The Believers: Stories

What I find most impressive about this collection is the range of experiences, age, lifestyles - as well as the deft hand that's handled them. There's a fresco here, something broad and giving; details, mannerisms, character's inner lives. Every story a fresh story, a new life, another perspective. What I am drawn to, now that I've finished the collection and am thinking about it as a whole, is the choice of where to end each part; there is no sense of finality to any of the stories, because that would be a disservice to these real, breathing worlds. There is instead, a polite leave-taking, letting these realised people to their future realisations.

My favorite character, I think, is Paula, with her strength, her strategy, her diary, and her mapping the characters and characteristics of her literature onto the people in her life... I found it very charming, very endearing, and also a very real way that we, as readers, (especially when younger) navigate our lives.

I was confused in the beginning and the last story totally threw me for a loop. But the middle was so good. I love drama and those where more focused in the individual.

A collection of fascinating stories and definitely a very promising debut !
If you're looking for a refreshing read, compelling characters, flowing writing and vivid dialogs this one is for you.

I was delighted to get an ARC from Netgalley, and curiosity soon turned into pure enjoyment.
From the very first story, the strengths of A. K. Herman's writing shown through. Each of the stories have the ideal length and pace, offering us through the voices of strong and convincing main characters exactly what we needed to see, no more, no less.
I didn't love all the stories the same, a few of them did leave me a bit frustrated, but none truly disappointed me. They all shared a flowing narration, clear visual settings, and well-crafted, flawed but touching characters. What I appreciated most was the portrayal of relationships and their complexity. Their layers were either explicitly presented or subtly implied and I found it well-executed. There was something so tender, but bittersweet and sometimes a hint of cruelty which I deeply enjoyed. It felt intense in a very down-to-earth way.

The Believers - 3,75/5
Drink the Dew - 2,75/5
Exile - 5/5
Ready for the Revolution ? - 4,5/5
Love - 3,5/5
Love story no.8 : Jane and Phillip - 4/5
Inside - 3,5/5
The Iridescent Blue-Black Boy with Wings (After Márquez) - 3,5/5

This collection was a mixed bag but mostly good! I loved two stories, liked five and disliked one. My favorite was Exile, a story about a teenage girl who is sent to live with her aunt in New York during her pregnancy. I also really enjoyed Ready for the Revolution?, an interesting story about an uncertain couple in academia.  

Overall, this is a good pick for a reader looking for diverse short fiction. I look forward to seeing what Herman does next.

A bit of a mixed bag but overall it was an enjoyable collection and I really appreciated reading stories set in Tobago. I am not sure that I have previously read very much material set in Tobago (even though I am from Trinidad and Tobago).

Liked the most: 'Ready for the Revolution?'
Liked the least: 'Love Story No. 8: Jane and Phillip'

Review published on my blog at: https://jasonfrye.com/2024/08/15/review-of-the-believers-stories-by-a-k-herman/

The Believers is the first published collection from A. K. Herman. The stories envelop the reader in a world where language weds culture, where the protagonist does not conform to modernity in their conduct or moral acts. There’s humanity and appalling behavior, both in violence as found in Love Story No. 8 or in the sex between the pages of the story titled Love.

The stories are set in Tobago or New York City, with some characters hailing from Trinidad. With these characters as focal perspectives, we also live their language. The first two stories, Beginning and The Believers, use the vernacular to place us in the story. At first, it’s jarring to read a line of dialogue like, “Nah, just di-exam-dem and school. And mi want to burn di light-dem wid Pastora. You still work wid her?” But as you grow accustomed to the language, it also brings you closer to the story in a way that using a more modernistic language constructs wouldn’t.

Sex was present in almost all the stories, if not overtly, then through the hormonal actions of some of the characters. All of the sex scenes were vividly done, with Love having the most evocative scenes. But none of them were over the top or too lustful and they never carried on for too long.

The stories paced well and kept the reader’s attention. Even as I struggled with the cultural language in the early stories, I came to expect it in the later ones.

The characters stood out beyond their use of Tobago slang. These were humans in all their oddities and morally ambiguous acts. In the title story, The Believers, we come to know a couple who have a beautiful daughter, of which the story becomes centered even though we never hear from her directly. Mostly we experience the tale from the father’s perspective. The pastor of his church in New York is asking for his daughter to be married to a man in their congregation. This creates a rift between the family and the church that culminates in an evocative scene at the end of the story. As the main character struggles with the burden, we see a multi-faceted approach to religion and how it drives wedges and opens doors in some cases, but asks too much in others.

There are plenty of cultural references and social issues throughout the stories, especially when it comes to class, marriage, and relationships. But none of these themes override the story to the point of exhaustion. Instead, they weave themselves naturally into the characters and their experiences, which are very human and organic.

The stories have a bit of everything: amazing dialogue, captivating descriptions of the setting and people, excellent pacing, and minus a few exceptions, good payoffs at the end of the stories. It’s a short collection, but the meat is there and the bones make these stand apart from other collections. Keep an eye on Herman, as I imagine we’ll see more from them in the future.