Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Out There

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Out There by Kate Folk

5 reviews

lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I picked this up because my husband got me a copy of this book on a work trip, and I selected it as a book club pick for a friend and me.
"Out There" is a collection of short stories that are..."out there". The stories all follow different characters as they experience different ailments to being human.
Probably my favorite short story in this collection was "The Bone Ward". This story follows the only woman in the bone ward, until a new woman, Lily shows up. The Bone Ward is a place for people whose bones disintegrate at night. Through proper treatment, they can live pretty normal lives, but they do need constant medical attention. The narrator enjoys being the only object of the other male patient's attention, so when Lily shows up, she is jealous. This story was such a great exploration of self and how people can often make us feel ways that we do not want. It was also so visual, and such a unique idea. I have never read a story that was quite like this.
Another story that really stuck out to me and I have not stopped thinking about was "Moist House". In this story a man takes on a job to keep a house moist by applying lotion to it daily. He soon discovers that he has become linked to the house, and if he does not keep the house well hydrated, he has his own consequences to face. This story was beautiful, and I loved seeing how the man evolved into caring for the house and the effects it in turn had on him. It was also just super strange to read about and left a really lasting impression.
Overall, I really loved this collection, and I have not stopped thinking about some of the stories since I finished.

Content Warnings

owenwilsonbaby's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

‘She rolled over to the tree stump and opened her laptop, hoping to find some message from Roger, a love note scrawled in a Word document. But there was nothing. Later, when she was back in cell service, Meg would check her phone and find a photo Roger had sent the night before — at 8:35 P.M., when she had been in the bathroom at the restaurant—of a cocker spaniel wearing a straw panama hat. The message had gone through on Roger's end, meaning that wherever he and his phone had vanished to, there was cell service. She replied with a heart emoji, hoping he would respond, but hours and days passed, and he never did. She would keep texting Roger for years, even after she had begun dating the man she would marry and moved to a suburb of Seattle, where they started a family. She wanted to keep him updated, hoping that wherever he was, whatever blot hive mind he'd been absorbed into, some ember of his consciousness could still see her messages, even if he could never respond.’

I loved this! Not all of the stories compelled me to the same degree but Folk does have a consistently fluid and charismatic writing style. My favourite stories were probably Out There, A Scale Model of Gull Point and Big Sur. Big Sur was my absolute favourite. After a collection of relatively cynical stories, playing the ‘blot’ concept / world-building completely straight was very emotional and I was tearing up at the end. Roger, my beloved bisexual robot.

Content Warnings

savvylit's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

Out There is a compelling collection of bizarre scenarios. There are sentient AI boyfriends stealing identities from women they meet online, there's a man who enters into an erotic relationship with a house, and there's a void slowly swallowing the planet... Folk perfectly combines creepiness and believable characterization to create a world that is simultaneously unsettling and accessible. Like any good speculative fiction, the stories of Out There push readers to see the parallels between Folk's invented realm and our own lives.

Fellow lovers of weird fiction, this one is for you!

Content Warnings

meagangrace's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.25

Content Warnings

anarchist_al's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This collection of short stories is the feminist take on horror of my dreams. Each female main character felt like an exploration and exaggeration of an aspect pf myself. I understood their impulses and descents into madness. I felt their pain and their sorrow and their resignation. Even the very few stories with a man as the main character felt feminist, focusing on universal experiences like the inherent fallacies of your own memory, or taking the concept of being swallowed up by an abusive relationship to the extreme. Lots of body horror and gaslighting and dating gone wrong and I loved it all.

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