A review by theshaggyshepherd
Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort During the Time of COVID-19 by Jennifer Haupt
3.0
Alone Together // edited by Jennifer Haupt
I've always struggled with short story collections but wanted to give it another try. This one just sounded perfect for our pandemic year with short stories, poems, and interviews all mixed together. There was a great variety of authors from diverse cultures and backgrounds as well as varying narrators. In the print book, 69 authors contributed to this work that includes their collective pain and dreams during this time. While I loved learning how everyone perceived this period in their lives both differently and the same, I did struggle to connect to more than just a few. It generally takes a while for me to get invested in a story and whenever I felt close to doing so, I had to move on to a different person or set of people. This isn't necessarily an issue with the book itself and probably has more to do with me as a reader. Sometimes I struggled to understand why a certain piece was included in this collection, but overall it was really interesting to see how people took something from their lives and connected it to the pandemic in some way or another that I wouldn't have thought of like that at all. While I probably won't pick up another book like this anytime soon, I am still happy I was able to read and experience this.
Thank you to the authors, editor, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
I've always struggled with short story collections but wanted to give it another try. This one just sounded perfect for our pandemic year with short stories, poems, and interviews all mixed together. There was a great variety of authors from diverse cultures and backgrounds as well as varying narrators. In the print book, 69 authors contributed to this work that includes their collective pain and dreams during this time. While I loved learning how everyone perceived this period in their lives both differently and the same, I did struggle to connect to more than just a few. It generally takes a while for me to get invested in a story and whenever I felt close to doing so, I had to move on to a different person or set of people. This isn't necessarily an issue with the book itself and probably has more to do with me as a reader. Sometimes I struggled to understand why a certain piece was included in this collection, but overall it was really interesting to see how people took something from their lives and connected it to the pandemic in some way or another that I wouldn't have thought of like that at all. While I probably won't pick up another book like this anytime soon, I am still happy I was able to read and experience this.
Thank you to the authors, editor, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.