Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This is an odd little short story collection told kind of like an exposé of white people right after the pandemic. It's a scathing satire that made me laugh at times, cringe at times, and meditate on my own whiteness at times. I think it's well worth a read, though most pieces are very stream of consciousness style and that may not be to everyone's taste. I think with all of the stories being that way, it got a little tiring after a while. I found myself wanting a little more variety to the form and content of some stories.

The most narrative story, "Lord Wumpa" was by far my favorite as it also played with genre a little and had some culty horror elements.

Whites by Mark Doten is a collection of 14 short stories deeply tapped into current American white culture—especially its intersections with the internet and politics. COVID, Trump, insurrectionists, “libs”—it’s all here, filtered through Doten’s sharp, surreal, and often unsettling lens.

I found several pieces just absolutely brilliant. I’m Wide Awake It’s Jumpman gives an insurrectionist a fully fleshed-out life, complete with Pokémon references, a shoe collector’s podcast, and the contradictions of being a Midwest gender-nonconforming Trumper. Lord Wumpa takes a long-shelved, problematic brand mascot and runs with it in wild, unpredictable ways. And I’m not sure the imagery from The Banana Bunch Challenge will ever leave my brain.

Doten captures the loneliness of white American culture and its symbiotic relationship with internet communities and racist political ideology with uncanny accuracy. From the very first story, I knew this collection would be unlike anything I’d ever read, and I’m so grateful for that experience.

Thanks to Graywolf Press and NetGalley for the e-ARC.

Whites is a sharp, satirical collection of short stories that dives headfirst into the tangled web of racism, privilege, and identity in contemporary life. With wit, discomfort, and an unflinching gaze, Mark introduces a cast of characters who range from the outright abhorrent anti-vax nurses, 4chan-fueled white supremacists , to the morally conflicted nonbinary survivors of abuse, liberal expats in Mexico City, DEI consultants navigating performative ally ship.

Each story is a punch to the gut followed by a nervous laugh. You’ll cringe, you’ll question your own biases, and you may even feel empathy for people doing objectively terrible things. That’s the brilliance of it, Mark doesn’t let you off easy. These aren’t morality tales with neat endings. They're messy, funny, disturbing snapshots of a country (and a world) teetering on the edge of cultural reckoning.

From the pandemic and school shootings to Black Lives Matter and the contradictions of white liberal guilt, Whites challenges every reader, regardless of background, to look in the mirror. Because while you might not be the CEO of a baking conglomerate or someone who believes fences are walls, these stories will leave you wondering: What part am I playing in all of this?

[4 stars]

With 14 short stories in just about 160 pages, Whites thrusts us into the rapid ramblings of various (USA-centric) white people of different ages on different mediums trying to explain away their thought processes. From a man on 4Chan writing out his manifesto after murdering his parents to a white business owner speaking to a black woman he wrote to write up the company’s BLM statement after getting called out to a Congressman giving a statement about border walls to the public, Doten is able to pull together these people into a genuinely funny collection of satire pieces.

I love when a collection of works are all obviously in the same collection because of a shared style. In this case, it's no quotation marks, (mostly) first person, stream of consciousness ramblings. There's a general sense of “I need to explain my case” in all of these stories - most of them take place after some event occurs that triggers the meltdown - and it is wonderful. It’s also why this collection took me over a month to read through, as it was just tiring at times to really appreciate each story with this stream of consciousness style. Not a fault to the book, but this is definitely a one-story-a-day-at-most collection. The stories, though short even compared to other short stories, have so much to bite into. They are funny, they are genuinely good pieces of satire, they feel so real, the writing is excellent, and many characters are able to just almost convince you (especially in the titular story “Whites” and “50 Thousand Gringos”).

I’m American and mixed white, so I’m not sure how much you’d get out of these stories if you’re not American (or Canadian, I presume). Maybe if you’re online enough or follow American media and news, more of it would come through, but it’s definitely something to consider before picking it up. Not a fault of the book and I still think non-Americans could get a laugh out of many of the stories, but there is definitely an intended demographic. Also, if you’re completely burned out on books/stories about COVID19, maybe put this one aside for now. The book focuses on the responses of white Americans in various situations and lives in the recent years, which includes multiple stories about the pandemic (only one or two of these have the virus as part of the main topic, but it's a set piece to many - if not most - of the stories here). I felt that its inclusion was necessary considering the topic of satire here, but I still see complaints about “pandemic stories” so I figured I’d mention (though all but one of the stories that mention it take place post-quarentine).

The best story was “Lord Wumpa”. Here, the CEO/higher up of a large bakery company is talking to a black woman who co-hosts a true crime podcast with her sister and recently has made an episode calling out the bakery company for creating ultra-processed high-sugar foods targeted towards black communities, having a racial character as a mascot in the past, and the possible relation to the murders/disappearances of many black people in the area around their factory. The business man refutes these claims, saying everything from the fact that their health-minded products have become more popular since quarantine, that they work with many distributors with black salespeople, to that they retired the mascot long ago. As the story progresses and we read the paragraph after paragraph of the ramblings, weird little things start popping up, building until the reveal. It’s such a good piece of slow build storytelling in a short story format. “A Fence is Not Walls” is another and is such a good piece of flash fiction (two paragraphs!) that has been on my mind since reading (and is so far the only story I have re-read multiple times). The titular story “Whites” was great and really hit that “I want to feel bad for you” sense that several other stories also do right. “Every Soul Ever” was very short (almost to its detriment), but a well-fitting send off to the collection.

There are a few stories that really did not work for me. “J6ers” felt like nothing to me and was overshadowed by parts of “I’m Wide Awake It’s Jumpman” later (which itself was well-written, but I think I just didn’t “get” if that makes sense). “Pray for Q” just did not work for me at all and I did not think the sudden shift came off right at all. The ratio of good to bad stories is still way in the positive, though, and none spoil the rest of the bunch.

Whites is such a strong and thorough collection with so much to dig into. Though definitely anti-Trump/Maga/white supremacy, Doten goes out of their way to pick some un-obivous targets for their satire. These include a nonbinary podcaster and a woman working in a nonprofit benefiting the homeless who genuinely cares for her work - all white, of course. There is a big range in ages as well, from teenagers to the elderly. I was impressed with how fresh and not repetitive that Doten was able to make each of their stories within the constraints of their chosen writing style. Very skilled writing even outside of the realm of satire/humor. A strong collection to pick up and with stories short enough to not lose your interest, I highly recommend.

[Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!]

Doten is great at capturing voice, but I was missing more of a narrative in these short stories. Ultimately, while I think he was really successful at creating the tone and characters he set out to, the book read more like a collection of monologues than a book of stories.

From the moment I read “Even Elon…” the first story in Doten’s collection I knew I was in for a wild ride. My personal favorites were “Banana Bunch Challenge” and “I’m Wide Awake It’s Jumpman.” These two really allowed me to roam around in the protagonist’s psyche, but I also found some of the much shorter stories like “A Fence Is Not Walls” and “Burns” equally effective in their lightning like ability to jolt the reader. I’m still disturbed by “Lord Wumpa.”

With a healthy serving of cynicism, humor, and home truths, Doten accomplishes something remarkable with Whites. You may be tempted to enter this collection under the impression you will simply be guffawing with each turn of the page, but be prepared to have a good, hard look in the mirror. The author is relentless in his satire, peering into the crooks and crannies of his character’s minds. A wonderfully uncomfortable reading experience that made me cringe, sigh, and laugh aloud.