Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This was such a rich, gorgeous collection of short stories, and I loved it so much. Sad, funny, reflective, humane all at the same time.

The collection encompasses six short stories and a novella that each deals in its particular way with topics such as gender, racism, discrimination, and grief.
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The collection made for an interesting read with each narrative being both unique and still retaining the essence of Evans's writing. However, despite enjoying quite a few of the stories, I struggled to connect with most of the characters even though grief and sudden loss were often recurrent themes in the stories.
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Given all the garnered praise for this collection, I can only surmise that my lack of enthusiasm stems from issues uniquely my own.
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"There was always something they wouldn’t tell every‑ body , and she wanted to be told, which meant she had to look like a real person to them, like a person whose mother deserved to live, like someone who loved somebody. What‑ ever information they weren’t going to give her, whatever medicine they didn’t bother trying on Black women, she would have to ask to get, would have to ask for directly so that it went in the file if they refused, but ask for without seeming stupid or aggressive or cold. She would have to be poised and polite through her frustration, which, thank‑ fully, retail had prepared her for. Tell me what you would tell a white woman, her face said. A white woman with money, her clothes said. Please, her tone said."
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3,5

What an eclectic, thought-provoking and entertaining set of stories. This collection has easily become my favourite short story collection so far.

Though the setting of each story is so varied (from a woman working at a Titanic-themed café in 'Happily Ever After', to another transporting a cocaine package when she discovers an abandoned child, to the titular novella, in which two women who grew up together but don't get along, investigate the truth behind a hate crime decades ago) themes are seamlessly weaved throughout the collection. Evans masterfully explores what it means to be a Black mother, lover and friend in the world today, and the way racism (subtle or otherwise) makes an insidious appearance in all aspects of life, from hospital care to the workplace.

Each story offers something so unique to the collection that they really do each need their own review, so a few short opinions on each:

HAPPILY EVER AFTER
A girl working in a Titanic-themed cafe hired as a music video double looks back on her mother's diagnosis. An interesting look at the way medical professionals can treat Black patients differently. There's a scene featuring her boyfriend in the pharmacy that's heartbreaking.

RICHARD OF YORK GAVE BATTLE IN VAIN
The night before her friend TJ's wedding, a woman must tell his soon-to-be bride her fiance is gone. I enjoyed this one a lot more than I expected to. The two women's road trip to find the fleeing TJ was both sad and amusing in equal measures, and I loved the slippiness of the narrator. We're told nothing has happened between the narrator and TJ, but is that really true?

BOYS GO TO JUPITER
A college teen pushes a postcard of a confederate flag underneath a Black girl's door. Media attention follows.
This was one of my favourites of the collection, mostly because you'll just want to grab the narrator by the shoulders and give her a good shake. The protagonist has a lazy carelessness that stands in contrast to the immediacy of the rest of the collection. There's not too much by way of plot, but it feels like an excellent interlude.

WHY WON'T WOMEN JUST SAY WHAT THEY WANT?
A disgraced artist apologises to all the women he has ever hurt with a public art gallery showing.
I'm torn about this one. It does a good job in the sense it manages to explore all the different ways women can be sexually, mentally and physically taken advantage of by men, though I do wonder if the piece ends up being almost a little too on the nose.

ALCATRAZ
A man is dishonourably discharged from the army - wrongfully - and his relatives fight to overturn the ruling.
Hopeless and sad, though I do think this is the weaker link in an otherwise near-perfect collection.

ANYTHING COULD DISAPPEAR
Perhaps my favourite from the collection.
Vera's travelling on a bus with $20,000 worth of cocaine when a white woman asks her to keep an eye on her black toddler. When Vera discovers the white woman has left the bus without him, Vera finds herself becoming a mother.
I loved this one. Gripping, largely because there are no victors. I enjoyed watching Vera flourish once she starts looking after William, and because his real mother isn't looking for him it feels like a victimless crime, until Vera discovers perhaps relatives are looking after him either all. I was so torn all the way through whether I wanted Vera to give William back or not.

THE OFFICE OF HISTORICAL CORRECTIONS
Cassie and Genevieve have never particularly gotten on, despite knowing each other almost their whole lives. When Cassie's sent by the Office of Historical Corrections, a department that corrects errors people have written about history, the two must work together to discover what happened to a Black Man thought to have perished in a house fire started by the white people in his town.
Ugh, what a novella. Cassie and Genevieve are so wildly different, but still so similar - there's a dislike between them, but also a sense of loyalty that comes from being the only two different people in the room. Both hunt for truth but in very different ways.
The ending scene if phenomenal - you'll feel shock, but also get a dreaded sense of inevitability - it'll only make sense, in that moment, that there's no other way it could have ended but this. The way it's drawn out makes it all the more heart-breaking.

Overall, thank you so much Netgalley for giving me an advanced copy. Even if you think you don't like short stories, make sure you pick this one up.

(As a side note, I also listened along to the audiobook while I read, and the ensemble cast do a wonderful job)

**Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for this review copy!**

Holy hell, with this collection, Danielle Evans has written some of the greatest short fiction I have ever read.

This collection of 6 short stories and one novella touch on shared themes of Blackness, grief, and women’s lives in America today. Evans’ sharp writing and use of the form to its fullest potential led me to gasping at the end of every short story, holding on for more.

It’s rare that a collection like this doesn’t have a dud story, one that doesn’t connect with me as much, but confidently I can say everything in here is worthy of five stars.

I’m not usually a fan of short stories but had heard so many rave reviews that I couldn’t resist picking up ‘The Office of Historical Corrections’. Reader, I wasn’t disappointed.

Evans’ stories are unlike any other I’ve read. They’re open ended and threaded together by Black protagonists living in worlds slightly shifted from our own. This collection shines a light on often discussed social issues in a novel way, leaving you feeling refreshed, disturbed and enlightened.

I’d recommend this collection to anyone looking for something unusual to read, as the stories remain accessible while being experimental in form.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

👩🏿 In this collection of 6 short stories and one novella, the author revisits common themes and issues, approaching them from a different point of view. The storytelling is very diverse and it reflects on some of the main challenges of contemporary America: race, injustice, violence, culture, gender roles, and what it is to be a woman, particularly a black woman. ⁠
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♥️ I liked:⁠
✍️ The novella. The Office of Historical Corrections is about a government agency that corrects historical inaccuracies, leading to accusations of distorting history for liberal purposes. Cassie, a young Black scholar, is sent to investigate a correction done by her life-long rival. The two women confront the truth while confronting their relationship at the same time. ⁠
💕 I loved the set-up and the story behind this novella. It develops on so many different layers: the personal issues between the two women, manipulation of history for political purposes, racism... I found it really interesting and well written.⁠
✨ The short story Boys Go To Jupiter. The main character is Claire, a white student labelled as racist after a photo of herself wearing a Confederate bikini goes viral. She tries to defend her actions, but she only manages to make things worse. When we discover her background, we learn more about her, but is it enough to sympathise with her? ⁠
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⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 In general, I am starting to appreciate short stories much more. I've never been a big fan, but now I'm beginning to understand how difficult it is to write good ones and how much more they make you think. ⁠

I sometimes struggle with short stories and their ability to have any depth, but I really enjoyed this book. An emotional exploration of race, culture and identity through the lens of complex human relationships.

This is the first piece of Danielle Evan's work that I have read but it won't be the last. The Office of Historical Corrections is a pitch perfect collection of short stories. The title novella is wonderful but every single piece of writing in the book holds it's own.

The stories focus on a moment in the main character's life, a change, a changing relationship, a realisation that the world is different to what it should be. They tell that particular character's truth while addressing societal issues so much bigger than one person's story.

Beautifully written, Evan's has such a great eye for character that you feel that these characters are real people. She never directs the reader, simply observes human behaviour and leaves us to draw our own conclusions.

This is a book that I will be thinking about for a long time. Would highly, highly recommend!

If you asked me to describe The Office of Historical Corrections in a few words, I’d pick: “conscious” and “dense”. Or, dense because consciously-written. This remarkable collection asks for attention & focus, but if you are willing to invest, you will be hugely rewarded.
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A young girl’s Confederate flag bikini picture goes viral & causes harm; the touristic site of Alcatraz used as a setting for a family reunion; but also – the outstanding novella this collection was named after. Cassie receives a job offer at the governmental Institute for Public History (IPH) to revise history, to take notes and make aware, whenever she notices history being referenced to, wrongly. This novella reminded me of 1984 & I enjoyed the slight sci-fi vibe that came with it. My personal favourite was the story about Vera who is unexpectedly left with a little boy named William, at a stage in her life where she had been planning to start afresh 💬 “So just like that, Vera’s life fell into place, or out of it.”
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The mind-blowing vast space within which Danielle Evans explores how far she can go with just one story, how she plays with possibilities, stretching into new directions, jumping back in time, reflecting on the characters – it has left me #stunned.
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The Office of Historical Corrections
by Danielle Evans
My Rating: 4 ½ 🌟 out of 5
Recommended to you if you enjoy reading very dense & thought-provoking fiction worded so well, it will make you want to re-read passages again & again.
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Thank you! to @picadorbooks & @panmacmillan for the NetGalley e-book. I absolutely loved this collection!

🌿BOOK REVIEW🌿

The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evens

TW// racism, hate crime, death, gun violence

“Midwest nice was a steady, polite gaslighting I found sinister, a forced humility that prevented anyone from speaking up when they’d been diminished or disrespected, lest they be labelled an outsider. I was bewildered by the pride the region took in these pathologies.”

The Office of Historical corrections is a collection of short stories exploring a specific moment in time for each character. These stories elude to wider societal issues including race, culture, love and grief.

This book has countless fantastic reviews but for me it didn’t land how I was expecting it to. Personally I am very marmite with short stories and I either really like them or don’t... in this book particularly I felt every time I was starting to connect with characters the story would be over. There were a few of the stories that I really did enjoy and the messages within them were powerful, however when taking the book overall it wasn’t my favourite.

If you are a fan of short stories then you might really enjoy this!

🌼🌼/5

A series of six racy and sharp short stories followed by a novella capturing racial injustice and inequality.

Unfortunately, I did not gel with this book the way I anticipated. To be fair, it may be because the short stories didn’t allow sufficient time to really get to know and love the characters. Some scenarios felt more believable than others and I found myself picking holes and then the story ended leaving me no way back. My favourite was Anything Could Disappear, it certainly kept me on the edge of my seat. But even that story had scenarios that I found incredibly hard to believe.

I have read many books on race and injustice that have moved me to tears and stayed with me, but The Office of Historical Corrections, unfortunately, did not.

Seven stories, six shorts and one novella. They are all different but have the same themes running though and are all incredibly poignant and well written. Danielle Evans explores gender, race and loss through a nuanced look at American history and society.

Characterisation is everything for me and I’m so impressed at the level of character development that Evans can achieve in a short story.

I enjoyed all of the stories, but Boys Go to Jupiter was a particular standout for me. The story follows the aftermath of a Facebook photo of a white college girl wearing a confederate flag bikini going viral after her Black hallmate tweets it with anger and disgust. It’s interesting and explores free speech and racism in an ingenious way.

I wouldn’t ordinarily read a short story collection but this has really inspired me to read more of them!

This is a short story collection with a novella included as well. I really enjoyed this collection.

It feels fresh and vibrant but it deals with big issues and themes around race and identity and loss. I found the writing style really snappy and clean and found myself instantly immersed within the stories. I highly recommend picking this collection up if you are looking to try more short story collections. I definitely will be checking out other work from this author.

Thanks to the author Danielle Evans, Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful and powerful collection of stories. This collection proves again why the short story form is excellent - so much can be packed into so few pages. Open endings and unfinished stories can be difficult for some, but I really appreciate this about short stories. As so often, we do not actually know what happens.

There wasn't one story that I didn't enjoy or wouldn't recommend. Evans creates memorable characters that are also authentic. Besides this, the storylines are engaging and beautifully crafted. The collection ends with a dystopian novella: The Office of Historical Collection and as someone mentioned before, I recommend to read this one first. Ultimately a collection about putting things right, but also about grief, love, culture and life. Highly recommend!

Each of the stories make commentaries on a variety of topics, generally centering around racial discourse and the modern world. I was pleasantly surprised by these stories and the complexities and depth they went into in such few pages (compared to a full length novel). They cover some heavy topics but do so in such a profound way, leaving you thinking about the stories long after reading them.

After each short story I kept telling myself “this one is my favorite” and then I’d read the next one and say the same thing. Each of the stories have their own unique aspects and commentaries on society - I honestly couldn’t decide on just one that I liked the best.

I think these stories are great discussion starters and would be great for a book club! I personally will be joining in with @literaryleague for the first time who have chosen it for their read of the month! I highly recommend this one, and would love to discuss it with people who have read some of the stories.

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Picador, and Pan Macmillan for the gifted e-ARC.

Probably the best short story collection I have read! I could have read full length books about any of these characters, and was in turn engrossed, sad, shocked, amused... brilliant writing.

This is an outstanding multilayered short story collection from the award winning Danielle Evans, consisting of 6 short stories and one novella, beautifully written, often revisiting common themes and issues, but approached through a different lens. The fine tuned, astute, and diverse storytelling are reflective of contemporary American realities and national challenges, providing insights on issues such as race, injustice, violence, culture, history and who gets to tell it, grief, loss, identity, resilience, survival, gender roles, and what it is to be a woman, particularly a black woman. The characterisations are wonderfully riveting with narratives that so often move in surprisingly unexpected directions, giving us glimpses of lives, depicting the frailties and flaws of humanity, and specific circumstances and decisions which have the author providing a perceptive social commentary. My particular favourites were 'Anything Could Disappear', 'Boys Go to Jupiter, and the title story, 'The Office of Historical Corrections'. Wonderfully entertaining and engaging fiction, where every story is a gem, from a remarkably gifted author. Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC.

This is a stunning book, a series of short stories and a novella, mostly concerned with what it means to be Black in America, although the settings covered and the stories told here are broad in their subject matter and perspective. The characters are vividly drawn and the writing is crisp and compelling, with a couple of plot turns I didn’t see coming. I was excited to read this collection because I’m really enjoying short stories as a form at the moment and US bookstagram has been raving about it for months but it surpassed my expectations. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy - an early contender for one of my favourite books of the year and highly recommended.

When I was reading reviews of this book a few said that there is no single not amazing story in this collection.

I’ve read quite a lot of short story collections this year and it’s true that pretty much every short story collection has a few stories that just aren’t quite as good as some of the others. And this collection is the exception to the rule.

Every single story is original and interesting and engaging. I love the amount of character building and world building Danielle Evans is able to make in 30 pages. Every story feels completely realised and convincing and the stories are all surprising.

They all tie together so perfectly but all feel completely unique.

I think my favourite is Boys go to Jupiter and Anything Could Disappear but any of these stories would be stand out in another collection.

5 stars for my final read of 2020!