A review by jakekilroy
Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins

4.0

The first story of this collection is perhaps the most jarring opener I’ve ever read; not for any horrific details, but rather the realization of what it’s about (as I knew little about the author going in). From there, it’s one engaging reminder after another that everyone is trying to find something and it may not be happiness. It may be happiness adjacent or even adjacent to whatever that is. In the bleak landscape of the deserty American west, especially in and around Las Vegas, anything from safety and security to joy and jubilation to rationale and realization can be a copy of a copy of a copy — but it’s the closest you’ll likely ever get to purity, so you take it and hold onto it; not exactly treasuring it, not exactly dismissing it. It’s worth something, even if it’s not everything you want it to be. I found this collection fascinating, even when the desolation rolled through my body. These are characters aware of an absence within them, and even when they speak from the heart, they can come across as if they’re talking with gritted teeth. The hardened ones seem sharper and the softer souls seem ripe for the world’s devouring. I respect this world, but I do not fear it. Yet I worry how true it may be.