Review by Booklist Review
In Kate Doyle's engaging debut story collection, friendships unravel, relationships combust, and families splinter. Young women wrestle with deep emotions and obsessive behaviors, imagining what might have been or what could be. They move back in with their parents after failures, and ruin relationships with new friends and lovers by fixating on those from their past. Helen, a recurring character, spirals into depression after the end of an important childhood friendship. In "Moments Earlier," Owen can't let go after the sudden and unexpected death of a friend. The uneasy narrator of "You Are with Me" considers motherhood, which she's not sure she wants, in order to repay her partner's kindness. In "Aren't We Lucky," twin sisters spar with their mother while living through the chaos of a home renovation. Doyle's narrators are complex and flawed; their struggles are utterly relatable to anyone who has questioned their choices or grappled with the end of a relationship.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Doyle's brutally honest debut collection explores the joy and disappointment of familial, platonic, and romantic relationships. "Two Pisces Emote About the Passage of Time" follows 27-year-old Christine as she attempts to adjust to life in New York City after her roommate moves out of state, lamenting her sense of disconnect from her past while simultaneously sensing her ominous, growing obsession with the city ("New York has symbolic weight for me"). In "What Else Happened," Hannah struggles with her academic choices in college but won't admit it, fiercely believing that she needs "people to think that whatever was happening to me, I had planned it exactly that way." Failing to achieve in the classroom, she quietly dismantles the relationships around her and only finds peace on her own, in a different country. After an explosive family dinner, the unnamed narrator of "We Can't Explain" wonders how to share her family woes with her current love interest--"years of this, and how will I explain to you?" Doyle exposes family dynamics with humor and sincerity, skillfully exploring the interplay between devotion andbetrayal. Readers will savor Doyle's bracing blend of witand candor. Agent: Gráinne Fox, United Talent Agency. (July)
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