Reviews

Death Is Not an Option is a collection of seven short stories with female protagonists.

Generally speaking, this was a decent, quick read. Some stories were better than others. After finishing the book, I didn’t feel any more enriched than before I had started.

Catholicism is a prominent theme in this book, and while I am not and have never been Catholic myself, I did attend Catholic school and a decent portion of my family is Catholic. I suppose some of the impact of the religious themes is lost on someone who has not been an integrated member of said religion, but I found that they often did not add anything substantial to the individual story’s plot, nor did they inform the characters’ mindsets. In “Very Special Victims,” the first half spends a great deal of time depicting the main character’s time in Catholic grade school, which culminates in a fairly anticlimactic scene. By the end of the story, it felt extraneous entirely.

The most jarring and offputting aspect of this work was the prose. Quite frankly, I found Rivecca’s prose extremely overwrought and self-congratulatory to the point of being almost unbearable. There were several passages that were, in essence, word salad, as if an SAT vocabulary book spilled itself all over the page. “It Sounds Like You’re Feeling” is a particularly egregious offender:

“You spent a semester as a kinesiology major because you liked the idea of the actual existence of something called a Gait and Posture Lab. But you quit because of the phraseology: that euphemistic fascist language of the body, its lofty obfuscation of the simplest and humblest movements and functions.” (p. 79)

I can appreciate a colorful vocabulary as much as any reader, but there comes a point where one bogs down the content of the story in weighty yet empty purple prose. I am of the school of thought that such words should be used sparingly, like garnish or expensive spice on a meat dish. I understand the sentiments that Rivecca was hoping to accomplish, and there were portions of the collection where she executed the human experience that I imagine she wanted to convey quite well. However, while reading, I couldn’t help but feel as though the language was concealing the hollow nature of several of these stories.

Following that train of thought, many of these stories felt inconsequential and unsatisfying, which was perhaps the purpose. This was most salient in “Very Special Victims.” Of course, having not gone through the traumas depicted (off-screen, so to speak) in that story, I can’t presume to blow steam about how it approached the subject matter. I will say that the ending was very disturbing, and the protagonist’s reaction to the visit she receives is...unnerving. We are furthermore given no insight as to why she reacts the way she does. Again, this story suffers from style over substance. Rivecca’s stories are suffocated by the density of her writing.

I know I’ve gone a bit harsh on this book, but it certainly had its positives. The depiction of uniquely feminine experiences is commendable and handled well in many instances. “Yours Will Do Nicely” is one of the strongest pieces in the book and captures the young twenty-something female mindset and the shaky dynamic of relationships at that age almost arrestingly well.

If I could rate this a 2.5, I would; however, I couldn’t bring myself to give it a solid 3. It’s not a terrible collection of stories, but Rivecca’s writing reeks a little too much of the ivory tower for me to have fully immersed myself in the emotional ecosystem of these women.

redpandakris's review against another edition

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4.0

"Death Is Not an Option" is a beautiful collection of stories about damaged people. Rivecca's effortless prose is quietly powerful, gaining momentum as her stories unfold. The characters are fascinating and flawed, and as Rivecca reveals their pains and mistakes to us, they begin to seem so real that the stories are less like fictions and more like voyeuristic glimpses into lives that are painfully realistic. Rivecca has the gift of writing stories that seem to write themselves.

biglibraryenergy's review against another edition

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4.0

This book was absorbing. I got lost in it the way I get lost in my own thoughts. I found that the stories were a little dark, but they kept me thinking after I was done reading them. This is something I would read again!