Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review!

As If She Had a Say is such a visceral and unique short story collection. Most of these stories are rooted in experiences of rape, assault, motherhood, and grief, specifically through an exploration of womanhood. Truly though, these stories are simply exploring people and the weird things we feel, experience, and think. I say weird loosely because sometimes the main characters are just living their life and doing objectively weird things like selling hands! However, a lot of the "weirdness" just comes along with coping with trauma and loss.

These short stories are quick and to the point. There's a lot of metaphor/symbols. For example, a girl projects movies through her vagina. It's all cool until people take advantage of her ~skill~. The metaphors aren't usually difficult to "get" although I was lost on few stories.

I like to think that most readers would really like the obscurity here but it's definitely not for everyone, especially with darker/triggering themes (miscarriage, SA etc.) attached. And most, if not all, of these stories have some sort of darker or personal meaning to them. I personally think that's the most impressive aspect of the book! If you're a reader who values honesty and vulnerability, you'll love that element of this.

I will say I tended to get bored after 3-4 stories in one sitting because the format of them were so similar. And a lot of the themes were similar as well. I just think the obscurity in these stories could be reflected in format as well. This is why the last story was so interesting to me! It was visually different which separates it from all the others.

My favorite stories tended to be longer. They were more fleshed out and allowed me to get closer to the speaker/MC. The shorter stories were great, just had a more experimental feeling to them. Some of my faves were "The Best thing for the Baby", "Postcards from the Person You Ate" and "Solitaire". Solitaire is probably one of my favorite short stories ever because its obscurity is real. We see ourselves in it. Instead of experimenting with writing itself, the author really allows for the speaker to tell the truth about the somewhat taboo feelings he's got. The author allowed him to feel them without question. I also just love how well it captures grief... when we lose someone, we find them everywhere. And when we lose someone at the hands of another person, we tend to find the perpetrator in everything too. This story captures that perfectly.

I've always admired short stories...so few sentences to lure and keep a reader entertained. This is an eclectic collection, from profoundly weird to poignant. As with any collection, not all of them resonated with me but I particularly liked "Domestic Appliance" and "For the Dachshund Enthusiast." Overall, a good read for a drizzly day.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Northwestern University Press for the digital ARC. All opinions and the review are my own.

An enjoyable collection of stories. Like most collections, they were hit or miss but the collection as a whole was good.