A Small Apocalypse by Laura Chow Reeve
This book was published on 15 March 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5 stars
Thank you to Northwestern University Press and NetGalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

In her debut short story collection, Laura Chow Reeve seizes the familiar Florida landscape of postcards and headlines—and pries open spaces for unlikely affection and sun-soaked eeriness.

I enjoyed the writing throughout this short story collection and it was very atmospheric but overall, it didn't really grab my attention.
There were a few speculative stories, such as Milked Snakes and One Thousand Year Old Ghost, which I really liked and I wish there had been more stories of that style in this book.
The other stories, about a group of friends, and their sometimes difficult dynamics did not quite land for me. I thought the way the author weaved some of the characters in and out of the stories was great, as was the queer and non-binary representation, but I found some of the interpersonal relationships a bit tedious in the long run.
I would love to see this author write more speculative fiction, or maybe even horror - I would read this from them in a heartbeat.

I recently read and enjoyed A Small Apocalypse by Laura Chow Reeve which was kindly sent to me by @nupress. It's a debut short story collection full of strange and slightly surreal stories of people with connections to the other side of existence. Unlike many short story collections, a central friend group delivers familiar characters in many of the stories which added depth and perspective to the wee stories.

Many of the stories deal with different types of ends to the world; from mad storms to emotional regrets to losing certain people in your life but also primarily centre around different types of relationships with other people. My favourite story depicted someone who was able to literally pickle the memories she wished to forget in jars.

I'm slowly becoming a short stories girlie! A Small Apocalypse is a collection of short stories that are weird, unsettling and thought-provoking. As I got to the end of each story, I found myself immediately wanting to continue. However, I forced myself to stop and reflect because each story packs a punch. I enjoyed finding parts of other stories in each one and found the characters relatable and realistic.

Unfortunately this one just wasn't for me. Maybe it's because it was a collection of short stories, but I really feel like I was too dumb to understand the point or maybe there just wasn't one?

Thank you to NetGalley and Northwestern University Press for sending me this book!

A Small Apocalypse is a refreshing and thought-provoking read that captures the essence of Florida's heat and strangeness while exploring the intricacies of identity and community. This collection is a must-read for fans of short stories that challenge and entertain in equal measure.

2.5 stars

(DNFd at 40% due to low rating)

**Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

Basics
Genre: short stories, speculative fiction
Setting: US
Themes: transformation, connection, memory
Mood: a sprinkle of weird

Stories
+ Milked Snakes (3.5 stars) transformation from warm to cool, smooth to scaled
+ Rebecca (2.5 stars) looking for connections in all sorts of places
+ One-Thousand-Year-Old Ghosts (3 stars) storing memories to forget
+ Real Bodies (3 stars) dystopia of online dating
+ Suwannee (2 stars) queer friend group, drama
+ Hunted (3 stars) finding your self/selves
+ Happiest (2.5 stars) unhappiest place on Earth, Disney
+ A Small Apocalypse (2 stars) queer friend drama + movie theatre work drama

Pros
+ nonbinary (they/them) rep
+ LGBTQIA+ rep in many of the stories

Cons
- I feel like the author is holding back from going all-in on the weird aspects. I would've loved for each weird instance to be pushed further.
- Quite a few of the endings left me unsatisfied. It felt like standing on the precipice of some great story but then it'd just end with a glimpse.
- The stories are thematically all over the place. There is no sense of cohesion, despite having characters appear in multiple stories.

TW: death (off-page), cheating (off-page), suicide (implied), racism with eugenic undertones, child death

📖 A Small Apocalypse by Laura Chow Reeve
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
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Some things you need to know before going in, and others you need to just dive in without looking.
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Florida sets the backdrop for this group of friends, following their feelings as they deal with everything life throws at them. Some times they’re together, floating the river of the Suwannee, and other times they’re alone, facing down a hurricane in an empty movie theater. The stories weave in and out of each other, connecting in places you never expected.
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“Once Beth’s scales started to show, she felt more comfortable attending the parties. Each scale was a badge of honor to prove her belonging. It was a thing not everyone could claim, though there were a few with tattooed scales on their temples and surgically forked tongues. They were welcome, too, because who were they to shut someone else out?”
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The description given to the book both encapsulates the book, while not preparing you at all for what you are about to read. Each story draws you more into this group of friends, highlighting each person, their relationships with each other and others around them, and their experiences with the world around them. It’s hard for me to believe that this is the author’s debut novel, and harder to see that more people haven’t read this book. The first story, Milked Snakes, gives just a preview of what the rest of the book holds, and displays Reeve’s incredible writing in the perfect starter story for the rest of this collection.

My favorite story is probably One-Thousand-Year-Old Ghosts, and how Reeve showcases the relationships between a third-generation immigrant and her family along with their varying beliefs and customs. I also really loved the last story, A Packing List For The End Of The World.
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Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this book early in exchange for my honest review.
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#laurachowreeve #asmallapocalypse #netgalley #arcreview #arc

*I received a copy of this book through NetGalley*

Having grown up in Florida, I was excited to read these short stories and I really enjoyed the descriptive language and prose that the author used throughout the book. I liked the diversity of stories in this collection; the first was filled with symbolism and metaphors, others were puzzle pieces showcasing different members of a queer friend group, and some were seemingly unrelated but still felt at home among the others stories. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going in to this book, but I came out of it having enjoyed my time and with a longing to find myself back in the Florida sun after so long in the cloudy UK.

Most short story collections I find have a few stand outs and the rest are a bit blah. A Small Apocalypse held its ground for me the whole way through! Sometimes sad, sometimes thoughtful, a little weird, and very queer. Everything you could want from a book, all packaged up and ready to devour.

A great debut short story collection. Loved how queer and diverse this stories where and how they ranged from magical realism to horror to science fiction. There was couple connected stories that featured a same group of friends and I didn't really care for those that much, but found most of the stand alone ones amazing.

My favorite stories would probably be one about this dystopian government led dating site and one where upstairs neighbors are being obnoxiously loud.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion!

I have been reading so many short story collections lately, but this one is definitely at the top of my list! Living in Florida, it was so fun to read someone's (correct) opinions of the state: the heat is overwhelmingly present in every story, much like it is in my everyday life! I didn't realize at first that the same friend group would be featured in a large portion of the stories, so I very much enjoyed learning about all of them and seeing their storylines progress. I will be purchasing a physical copy sometime in the future so I can go through and tab all of the stories and their connections. The stories were definitely a little creepy, but so, so fun and impactful. There were so many different Queer identities present too, you can see how much care the author put into crafting these people and their stories. I cant wait to see more fiction from Laura Chow Reeve, what a debut novel this was!

Sadly I did not enjoy this. Short stories can be a hard sell for me but it sounded like an interesting book and topics. However, they just weren’t for me. They felt a little worthy.

A Small ApocA Small Apocalypse by Laura Chow Reevealypse is a very humdrum collection of short stories that might appeal to those looking for a quick read.

As someone who’s long been creeped out by Florida’s swamplands, I was entranced by this collection. I’ve never felt so transported to a book’s setting!

Absolutely loved this short story collection, I could not put the book down at all I read it within a day. Queer, found family and finding your identity. It comes with everything that I adore and more.

This collection of short stories by Laura Chow Reeve dives into an exploration of identity. The themes and the characters reoccur in fourteen stories filled with ghosts, snakes, and swampy Florida backdrops. This read is both insightful and entertaining. Find our identity and community or chosen family, processing pain and struggles, all these themes are relatable and woven into enjoyable stories that you won’t want to pickle any time soon :) Highly recommend.

‘A Small Apocalypse’ is an utterly incredible collection that deals with themes of seeing and knowing yourself, of the experience of being queer and a person of colour, of grief and change and healing, of big and small disasters. The stories are searing and raw and real, merging the otherworldly (bottling memories, slowly becoming a lizard person, ) with the mundane (the breaking and reforming of relationships, grieving a friend, watching over a movie theatre in a hurricane). They are primarily set in Florida, muggy heat, alligators and mosquito bites to the ankle a reoccuring theme.

Laura Chow Reeve is an incredible author, and I was blown away by her prose and storytelling across these stories. There wasn’t a single one that I didn’t enjoy, and I think I’d really struggle to pick a favourite (possibly ‘Happiest’, I had a feeling as soon as I started reading that it was going to rip my heart apart, and it absolutely did). This collection has some of the most striking first lines I’ve read in a long time. I need to get my hands on a physical copy so I can go through and underline so many parts of this book!

I also really enjoyed how a lot of the stories followed different people in the same friend group. I loved gaining insight to the different people one by one, and the stories stand up incredibly well on their own too even without this loose overarching narrative tying them together.

Totally incredible. I am going to be eagerly awaiting news of anything else Laura writes. One of my fave reads of the year so far.

Thank you so much to Northwestern University Press and Netgalley for the ARC!

I found this short story collection enjoyable, if occasionally slightly flat. I wanted a little more toothsomeness, a little more strangeness, a few more quiet, awkward moments. Overall, I liked the homages to other famous works -- Notes of a Crocodile, or the novel Rebecca -- and the setting of Florida was a visceral presence throughout. The characters were all interesting, I liked the way the stories overlap and interlink, the idea of a sprawling group of queer people affecting each other was well-executed. The way race in relationships is discussed was, in my opinion, among the weaker points of the collection. Often framed as bits of internal monologue, or thoughts voiced aloud by the characters, I had trouble settling these ideas into the themes and textures of the stories. They seemed to be signifiers of authenticity (these being, of course, things that people really do think and talk about) but I was underwhelmed by this aspect of the book.

This book is a breathtakingly gorgeous queer read. I’ve been on a short stories collection kick this year, and have yet to read anything quite like this. The author does a phenomenal job at linking characters, climate, and connections in a way that makes you feel like you’re along for the ride with them. I love the stories throughout that examine different members of the same friend group and their ever changing relationships, grief, and desires. However, my top favorite stories were actually two of the standalone ones. Very highly recommend. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

4 stars.

A Small Apocalypse is a very queer, very Florida (petition to make 'very Florida' a descriptor for things), and very well-written short story collection that explores race, sexuality, gender, identity, and grief. While short story collections are always a hit or miss for me -- mostly because I have the tendency to just want more from them -- I did really love the majority of the stories found within this collection. In particular, 'Happiest' was my favorite and the point where my opinions on this book really began to solidify.

Through A Small Apocalypse, Laura Chow Reeve uses magical situations (think: sex with ghosts, transformations into lizards, and the apocalypse) as a way to expand on ideas of identity and the self. I also enjoyed how the same characters made appearances over and over again -- that was an excellent touch. Overall, the ideas within this novel are excellently crafted, but there were a few stories that I wanted a bit more from.

Thank you to the Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.