A. K. Herman's debut — The Believers : Stories is a tantalizing and scandalous set of stories set in parts
of Tobago and Trininad. Some stories are better than the others. They all had a shocking factor, a horrifying end that made me flinch with every story.

This is why I love short story collections coz they are raw, short but impactful. In mere few pages, you get to be awestruck and you don't even have time to absorb that shock coz you have another story waiting for you to devour.

Some quotes which I found, well that made me feel something. Some are beautiful, some brutal but every single one will make you think hard. A. K. Herman is Caribbean author born and brought up in Tobago and Trininad and that's why the setting of her stories is the same. The book is both brilliant and heartbreaking for a debut.



* The believers —
Story of Ronald and his family where a church tries to takeover their life by being "kind". There's always some hidden motive behind kindness, isn't it?

if yuh know what a man want, yuh could own him. A food. A fuck. A money. A house. A car. Once that man take the thing he wanted from yuh hand, yuh could pet him like a dog and he go lick yuh hand. Then, when yuh ready, beat him like a dog too and he go convince he self that you do something for he that he couldn’t do for he self.



* Drink the dew
Story of a man and his life when he meets a girl named Queenie and marries her to have a family but there are sometimes no happy endings especially when love and hate come together.

That was how Queenie was. All she actions flow into one another, like river into sea. She was the mouth of the river. You could never know how deep she was.



* Exile
Exile was a story about a young girl Paula who is sent to her aunt in US because she is pregnant. Sometimes I wonder is your religion really good or worth to you, if the beliefs of that religion forces you to destroy your daughter's life? Only daughter's but never son's?

I will not be waiting for things to happen to me. I WILL BE HAPPENING TO THINGS.

Paula wondered if she was sent to live with Lorna because she belonged there. Keep the sinners together.



* Ready for the revolution?
A scholar Darren in US where he earns a prestigious position in university yet sometimes nothing changes for an outsider. Uncertain about his love interest, his life takes an uncertain path too.

That is how love happens. You panic at the thought of her dying.

Everyone gets angry in their native tongue.



* Love
A scandal. A Love child. Story around it.
I think that this story was interconnected with another story, drink the dew. Betty and Queenie.

We are a match. Complexion. We look at the world the same way. I have the womanhood to match his manhood. A match.



* Love story no. 8 : Jane and Philip
What a brilliant story. Mr. Cromwell hires a gardener for his garden to seduce his neighbour's wife while his own daughter is being seduced. The ending was tragic, hypocrisy in this story was blinding, I think this story was my favourite among the collection apart from exile.

In the meantime, Cromwell read poetry to Alice Brown on her narrow settee, while she commented on his evolving garden. Theirs, a proper seduction by the book!



* inside
This stroy was brutal and sad. A rich girl's obsession leads to a disastrous change in her lover's life. A story of trininadian Indian couple.

You know how many Trini and Guyanese girls go out with fellas from India, in a serious relationship, thinking they going to get married, only to wake up one morning to find he unfriend them on Facebook and block their number because he back home getting married to the Indian woman his parents pick.”

* The iridescent blue - black boy with wings (after Marquez)
I don't know what to take from this story really. I felt clueless. A group of friends come across a boy with wings with batlike appearance.

It makes me feel melancholic that how we human beings live on different continents, follow different religions, speak different languages and yet behave with same cruelty and animosity with others. I wish we had different similarity for once but sadly and unfortunately we are what we are.

Thank you Netgalley and A. R. Phillips Press LLC for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

A. K. Herman's "The Believers: Stories" is a captivating collection that explores the multifaceted nature of faith and its impact on the human experience. These stories delve into the profound questions of belief, doubt, and the search for meaning in a chaotic world.

Herman's prose is both lyrical and unflinching, capturing the nuances of human emotion with remarkable sensitivity. Each story is a unique and poignant exploration of the human condition, from the quiet desperation of a grieving mother to the unwavering devotion of a cult leader.

The collection is a testament to the power of storytelling to illuminate the complexities of the human experience. Herman's characters are richly drawn and unforgettable, their struggles and triumphs resonating deeply with the reader.

"The Believers: Stories" is a thought-provoking and emotionally resonant collection that will stay with you long after you turn the final page. It's a must-read for anyone interested in exploring the complexities of faith, doubt, and the human condition.

Recommended for readers who appreciate literary fiction with a focus on character and emotion and fans of authors such as Alice Munro and Raymond Carver

Recommended: sure
For a variety of Trinidadian-based stories with degrees of realism, for direct storytelling that gives the facts and allows you to make your own judgments and assessments, for home and away stories

Thoughts:
I enjoyed these stories. I did not always "get" them and that's part of what I liked. I would read one, stop, and think about it for a while. There were often different layers to consider. Right and wrong or just and unjust were often dichotomies pursued where I had to wonder about the spectrum in between. What guilt do people have when they are cheating or being cheated on in a relationship? If something is kept caged, what responsibility do the captors have for it's eventual violence? Is black magic more wrong than a system that traps people by controlling their lives in return for service and worship?

Honestly a lot of them are not questions I ask often. Or maybe ever. That's part of what made them so compelling to turn over with the way they were presented in this.

Each story is it's own flavor. The people are linked in them by their blood and their homes and their dreams. There are some who immigrate away, there are some who return home, and there are some who never left. Some of them you might like, and others you might not know whether it's okay to like them or not. You might like them, and then wonder what it says about you that you like that character.

A lot of these stories are a bit painful to read. Good people have bad things happen, and people who do bad things go unpunished. It embodies the sentiment of "life isn't fair" and there's some bitterness that comes along with it. The way they are written is the sweetness, the elegance and simplicity of the presentation. It's almost musical at times with their way of speaking represented in the text. I fell into it after a while, and felt like I could hear it in my mind.

Anyway, this was a thoughtful collection that I enjoyed and find myself thinking about even after finishing it. Thanks to the author and LibraryThing for a free copy. This is my honest review.

Debut author, short stories, Trinidadian culture

I was excited to read this to learn more about Trinidadian culture, and I felt I got a good glimpse from this book. It took me a minute to acclimate to the writing style and accents and I had to come back to it once I was in the right mindset.

Some stories are more powerful and interwoven, and covered a wide range of topics.

Highly recommend if you like the short story format and want to learn more about Trinidadian culture.

I'd recommend this book because I really like short stories. But its far from my top 100 favorite short story books. I like that some characters were revisited in later stories, adding on to more characters, but I felt like when I started to enjoy a story, it ended too quickly. Mixed feelings. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC, but it didn't hit the mark for me.

I enjoyed most of these stories. They portrayed characters that were familiar and experiences and situations that were so relatable. The behaviurs and perceptions here are utterly Caribbean and it was so good to read them. However the last story disappointed me as it seemed so empty and aimless. There was the hint of magic and folklore that I felt was never realized.

I loved these short stories. The characters, either in Trinidad or from the Trinidadian community in the US, strive for something more, want to build a different future, miss home or want to leave it. I loved that we meet characters and later meet them again: one woman and her husband, and later in another short story, her mother and her grandmother, for example. The short story following a lecturer in Carribbean Studies was probably my favourite.

It was a good book, although it took me a while to get used to the author’s dialect (it’s not a bad thing, but it sort of made me lose a bit of connection with the story at first). My only problem is that the stories ended when I started to want to know more about the characters and hiw their lives would develop after their events. Still, I’d highly recommend it.

The Believers is a powerful debut collection that brings out the hidden strength in people on the margins. Each story offers a glimpse into lives shaped by love, rebellion, family, and identity, with a haunting atmosphere that sticks with you.

I was especially drawn to the story of a family trying to leave their church at a huge personal cost, and the tale of children who discover a mysterious boy with wings in a seaside village. Other stories explore complicated relationships, like lovers tangled in identity politics or a gardener who falls for a wealthy man’s daughter with heartbreaking consequences.

The writing is powerful and beautifully captures the small but significant moments in these characters’ lives. It’s subversive, haunting, and full of tension, making each story linger long after finishing. This is a strong debut, and I’m looking forward to seeing more from A.K.!

Engrossing short stories about Tobagans set both on the island and in New York. I got so involved with some of the characters, I wanted a whole novel.

In this collection of stories about Trinidadians, both at home and far away, Herman explores religious fundamentalism and the corrupt morals of religious leaders, the exile of a young woman because of her pregnancy, and the cruelty of children and adults alike as they navigate relationships. It's a stark and sober look at how islanders have suffered because of colonial politics, and how toxic masculinity manifests everywhere. A good choice for book clubs.

A.K. Herman’s prose is intriguing, if anything, and it took me a while to get used to it. There’s almost an unhinged quality. The writing had knack for throwing me for a loop every few paragraphs, giving me something to be shocked about in each story.

I also found these stories pretty thought-provoking. The characters aren’t meant to be likable or unlikable; their stories simply tell a very raw, realistic tale of Trinidadian experiences. Overall, I’m glad I had the opportunity to read this collection of short stories!

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest rating.

This was a very pleasantly surprising read! The characters really jumped off the page and I really connected with them and their stories. I think my favourite read was Ready for the Revolution. Can’t wait to see what the author does next!

The Believers by AK Herman is a group of short stories written about a part of humanity most don’t get to see and I am glad he is bringing it to the forefront for everyone to enjoy because ultimately we’re all people and people react to things in basically the same ways so to see someone in a position where they want to leave what they believe is a cult type Church because the leader wants their daughter, who they want to be educated, her to marry the youth leader and for many other reasons is interesting and had me reading until the story was over I really enjoyed the one where the girls dad was paying for her boyfriend to go to school in New York and she came to visit that one to me was not only the funniest but very interesting. Then again if you read the summary all the stories are really worth reading. It’s like being a fly on the wall which is my favorite thing to be. There were some things that were surprising to me such as the amount of sex in the book but it was not prolonged and only written about when apropos to the story I really enjoyed these short stories in a highly recommend it I love books written about other places and other people in this certainly fits the bill and then some they had some from Trinidad some from Jamaica but all are worth reading about. #NetGalley,#ARPhillipsPress, #AKHerman, #TheBelievers,

Read Sept. 24 - I'll be reviewing this for the Short Story review column in Mslexia, issue 104. (I'll update once the issue is out.)
Thank you for the ARC!

This collection of stories was an engaging read, packed with dynamic characters and unique perspectives. As with most anthologies, a few stories stood out more than others—“Exile” and “Ready for the Revolution?” were my favorites.
It's hard to believe this is A.K. Herman’s debut; her storytelling is captivating, and I’m excited to see what she comes out with next.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for and e-arc in exchange for am honest review!

A thought provoking set of stories told by Trinidadian people. They were all quite different but the thoughts and behaviours were rather similar. I liked the first and last stories the most - church culture and ‘how to behave’ were the forefront of social acceptance and when the characters strayed, shame was prevalent.

It is a book I’d choose for a book club, because I’d like to hear others opinions on it - how they would react to the situations presented in the stories.

I enjoyed it and read through it quite quickly those getting to grips with the patoise was a little challenging at first.

Thank you, NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I love stories told from perspectives different than my own, but I struggled with The Believers. I did like how every story was told by someone from Trinidad or Tobego, so there was connection between each tale. And the stories featured, what I would imagine to be scenarios mainly depicting reality in those communities. But I struggled to connect to any of the characters, which I suppose a risk you always take in reading (and writing) short story collections.
Still, I am grateful for the chance to read this proof.

The Believers: Stories by A. K. Herman is a thought-provoking collection that delves deep into the complexities of faith, identity, and human nature. Each story presents a different perspective on belief, whether it's in religion, relationships, or oneself. Herman's writing is sharp, engaging, and layered with emotional depth, making the characters feel real and relatable. The subtle interplay between doubt and conviction weaves through each narrative, leaving readers reflecting long after they turn the last page. A must-read for those who enjoy introspective and character-driven short stories.