screamdogreads's review against another edition
4.0
It seemed that the sheriff had been exaggerating about the fearsomeness of the land but then he saw that the plumes of their breath made unnerving forms in the air - a sinking ship, a man dangling from a tree, a dead face rising up from a well.
Although it's said that these are horror stories, they really aren't. At least, not in the traditional sense. The stories contained within this collection are tales of dying worlds, of towns threadbare giving way to decay, they're stories that tell of souls crumbling, of lives turning to rot. Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons is a desolate, bleak novel entirely comprised of lonely, haunted people. Yes, the stories here could be considered horrifying, but you won't find anything lurking in the shadows ready to pounce. Here, the most prevalent notion is one of failed dreams.
Between these pages lies a world of intense, overwhelming dreariness, with each story depicting some kind of authentic human experience. These stories, and their author, are entirely honest about the brutality of living. There isn't anything held back, the sad, violent truth of the human condition is shown in all its foul glory. This is a collection of cruelty, one that could only be penned by an author so highly attuned to the world around him.
Although it's said that these are horror stories, they really aren't. At least, not in the traditional sense. The stories contained within this collection are tales of dying worlds, of towns threadbare giving way to decay, they're stories that tell of souls crumbling, of lives turning to rot. Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons is a desolate, bleak novel entirely comprised of lonely, haunted people. Yes, the stories here could be considered horrifying, but you won't find anything lurking in the shadows ready to pounce. Here, the most prevalent notion is one of failed dreams.
Between these pages lies a world of intense, overwhelming dreariness, with each story depicting some kind of authentic human experience. These stories, and their author, are entirely honest about the brutality of living. There isn't anything held back, the sad, violent truth of the human condition is shown in all its foul glory. This is a collection of cruelty, one that could only be penned by an author so highly attuned to the world around him.
"You stop at a gas station that glows in the valley like its own miniature city. A cement box of a store, a half dozen pumps under light as bright as a morgue table. Constellations of moths beat themselves senseless beneath the standing roof."
Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons might just be one of the most brutally honest story collections you'll ever encounter. From its unflinching depiction of a life ruled by addiction, to the crushing blow of depression, and the soul sucking realization that a life lived is stagnant and underwhelming, everything is presented with a gut-wrenching fervor. The most mundane, boring facets of life become something otherworldly the moment you open this novel.
This World Or The Next, Coyote, and Homecoming were my personal favorite stories.
One of the coyotes leans back, its throat exposed, and the howl drifts long and lamenting into the sky. My brother and I, we run headlong into the pack.
msoul13's review
4.0
NOTE: I won a free eBook copy of this book in MOBI format from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers (October 2020).
A short story collection that is not for the faint-of-heart. I found myself wincing at the various tales of ruin - but in a good way, as Rosson's prose examines many facets of each protagonist's psychological state. An acpocalyptic air permeates the ether of this collection, but the main focus is how each of the characters cope with the challenges they face. (In short, not well.)
My favorite story was the first in the collection, "The Lesser Horseman."
My reactions to each individual story:
(1) "The Lesser Horseman:" This one hits differently after a global pandemic.
(2) "At This Table:" This one had some interesting asides in the footnotes.
(3) "Baby Jill:" What are the consequences of breaking out of our prescribed roles?
(4) "Their Souls Climb the Room:" Suffering on multiple levels.
(5) "Hospitality:" Converging storylines resolve in ways not immediately expected.
(6) "This World Or the Next:" How religions choose to die.
(7) "Gifts:" Strange and meandering, much like the protagonist’s narrative style.
(8) "Coyote:" So many little things are lost.
(9) "Yes, We Are Duly Concerned With Calamitous Events:" An episode of “The Office,” straight from Hell.
(10) "Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That:" Surely this one is playing out verbatim somewhere nearby.
(11) "Forgive Me This:" The opposite of filial piety.
(12) "Dunsmuir:" Choose a different path.
(13) "Homecoming:" One possibility for purgatory.
(14) "The Melody of the Thing:" This one hit close to home, since I feel like I know many struggling musicians that are one crisis away from ruin. But this shows that inspiration comes from unexpected places.
(15) "Brad Benske and The Hand of Light:" Nice connection to the earlier story "This World Or the Next."
A short story collection that is not for the faint-of-heart. I found myself wincing at the various tales of ruin - but in a good way, as Rosson's prose examines many facets of each protagonist's psychological state. An acpocalyptic air permeates the ether of this collection, but the main focus is how each of the characters cope with the challenges they face. (In short, not well.)
My favorite story was the first in the collection, "The Lesser Horseman."
My reactions to each individual story:
(1) "The Lesser Horseman:" This one hits differently after a global pandemic.
(2) "At This Table:" This one had some interesting asides in the footnotes.
(3) "Baby Jill:" What are the consequences of breaking out of our prescribed roles?
(4) "Their Souls Climb the Room:" Suffering on multiple levels.
(5) "Hospitality:" Converging storylines resolve in ways not immediately expected.
(6) "This World Or the Next:" How religions choose to die.
(7) "Gifts:" Strange and meandering, much like the protagonist’s narrative style.
(8) "Coyote:" So many little things are lost.
(9) "Yes, We Are Duly Concerned With Calamitous Events:" An episode of “The Office,” straight from Hell.
(10) "Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That:" Surely this one is playing out verbatim somewhere nearby.
(11) "Forgive Me This:" The opposite of filial piety.
(12) "Dunsmuir:" Choose a different path.
(13) "Homecoming:" One possibility for purgatory.
(14) "The Melody of the Thing:" This one hit close to home, since I feel like I know many struggling musicians that are one crisis away from ruin. But this shows that inspiration comes from unexpected places.
(15) "Brad Benske and The Hand of Light:" Nice connection to the earlier story "This World Or the Next."
emrysmerlyn's review against another edition
3.0
Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons from Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
I am pretty sure the title for this anthology was specifically tailored to catch my attention—and it did! Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons? Sign me up!
It didn’t quite meet the expectations I developed from reading the title — it’s a lot heavier on the “trauma” than the “folk songs”
There is some really compelling and interesting imagery throughout, particularly in the stories that contain magical realism. There is also some graphic violence that while also incredibly evocative, was occasionally a little too much for comfort.
I think the problem I ended up having with this collection was the sense that there was a sort of “gleeful meanness” to some of the stories. Something I was struggling to put into words until that phrase itself popped up in one of the stories. There are points were it feels like these stories delight in being unkind when they don’t need to be that way, wielding words like knife intending to cause harm. Another story made this observation: “...she’s seen him pass up numerous opportunities to be cruel, which seems to her a clearly measurable currency in people her age, boys and girls alike.” And afterwards, I felt like that particular currency was one I desperately needed if I was going to finish this collection; I needed coin in the form of cruelty avoided.
(* marks my favorites in this collection)
*THE LESSER HORSEMEN
Fans of Good Omens will probably enjoy one, it has a similarly irreverent approach to the idea of the apocalypse and the four horsemen. However, there is something surreal and unnerving about Pestilence sitting on a cruise ship in forced semi-retirement and lamenting to the devil that the last time he was truly great was during the Spanish Influenza a hundred years ago. You know, given everything about the last year.
“Call Him whatever you want: The Good Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh, The Beginning and The End, God; we loved Him and we feared Him, and perhaps it was intentional but when He was in human form, we were also a bit disgusted by Him.” This god is gross and also a douche.
*AT THIS TABLE
Second person POV, which is unusual, along with a deliberate and matter of fact tone that sets a *vibe* that is so distant and uncomfortable—not as a criticism, but as a tonal and structural choice that is really interesting to see. It’s a ghost story and the end of a love story. “In the spirit—no pun intended—of pure kindness, something the living so rarely manage, he’s trying to give you the opportunity for a different ending.”
(warning for internalized homophobia)
BABY JILL
“The room is empty save for the tens of thousands of teeth carpeting the floor. Mounds of them. Hills and valleys of little pale teeth. The room is not particularly big, but still.”
The tooth fairy is having a moral crisis; how much can you witness without reaching out to try to help.
(warning for death of a child and implied child abuse)
THEIR SOULS CLIMB THE ROOM
“At night he could feel the souls of all the dead hogs pressing on his chest, pressing down on his ribcage like something real. A near-tangible weight that he could nearly touch. All those souls pinning him to the mattress, pressing down on the animal meat of his heart.”
(warning for drug use, animal cruelty, and gore)
*HOSPITALITY
A series of vignettes situated around a failing motel.
(warning for torture and gun violence)
THIS WORLD OR THE NEXT
Traveling revival/faith healer style religious spectacle. Some pretty lines, but little plot.
(warning for self harm)
GIFTS
I disapprove of killing women in stories simply to fuel some misplaced man pain. Otherwise a perfectly good dystopian apocalypse. Honestly, I think the story would have worked better in many ways if she wasn’t killed. Open with a breakup and not a murder: Struggling through a breakup at the end of the world is interesting—like watching the world end on multiple fronts.
*COYOTE
Upsetting is the word. Two brothers, in the aftermath.
YES, WE ARE DULY CONCERNED WITH CALAMITOUS EVENTS
“Twenty-three days after the world kind of ends, we all watch as Human Resources Randy strangles the temp with a mouse cord.” The words all hit the tone for comedy while the content dives fairly heavily into horror. And this story starts off strong. The , unfortunately, there is a truly disgusting section where it talks about a disabled child and “how hard it might be to love her in her shunted, curled little body and pink wheelchair,” and I was so grossed out by that bit of ableism I couldn’t finish this story for a long time. I almost put the book down entirely during this one. See, being “offensive” on purpose is more or less fine, occasionally effective, and usually more than a little flat, but still more or less a commonly accepted way to show off the broken bits of society. Satire shows love to do it. It’s usually not great, but you see it and people use it and it’s...fine. But, there is also a point where using politically incorrect language as a weapon feels vindictive and spiteful and so unproductive, as though the only goal of the words is to cause harm rather than to provide any kind of insight at all. The words in this story means to cause harm.
WINTER, SPRING, WHATEVER HAPPENS AFTER THAT
This is a really well written story about a pair of children whose mother has abandoned them with their alcoholic father. It is painfully realistic in a way that doesn’t really fit in with the other stories in this collection, which almost all have at least a hint of magical realism. I do think the structure of the story is hurt by the open ending; a stronger conclusion would have served better.
(Warnings for homophobic language and child abuse)
FORGIVE ME THIS
2nd person POV? I don’t know, a weird choice with no particular pay off that makes the POV choice worth it. Also has incesty vibes.
DUNSMUIR
A slice of life for an alcoholic going through rehab while his pregnant girlfriend copes with the murder of her sister.
(Warnings for addiction, alcoholism, domestic violence)
*HOMECOMING
“You really are trying hard to hold on, aren’t you?” he gasped, “Just hanging on tight as you can to the skin of the world.”
This is a really weird one, that starts off with some light magical realism, but by the end and before you have a chance to adjust you’ve been boiled in to something a lot more from and deeply fantastic.
THE MELODY OF THE THING
“The fan creaked back and forth, pushed our misery around the room.”
OK so this one has this really viscerally upsetting graphic violence where where a former ufc fighter just destroys a man the street who tried to intervene in a domestic violence dispute and then the story details the painstaking recovery from horrifying injuries that resulted. It is graphic and it left me with a sour feeling in the pit of my stomach.
BRAD BENSKE AND THE HAND OF LIGHT
“Splay-legged in my recliner, I’ve just returned from putting another note under Marcus’s door (In the next life your penis shall be multipronged, insectile, hot and bristling with pustules, gloriously prone to infection)”
I am pretty sure the title for this anthology was specifically tailored to catch my attention—and it did! Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons? Sign me up!
It didn’t quite meet the expectations I developed from reading the title — it’s a lot heavier on the “trauma” than the “folk songs”
There is some really compelling and interesting imagery throughout, particularly in the stories that contain magical realism. There is also some graphic violence that while also incredibly evocative, was occasionally a little too much for comfort.
I think the problem I ended up having with this collection was the sense that there was a sort of “gleeful meanness” to some of the stories. Something I was struggling to put into words until that phrase itself popped up in one of the stories. There are points were it feels like these stories delight in being unkind when they don’t need to be that way, wielding words like knife intending to cause harm. Another story made this observation: “...she’s seen him pass up numerous opportunities to be cruel, which seems to her a clearly measurable currency in people her age, boys and girls alike.” And afterwards, I felt like that particular currency was one I desperately needed if I was going to finish this collection; I needed coin in the form of cruelty avoided.
(* marks my favorites in this collection)
*THE LESSER HORSEMEN
Fans of Good Omens will probably enjoy one, it has a similarly irreverent approach to the idea of the apocalypse and the four horsemen. However, there is something surreal and unnerving about Pestilence sitting on a cruise ship in forced semi-retirement and lamenting to the devil that the last time he was truly great was during the Spanish Influenza a hundred years ago. You know, given everything about the last year.
“Call Him whatever you want: The Good Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh, The Beginning and The End, God; we loved Him and we feared Him, and perhaps it was intentional but when He was in human form, we were also a bit disgusted by Him.” This god is gross and also a douche.
*AT THIS TABLE
Second person POV, which is unusual, along with a deliberate and matter of fact tone that sets a *vibe* that is so distant and uncomfortable—not as a criticism, but as a tonal and structural choice that is really interesting to see. It’s a ghost story and the end of a love story. “In the spirit—no pun intended—of pure kindness, something the living so rarely manage, he’s trying to give you the opportunity for a different ending.”
(warning for internalized homophobia)
BABY JILL
“The room is empty save for the tens of thousands of teeth carpeting the floor. Mounds of them. Hills and valleys of little pale teeth. The room is not particularly big, but still.”
The tooth fairy is having a moral crisis; how much can you witness without reaching out to try to help.
(warning for death of a child and implied child abuse)
THEIR SOULS CLIMB THE ROOM
“At night he could feel the souls of all the dead hogs pressing on his chest, pressing down on his ribcage like something real. A near-tangible weight that he could nearly touch. All those souls pinning him to the mattress, pressing down on the animal meat of his heart.”
(warning for drug use, animal cruelty, and gore)
*HOSPITALITY
A series of vignettes situated around a failing motel.
(warning for torture and gun violence)
THIS WORLD OR THE NEXT
Traveling revival/faith healer style religious spectacle. Some pretty lines, but little plot.
(warning for self harm)
GIFTS
I disapprove of killing women in stories simply to fuel some misplaced man pain. Otherwise a perfectly good dystopian apocalypse. Honestly, I think the story would have worked better in many ways if she wasn’t killed. Open with a breakup and not a murder: Struggling through a breakup at the end of the world is interesting—like watching the world end on multiple fronts.
*COYOTE
Upsetting is the word. Two brothers, in the aftermath.
YES, WE ARE DULY CONCERNED WITH CALAMITOUS EVENTS
“Twenty-three days after the world kind of ends, we all watch as Human Resources Randy strangles the temp with a mouse cord.” The words all hit the tone for comedy while the content dives fairly heavily into horror. And this story starts off strong. The , unfortunately, there is a truly disgusting section where it talks about a disabled child and “how hard it might be to love her in her shunted, curled little body and pink wheelchair,” and I was so grossed out by that bit of ableism I couldn’t finish this story for a long time. I almost put the book down entirely during this one. See, being “offensive” on purpose is more or less fine, occasionally effective, and usually more than a little flat, but still more or less a commonly accepted way to show off the broken bits of society. Satire shows love to do it. It’s usually not great, but you see it and people use it and it’s...fine. But, there is also a point where using politically incorrect language as a weapon feels vindictive and spiteful and so unproductive, as though the only goal of the words is to cause harm rather than to provide any kind of insight at all. The words in this story means to cause harm.
WINTER, SPRING, WHATEVER HAPPENS AFTER THAT
This is a really well written story about a pair of children whose mother has abandoned them with their alcoholic father. It is painfully realistic in a way that doesn’t really fit in with the other stories in this collection, which almost all have at least a hint of magical realism. I do think the structure of the story is hurt by the open ending; a stronger conclusion would have served better.
(Warnings for homophobic language and child abuse)
FORGIVE ME THIS
2nd person POV? I don’t know, a weird choice with no particular pay off that makes the POV choice worth it. Also has incesty vibes.
DUNSMUIR
A slice of life for an alcoholic going through rehab while his pregnant girlfriend copes with the murder of her sister.
(Warnings for addiction, alcoholism, domestic violence)
*HOMECOMING
“You really are trying hard to hold on, aren’t you?” he gasped, “Just hanging on tight as you can to the skin of the world.”
This is a really weird one, that starts off with some light magical realism, but by the end and before you have a chance to adjust you’ve been boiled in to something a lot more from and deeply fantastic.
THE MELODY OF THE THING
“The fan creaked back and forth, pushed our misery around the room.”
OK so this one has this really viscerally upsetting graphic violence where where a former ufc fighter just destroys a man the street who tried to intervene in a domestic violence dispute and then the story details the painstaking recovery from horrifying injuries that resulted. It is graphic and it left me with a sour feeling in the pit of my stomach.
BRAD BENSKE AND THE HAND OF LIGHT
“Splay-legged in my recliner, I’ve just returned from putting another note under Marcus’s door (In the next life your penis shall be multipronged, insectile, hot and bristling with pustules, gloriously prone to infection)”
theartolater's review against another edition
4.0
Wonderful short horror/weird stories, has a very nice and different feel to it.
daveroche's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
5.0
When I was a teenager, REM were my favorite band. I started with Out of Time and then used allowances and Christmas present Sam Goody gift certificates to slowly buy the previous albums. Dead Letter Office came as a surprise to me. Not knowing much about music (or anything else, really) at that age, I assumed B-sides were songs that just weren't good enough for albums. Dead Letter Office showed me that the B-sides were a chance for the band to try something different. The songs were as good as the ones on their albums, just more playful or weird.
Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons is Keith Rosson's Dead Letter Office. The work is on par with his previous novels, but the short stories allow him to play around more. "The Lesser Horseman" is his "Voice of Harold", "Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That" is his "Ages of You".
I'm a big fan of Keith's novels and Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons does not disappoint.
Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons is Keith Rosson's Dead Letter Office. The work is on par with his previous novels, but the short stories allow him to play around more. "The Lesser Horseman" is his "Voice of Harold", "Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That" is his "Ages of You".
I'm a big fan of Keith's novels and Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons does not disappoint.
christinecc's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons" is the kind of short story collection that feels like a really good alt-rock album you would play for a cross-country road trip (while also pondering your life).
The characters in each of these stories are all people experiencing change: its immediate effects, its long-term impact, and everything in between. If I had to pick a story that embodies the totality of "Folk Songs," it would be "Hospitality," which takes place at a hotel near a water park. The sorry cast of people at this hotel are dealing with very different issues, all of which feel dire and important despite our meeting each character for only a few ages.
Another highlight of the collection is "Baby Jill," which explores a dark world invisible to the eyes of most outsiders except for one: the Tooth Fairy. (This one gets a bit of a trigger warning, despite it being a very moving story about an isolated person who feels powerless to help others in pain.)
Finally, "The Melody of the Thing" is my third pick of the collection, and it's well summed-up as "no good deed goes unpunished." But it's also a story about punishing others after experiencing a horrible injury, while also punishing oneself.
Overall, this is an honest and vulnerable collection of stories that should be read in as few sittings as possible. Don't worry about binge-reading "Folk Songs," it's just that kind of anthology. Recommended if you like stories that resonate with the after-thoughts in your head.
Thank you to Meerkat Press and Netgalley for granting me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The characters in each of these stories are all people experiencing change: its immediate effects, its long-term impact, and everything in between. If I had to pick a story that embodies the totality of "Folk Songs," it would be "Hospitality," which takes place at a hotel near a water park. The sorry cast of people at this hotel are dealing with very different issues, all of which feel dire and important despite our meeting each character for only a few ages.
Another highlight of the collection is "Baby Jill," which explores a dark world invisible to the eyes of most outsiders except for one: the Tooth Fairy. (This one gets a bit of a trigger warning, despite it being a very moving story about an isolated person who feels powerless to help others in pain.)
Finally, "The Melody of the Thing" is my third pick of the collection, and it's well summed-up as "no good deed goes unpunished." But it's also a story about punishing others after experiencing a horrible injury, while also punishing oneself.
Overall, this is an honest and vulnerable collection of stories that should be read in as few sittings as possible. Don't worry about binge-reading "Folk Songs," it's just that kind of anthology. Recommended if you like stories that resonate with the after-thoughts in your head.
Thank you to Meerkat Press and Netgalley for granting me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
thebookmistress's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
aconitecafe's review against another edition
5.0
It's official, Keith needs very few words to paint the sum of someone's character in vivid color. Each of these 15 stories tells a tale of someone that feels familiar. I love how immersive his writing is, even in short stories, where you're only with the characters for a few thousand words. You can't help but understand their deepest emotions.
Honorable Mentions:
The Lesser Horsemen - This tales of the other 3 horseman is one I didn't know I needed about the fab 4. We all know that death his here to stay, but what happens with the other 3 are no longer working out? This hilarious take on how God rehabilitates them was fitting for the pandemic we're currently living in. Guess pestilence received a bit of contract work.
Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That - This one got me right in the feels. The way Becky feels about school, work, and her alcoholic father, so heartbreaking. The description in this was does so much for the emotional state of the characters, and the lives they lead.
Plus Brad Benske and the Hand of Light, and Dunsmuir - sooo many feels in such a short amount of words.
You'll love this collection of stories if you enjoy works of fiction that don't have an explicit plot, and are more character driven. If you like reading about topics that toe the line of magic and realism, and are tied together with deep emotions pick up this book!
Honorable Mentions:
The Lesser Horsemen - This tales of the other 3 horseman is one I didn't know I needed about the fab 4. We all know that death his here to stay, but what happens with the other 3 are no longer working out? This hilarious take on how God rehabilitates them was fitting for the pandemic we're currently living in. Guess pestilence received a bit of contract work.
Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That - This one got me right in the feels. The way Becky feels about school, work, and her alcoholic father, so heartbreaking. The description in this was does so much for the emotional state of the characters, and the lives they lead.
Plus Brad Benske and the Hand of Light, and Dunsmuir - sooo many feels in such a short amount of words.
You'll love this collection of stories if you enjoy works of fiction that don't have an explicit plot, and are more character driven. If you like reading about topics that toe the line of magic and realism, and are tied together with deep emotions pick up this book!
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