Review: Disasters in the First World by Olivia Clare

Title: Disasters in the First World
Author: Olivia Clare
Pages: 192
Genre: Short Stories, Fiction
Source: Free ARC from Grove Atlantic

Rating: D

Note: As stated under the Source (above), I received this book for free from Grove Atlantic via NetGalley. I pride myself on writing fair and honest reviews.

Review: Every once in a while, a book comes along that I can’t summarize, and this is one of those. Disasters in the First World is a collection of short stories. And the truth is, it wasn’t for me.

The stories didn’t appear to have any connection or underlying thread, or at least none that I could see. The only thing they really had in common was their strangeness. Not that I mind strangeness. In fact, I really crave some serious strange on the regular. But this wasn’t that kind of strange. Some of the stories made very little sense, and towards the end, everything felt so disjointed that I just couldn’t wait to be done with it. There wasn’t a single story that spoke to me, that made me feel, that I even kind of cared about. Ultimately, finishing the last few stories became work – work I didn’t want to do, but felt compelled to because I’d already gotten so far.

While I can certainly understand how others might find something redeeming in this collection, I’m clearly not one of those people.

2 Replies to “Review: Disasters in the First World by Olivia Clare”

  1. You know what they say, Different strokes for different folks. We all have those books that others love and we can’t connect. Better luck next time. Thanks for the honest review.

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