Women! In! Peril! is a collection of short stories, most of which were not in my wheelhouse. (I got this galley from NetGalley thinking there would be more science fiction or fantasy stories, but it turns out there weren’t that many. This was somewhat disappointing.) My reviews are going to be focused on the science fiction stories, and one of the two stories that may or may not be magical realism.
Annie 2: A woman buys an Ambiguous Asian appearing “Jill of All” robot for her son as a sex toy. (To apparently replace the human girlfriend who dumped him.) Annie wants to be helpful and useful, even if it’s as a sex toy, but is unable to fulfill its function because there is no helping this family of creepy dysfunctional people. Fridge Horror moment: it’s revealed that most of the devices in the home have some level of sentience but they can’t communicate with anyone except the “Jill of All” robot. Pet Peeve: I have strong negative feelings when writers inexplicably make up stupid band names with stupid songs to make fun of a music genre they hate. General reaction: “So, how about that late late late stage capitalism?”
Women! In! Peril!: A woman is on a colony ship where most of the passengers are in cryo sleep. The story is told in a microblogging format. The woman has extended meltdowns and an equally extended conflict with another passenger that ends with her finding out that Civilization Has Been Destroyed back on Earth. She decides to finish the job. I think? At the end she rambles about the potential futures of babies that aren’t going to be born because she picked the option that would lead to “the end of humanity.” General reaction: Are all of these stories going to be bummers?
My Immaculate Girlfriend: A woman is having a meltdown because her girlfriend is pregnant after apparently cheating on her. The woman spends a great deal of time ranting and coming up with increasingly incoherent explanations for how this even occurred. The woman and her girlfriend seem to have an extremely toxic relationship (if you couldn’t already tell by the ‘decides to start family without having any planning’ incident.) Mel, the girlfriend, refuses to state how she got pregnant, stating it’s a miracle. Since it may literally be a miracle and not the girlfriend telling whoppers, I’m including it. General reaction: “Why don’t you dump her?”
(The other story that may or may not be magical realism is “Mrs. Fisher” which is about a woman who is having a troubled marriage and may or may not be considering having an affair with a student. The possible magical realism is that she has an extended conversation with a boulder.)
Overall reaction: not really to my taste. I ended up doing a lot of skimming because I didn’t like any of the characters, and didn’t think any of their actions made sense. These stories are all very “literary” in the sense that there is a Point of some kind to the story, and that Point is more important than the plot or the characters involved in the plot. Someone who actually likes that kind of writing may get more out of this book than I did.
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