that one to have been explored more, as the ending was far too abrupt.

My favorites were Oddbody, Squirm, and Pineapple. Oddbody is simple (compared to others), but man, it killed me. It was the only story in this collection to make me tear up. Pineapple was also pretty straightforward, but the idea was delivered to us in such a unique and interesting way. With Squirm, I’ll be honest, I don’t fully understand what’s going on, but I cannot get the imagery out of my mind. This is the story that comes back to me most viscerally. These three were the strongest because they felt the most complete to me.

Overall, I loved this and would recommend it to any short story fans or people looking to give them a try!

WARNING: WEIRD GIRL BOOK

I read a lot of weird short story collections and this is perhaps one of the weirdest. A damn impressive debut from Keating with a collection centering on bodies and social outcasts. If I had to sum it up in two words: Disturbing and sharp.

This collection blends in a truly remarkable way. Where a lot of collections attempt to keep all their stories in one world, this one felt like I was zooming in on different sims lots after installing a lot of weird mods (complimentary). She effortlessly makes truly fantastical magical realism feel so normal and grounded. It doesn't shy from the body horror and the metaphors are anything but subtle. It definitely isn't for everyone, but this was an absolute winner for me.

This is an author I am very very excited to see more from.


Actual notes I wrote down:
Periods are out, laying eggs is in
would you still love me if I was a worm?
damn I liked that weird sheep
that can't possibly be enjoyable??
is the cat ok?????

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Unfortunately I DNFed this. I actually really loved the first story, but then the next two didn’t work for me and kind of grossed me out. I think that was the author’s aim, but it just wasn’t for me.

A “weird girl”, body horror collection of short stories relating to womanhood. Some were really fun, others felt a bit forced. Mostly I wished that they were each slightly more than just a short story since Keating weaved intriguing worlds and concepts - just wanted them to stick the landing a little more. Would read a full length horror novel from Keating though!

Thanks NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this eARC!