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At-Risk
“Gautier writes with exhilarating insight and confidence about the lives of teenagers . . . at risk from themselves, their families and their friends.”—Margot Livesey, New York Times bestselling author In Amina Gautier’s Brooklyn, some kids make it and some kids don’t, but not in simple ways or for stereotypical reasons. Gautier’s stories explore the lives of young African Americans who might all be classified as “at-risk,” yet who encounter different opportunities and dangers in their particular neighborhoods and schools and who see life through the lens of different family experiences. Gautier’s focus is on quiet daily moments, even in extraordinary lives; her characters do not stand as emblems of a subculture but live and breathe as people. In “The Ease of Living,” the young teen Jason is sent down south to spend the summer with his grandfather after witnessing the double murder of his two best friends, and he is not happy about it. In “Pan Is Dead,” two half-siblings watch as the heroin-addicted father of the older one works his way back into their mother’s life; in “Dance for Me,” a girl on scholarship at a posh Manhattan school teaches white girls to dance in the bathroom in order to be invited to a party. As teenagers in complicated circumstances, each of Gautier’s characters is pushed in many directions. To succeed may entail unforgiveable compromises, and to follow their desires may lead to catastrophe. Yet within these stories they exist and can be seen as they are, in the moment of choosing. “Despite its title, this is not a debut composed of rapid shocks and dangers, but a quieter accumulation of heartbreaking pressures.”—Foreword Reviews
166 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 15, 2011
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250 people want to read
About the author
Amina Gautier
20 books108 followersAmina Gautier is the author of the short story collections At-Risk, Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award (University of Georgia Press, 2011), Now We Will Be Happy, Winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction (University of Nebraska Press, 2014), and The Loss of All Lost Things (Elixir Press, 2016. She has published over ninety short stories. They appear in Agni, Best African American Fiction, Callaloo, Glimmer Train, Iowa Review, Kenyon Review, New Stories From the South, Notre Dame Review, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Southern Review, and Storyquarterly among other places.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
October 26, 2012
Winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, At-risk (University of Georgia Press) by Amina Gautier is a heartbreaking, eye opening, and endearing collection of stories that focus on African-American children in turmoil. Fathers leave, or if they stay, fall apart—addictions and failure all around them. Mothers ignore, or distance themselves, pushing their own agendas. Brothers and sisters either die in the street or get out by whatever means is necessary. And somewhere in the shadows of these events sit the boys and girls who try to make sense of it all—and try to survive it, unscarred.
When you are lost, ignored, and generally treated as less than worthwhile by society, your family, and your friends, how do you find yourself, how do you find a way to rise above it all? In the case of “Girl of Wisdom” you seek the attention of somebody, anybody, that will make you feel special. Melanie starts out joking with the neighborhood boys but tries to grow up fast by hopping in the car of a stranger and riding off with him. He’s a much older man, but she takes charge of the situation, in an effort to transform herself from a girl into a woman:
“Melanie finds his bedroom on her own. She doesn’t wait for him to follow. She goes to it, undresses, peels back thin cotton sheets and climbs into his bed. What courtesy he shows when he turns his back to her while he undresses, before climbing in beside her. He doesn’t pounce on her the way a boy her own age would. His legs are wiry and strong against hers, his feet bony and cold. How gentle it is when he parts her legs, how silent when he enters her.”
Even though we all lost our virginities in one way or another, this is still a difficult scene to watch. When she comes home later, she hopes that her mother, Bernice, will finally notice her and see the change, see how she is wise now—evolved. But she doesn’t:
“Bernice is in the kitchen, paring apples for pie, when Melanie comes home. Melanie thinks her mother should know it at once. That it should be obvious. A difference in her walk and her bearing. She thinks there is now an air about her that exudes woman. But her mother is blind to it. Bernice drops an apple core into the trash and greets her, noticing nothing.”
I don’t know what is worst—the lengths she goes to in order to feel like a woman, the fact that she needs her mother’s approval so much that this is what she does, or the harsh reality that her mother doesn’t see anything at all. All of these options weigh heavily on the reader.
Another story that really resonated with me was “Held,” the story of a young girl that has gotten pregnant and can barely tolerate her own child. Kim is tired of her crying baby who only wants to be held. But her mother offers no help:
“Kim took the baby down the hallway and called to her mother.
‘Ma! What am I supposed to do?’
Her mother shouted from the living room, ‘I know you not asking me nothing. You ain’t want my advice this time last year, don’t ask me nothing now.’”
Frustrated by her situation—her mother’s lack of help, her older sister’s lectures on how to take care of her baby, her boyfriend’s lack of interest in doing anything more than the bare minimum to help her—Kim eventually realizes that this is not a chore or a punishment, but a gift. This is her child, her daughter, and she finally embraces the child:
“The baby was quiet now, but curious. Rapt. Her eyes followed Kim’s every movement. She brought the infant closer and inhaled, smelling the warm baby scent of powder and new, new skin. The baby reached for her hair and Kim laughed, feeling like the two of them were the only two people that had ever been in the world. And they were only now just meeting.”
Many of the stories end with failure, death or heartache, so it’s a comfort to see this story turn out a little better than when we started it, and we eventually root for Kim to succeed, to focus on more than her own needs—to see how wonderful her daughter is, and to love the child with an open mind and heart.
But the most devastating story in this collection has to be “Push.” Girls in school fighting and trying not to fail—these acts of survival are what you’d expect to find in this urban setting. But Gautier takes chances with this narrative and forces the audience to hold back their judgments, to stop and think about what’s happening, what is must be like to be these girls. Our young unnamed protagonist is held after class and told to write about her thoughts, to apologize to the girl, Colleen, who she pushed down the last flight of stairs. She follows Colleen in line, day in and day out. In her eyes, Colleen isn’t special—not beautiful, not brilliant—just average at best. She sees the lengths that Colleen goes to in order to get noticed, wearing her mother’s perfume, just one of forty-five kids. Here are her powerful final thoughts:
“What it really comes down to is the rightness of the push.
When they are going down the stairs and the girl pushes Colleen down the steps or forces her into the railing, the girl feels a part of something larger than herself. She believes, deep down, that Colleen expects it, in fact cannot live without it. On the rare occasions when the girl has not indulged in a minor act of violence, she has caught Colleen sneaking wounded glances at her. Though Mrs. Greenberg can never understand it, the girl knows that Colleen also lives for the skirmish. There were forty-five kids in Mrs. Greenberg’s class. If it were not for the girl’s attentive violence, Colleen would be a nobody. She’d go unnoticed and uncalled on by Mrs. Greenberg, lost in a sea of indistinguishable black kids in a public elementary school with an overcrowding problem. The girl draws a line through her apology and turns to a fresh page.
Dear Colleen,
You don’t have to thank me.”
There is so much hanging on that last line, so much to take in and absorb. Is this a noble gesture that the girl is offering, or simply another selfish act? It makes you pause and wonder.
And that’s what Amina Gautier does so well. She doesn’t give us the expected stories, the same old situations, where poverty is the sickness, with no cure in sight. While her focus is definitely on at-risk children, the beauty she captures in these pages are the same truths, emotions, and dreams that exist in all of our lives. Everyone wants to be loved, everyone wants to be valued—everyone wants to be special. These stories have courage, a brutal honesty, and a layered insight that is hard to find. They will stay with you long after the stories are over. Two of the story titles still echo in my mind, a microcosm of everything Gautier tries to feature in her work: “Push,” and “Held.”
When you are lost, ignored, and generally treated as less than worthwhile by society, your family, and your friends, how do you find yourself, how do you find a way to rise above it all? In the case of “Girl of Wisdom” you seek the attention of somebody, anybody, that will make you feel special. Melanie starts out joking with the neighborhood boys but tries to grow up fast by hopping in the car of a stranger and riding off with him. He’s a much older man, but she takes charge of the situation, in an effort to transform herself from a girl into a woman:
“Melanie finds his bedroom on her own. She doesn’t wait for him to follow. She goes to it, undresses, peels back thin cotton sheets and climbs into his bed. What courtesy he shows when he turns his back to her while he undresses, before climbing in beside her. He doesn’t pounce on her the way a boy her own age would. His legs are wiry and strong against hers, his feet bony and cold. How gentle it is when he parts her legs, how silent when he enters her.”
Even though we all lost our virginities in one way or another, this is still a difficult scene to watch. When she comes home later, she hopes that her mother, Bernice, will finally notice her and see the change, see how she is wise now—evolved. But she doesn’t:
“Bernice is in the kitchen, paring apples for pie, when Melanie comes home. Melanie thinks her mother should know it at once. That it should be obvious. A difference in her walk and her bearing. She thinks there is now an air about her that exudes woman. But her mother is blind to it. Bernice drops an apple core into the trash and greets her, noticing nothing.”
I don’t know what is worst—the lengths she goes to in order to feel like a woman, the fact that she needs her mother’s approval so much that this is what she does, or the harsh reality that her mother doesn’t see anything at all. All of these options weigh heavily on the reader.
Another story that really resonated with me was “Held,” the story of a young girl that has gotten pregnant and can barely tolerate her own child. Kim is tired of her crying baby who only wants to be held. But her mother offers no help:
“Kim took the baby down the hallway and called to her mother.
‘Ma! What am I supposed to do?’
Her mother shouted from the living room, ‘I know you not asking me nothing. You ain’t want my advice this time last year, don’t ask me nothing now.’”
Frustrated by her situation—her mother’s lack of help, her older sister’s lectures on how to take care of her baby, her boyfriend’s lack of interest in doing anything more than the bare minimum to help her—Kim eventually realizes that this is not a chore or a punishment, but a gift. This is her child, her daughter, and she finally embraces the child:
“The baby was quiet now, but curious. Rapt. Her eyes followed Kim’s every movement. She brought the infant closer and inhaled, smelling the warm baby scent of powder and new, new skin. The baby reached for her hair and Kim laughed, feeling like the two of them were the only two people that had ever been in the world. And they were only now just meeting.”
Many of the stories end with failure, death or heartache, so it’s a comfort to see this story turn out a little better than when we started it, and we eventually root for Kim to succeed, to focus on more than her own needs—to see how wonderful her daughter is, and to love the child with an open mind and heart.
But the most devastating story in this collection has to be “Push.” Girls in school fighting and trying not to fail—these acts of survival are what you’d expect to find in this urban setting. But Gautier takes chances with this narrative and forces the audience to hold back their judgments, to stop and think about what’s happening, what is must be like to be these girls. Our young unnamed protagonist is held after class and told to write about her thoughts, to apologize to the girl, Colleen, who she pushed down the last flight of stairs. She follows Colleen in line, day in and day out. In her eyes, Colleen isn’t special—not beautiful, not brilliant—just average at best. She sees the lengths that Colleen goes to in order to get noticed, wearing her mother’s perfume, just one of forty-five kids. Here are her powerful final thoughts:
“What it really comes down to is the rightness of the push.
When they are going down the stairs and the girl pushes Colleen down the steps or forces her into the railing, the girl feels a part of something larger than herself. She believes, deep down, that Colleen expects it, in fact cannot live without it. On the rare occasions when the girl has not indulged in a minor act of violence, she has caught Colleen sneaking wounded glances at her. Though Mrs. Greenberg can never understand it, the girl knows that Colleen also lives for the skirmish. There were forty-five kids in Mrs. Greenberg’s class. If it were not for the girl’s attentive violence, Colleen would be a nobody. She’d go unnoticed and uncalled on by Mrs. Greenberg, lost in a sea of indistinguishable black kids in a public elementary school with an overcrowding problem. The girl draws a line through her apology and turns to a fresh page.
Dear Colleen,
You don’t have to thank me.”
There is so much hanging on that last line, so much to take in and absorb. Is this a noble gesture that the girl is offering, or simply another selfish act? It makes you pause and wonder.
And that’s what Amina Gautier does so well. She doesn’t give us the expected stories, the same old situations, where poverty is the sickness, with no cure in sight. While her focus is definitely on at-risk children, the beauty she captures in these pages are the same truths, emotions, and dreams that exist in all of our lives. Everyone wants to be loved, everyone wants to be valued—everyone wants to be special. These stories have courage, a brutal honesty, and a layered insight that is hard to find. They will stay with you long after the stories are over. Two of the story titles still echo in my mind, a microcosm of everything Gautier tries to feature in her work: “Push,” and “Held.”
January 10, 2019
Probably for the first time ever, I spent months reading one book. Many would take that as a sign that I didn’t like it, but in fact it is quite the opposite. Amina Gautier’s collection of stories At-Risk is quite affecting; stark in its unapologetic depictions of young, black, impoverished youth. I savoured each story after reading it, and although it’s been many weeks since I’ve read some of the stories, I still think back to the characters I’ve met between these pages.
I read another collection of Gautier’s a few years ago, you can find the review here. I enjoyed it, and similar to this book, it wrung me out emotionally. At-Risk is a wonderful example of short stories done well. These aren’t really linked, although the last story in this award-winning collection features two boys who are murdered in the first story (that’s not really a spoiler, and to be honest, I didn’t even notice it until I read it in another review of the book so no big deal either way). The important thing is to pay attention to the characters’ inner lives, not the external factors they face.
Gautier purposefully includes youths who fall under stereotypes from an urban black neighborhood: a girl pregnant at 16, teenagers who do drugs outside their private school, a hard-working teen desperate to succeed and make her struggling family proud of her. But what’s special about this book is that these stereotypes aren’t pushed back against, but explored further. Instead of seeing a stereotype and moving along to the next person, we delve deeper into each life, learning more about their family, their desires, their fears, and most importantly their dreams. Gautier successfully humanizes a segment of our population that people typically only see as statistics so we get a clear view into the homes of society’s most vulnerable. We also see a wide range of circumstances which of course yields different outcomes for each. Again, we push further into the lives of these people not for our entertainment, or as a moral lesson, but to simply get to know them better.
Aside from the EXCEPTIONAL characterization on display there are some pretty engaging plot lines. Some stories don’t have much happen in them, while others include some really interesting turns and developments. There aren’t many ‘twists’ to these narratives, but enough to keep us reading and turning the pages. The connections you’ll make with each character is truly the best part of this book, and for that reason, I highly recommend it.
Please visit my blog to see the review in full:
https://ivereadthis.com/2019/01/10/bo...
I read another collection of Gautier’s a few years ago, you can find the review here. I enjoyed it, and similar to this book, it wrung me out emotionally. At-Risk is a wonderful example of short stories done well. These aren’t really linked, although the last story in this award-winning collection features two boys who are murdered in the first story (that’s not really a spoiler, and to be honest, I didn’t even notice it until I read it in another review of the book so no big deal either way). The important thing is to pay attention to the characters’ inner lives, not the external factors they face.
Gautier purposefully includes youths who fall under stereotypes from an urban black neighborhood: a girl pregnant at 16, teenagers who do drugs outside their private school, a hard-working teen desperate to succeed and make her struggling family proud of her. But what’s special about this book is that these stereotypes aren’t pushed back against, but explored further. Instead of seeing a stereotype and moving along to the next person, we delve deeper into each life, learning more about their family, their desires, their fears, and most importantly their dreams. Gautier successfully humanizes a segment of our population that people typically only see as statistics so we get a clear view into the homes of society’s most vulnerable. We also see a wide range of circumstances which of course yields different outcomes for each. Again, we push further into the lives of these people not for our entertainment, or as a moral lesson, but to simply get to know them better.
Aside from the EXCEPTIONAL characterization on display there are some pretty engaging plot lines. Some stories don’t have much happen in them, while others include some really interesting turns and developments. There aren’t many ‘twists’ to these narratives, but enough to keep us reading and turning the pages. The connections you’ll make with each character is truly the best part of this book, and for that reason, I highly recommend it.
Please visit my blog to see the review in full:
https://ivereadthis.com/2019/01/10/bo...
February 13, 2017
I read Gautier's Now We Will Be Happy a few months ago and was stunned by how perfectly it seemed to hit every note, leaving me with high expectations for this one. While this was still a very enjoyable read, it didn't manage to reach the same heights as her later collection, and I largely understood that to be an encouraging testament to the Amina's continuing growth as she continues in her craft (this collection was written before the one I read first).
In fact, I would even say that the uniquely impeccable strengths of NWWBH were weaknesses here. Whereas I was engrossed by the masterful restraint employed throughout that collection, which created and sustained a gripping tension and sense of rich realism, here it seems to be overdone, resulting in a coldness and staleness throughout the stories. And ultimately, that is my complaint with At-Risk...it just felt a bit lifeless, and not in a way that felt intentional, almost as if the technical perfection of the writing got in the way of the narratives and especially the characters.
With that said, it was still a worthwhile read. I always appreciate when young adults who -aren't- lovestruck white suburban teenagers get an honest and authentic spotlight in literature, and this is a commendable example of that. Furthermore, it comes off neither idealistically naive nor tragically exploitative; it tells truthful stories about life for urban black teenagers in Brooklyn hovering around the poverty line, acknowledging the inevitable hardships as well as the highs, refusing to give easy explanations or simple solutions, instead offering an unflinchingly honest look at the complex and complicated lives they live. Most impressively, this is accomplished while still managing to maintain a tone of teenage naivete, self-centeredness, and even ignorance; the narration feels like it's coming from a teenager. My personal favorites of the collection were Pan is Dead, Boogiemen, Some Other Kind of Happiness, and Held.
In fact, I would even say that the uniquely impeccable strengths of NWWBH were weaknesses here. Whereas I was engrossed by the masterful restraint employed throughout that collection, which created and sustained a gripping tension and sense of rich realism, here it seems to be overdone, resulting in a coldness and staleness throughout the stories. And ultimately, that is my complaint with At-Risk...it just felt a bit lifeless, and not in a way that felt intentional, almost as if the technical perfection of the writing got in the way of the narratives and especially the characters.
With that said, it was still a worthwhile read. I always appreciate when young adults who -aren't- lovestruck white suburban teenagers get an honest and authentic spotlight in literature, and this is a commendable example of that. Furthermore, it comes off neither idealistically naive nor tragically exploitative; it tells truthful stories about life for urban black teenagers in Brooklyn hovering around the poverty line, acknowledging the inevitable hardships as well as the highs, refusing to give easy explanations or simple solutions, instead offering an unflinchingly honest look at the complex and complicated lives they live. Most impressively, this is accomplished while still managing to maintain a tone of teenage naivete, self-centeredness, and even ignorance; the narration feels like it's coming from a teenager. My personal favorites of the collection were Pan is Dead, Boogiemen, Some Other Kind of Happiness, and Held.
September 23, 2015
At-Risk, by Amina Gautier, is not an easy book to read. There are no sugar-coated stories and fantastic endings for these children.
It’s heartbreaking and heart wrenching to read, but you can understand their sullenness, resentment, and arrogance. They have to become, hardened, tough and feisty, living in a world where crime is rampant and might claim them at any time.
Some of these children’s parents’ parents were not equipped to love and nurture their children. How do you expect under-aged mothers, who become emancipated, the moment they’re pregnant, to follow? How do you expect boys and girls to have any self-worth if they feel they are not worthy?
The chief factors involved are: discrimination, lack of education, lack of a viable income, crime, and poor housing conditions.
One of the ways to eradicate this is an education not only academically, but parenting and social skills.
Strong mentors are required. Those who knew what it was to live on the ‘mean streets’ in the inner city. Those who are steadfast, and willing to become entrenched in the lives of boys and girls who desperately need them. Those who refuse to quit are crucial.
Ms. Gautier, I compliment you for writing this book. It gives a person clarity and insight into the road less traveled for so many.
It’s heartbreaking and heart wrenching to read, but you can understand their sullenness, resentment, and arrogance. They have to become, hardened, tough and feisty, living in a world where crime is rampant and might claim them at any time.
Some of these children’s parents’ parents were not equipped to love and nurture their children. How do you expect under-aged mothers, who become emancipated, the moment they’re pregnant, to follow? How do you expect boys and girls to have any self-worth if they feel they are not worthy?
The chief factors involved are: discrimination, lack of education, lack of a viable income, crime, and poor housing conditions.
One of the ways to eradicate this is an education not only academically, but parenting and social skills.
Strong mentors are required. Those who knew what it was to live on the ‘mean streets’ in the inner city. Those who are steadfast, and willing to become entrenched in the lives of boys and girls who desperately need them. Those who refuse to quit are crucial.
Ms. Gautier, I compliment you for writing this book. It gives a person clarity and insight into the road less traveled for so many.
September 10, 2012
This book was wonderfully compelling. Amina introduces us to many child characters, all of which are, in one way or another, "At-Risk," a label that is attached to them because of the environment that they live in and/or the adult's expectations of what they might become as they grow up. The irony behind Amina's work is very well crafted. Though the reader fully understands what is going on, Amina presents these stories from the mind of a child that cannot fully grasp the meaning behind what is happening, but is still very much affected by it. These stories are beautifully written and there is something different that the reader can take away and think about from each one.
February 7, 2017
This is an amazing and illuminating collection of short stories about people on the verge of falling through the cracks. Some parents here struggle diligently to keep their children safe, forgoing their own happiness in order to achieve a better future for their children. Other parents struggle with addiction, give up in despair, leave, or get arrested. We meet gifted kids, favored kids, bad influence kids, neglected kids, teen moms, kids so starving for attention they throw themselves at strangers, or go to any lengths for acceptance. In the projects, or away on scholarships, the risks are many and terrifying.
November 27, 2011
Excellent book, struck close to home with me as most of the stories take place in and around the area where I have worked for several years. I feel like I know these kids, that I have worked with many of them over the years and have looked into their lives and the situations that they were forced to deal with on a daily basis. Ms. Gautier captures this in a way that makes us feel that she too has looked into their lives and understands their pain and their triumphs!
May 25, 2016
This collection of short stories refuses to be heartbreaking, which is what I love the most about it. Check out my full review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oWlc...
May 8, 2023
Brilliant!!
I really enjoyed reading this book! Each short story is a mixture of an intriguing plot mixed with a very appropriate morality lesson. I loved how the stories were all unique yet intertwined. I also very much appreciated the perspectives from which the stories were told. Just the right amount of levity was used to move the stories along nicely. I look forward to more offerings similar to this one. It really is a great book!
I really enjoyed reading this book! Each short story is a mixture of an intriguing plot mixed with a very appropriate morality lesson. I loved how the stories were all unique yet intertwined. I also very much appreciated the perspectives from which the stories were told. Just the right amount of levity was used to move the stories along nicely. I look forward to more offerings similar to this one. It really is a great book!
May 11, 2017
This was beautiful, sad, and difficult to read, all at once. Some stories I really loved, while others weren't entirely memorable. I didn't feel as emotionally connected to the characters as some other readers did, but I did recognize the "at risk" nature of their individual lives, and the things I could relate to moved me. Looking forward to seeing some of Gautier's additional writing.
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August 30, 2019Flannery O, Connor award for short fiction, 2011
February 18, 2022
This collection really took me by surprise. I am going to work my way through the rest of her bibliography.
January 12, 2025
The first story was excellent, then they became repetitive - well-meaning but I think these were the writer's first efforts.
September 26, 2025
I loved the first story. The rest were hit or miss. Somehow, the voices sounded too similar to me across the stories--maybe because they were all kids?
July 16, 2024
I loved these heartfelt stories about love, family and growing up.
August 20, 2016
I like story collections that seem of a set--connected by character or place or time or theme. Gautier's collection focuses on youths in Brooklyn, living mostly in single-mother households, and usually on the edge of falling into desperate trouble. In "The Ease of Living" a boy is sent away from his homies to live for the summer with his grandfather in Florida, much to the boy's chagrin. In "Afternoon Tea" a girl is sent to a set of sorority sisters to learn polite culture. In "Pan Is Dead" a deadbeat dad returns to visit his son, who turns out hard to please. In "Push" a bully is forced to stay after school to learn what it means to be bullied. In "Dance for Me" a black girl teaches white girls how to dance the only dance she knows as a way to find acceptance in a posh school she attends on scholarship. In "Girl of Wisdom" a gal tries to pick up an older man. And in "Held" a teen mom learns what it is to love a child. Throughout, the mothers' love for her kids usually stands out but also the desperate circumstances the mothers have to face to keep those kids from falling into a not-so-pleasant life.
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April 7, 2015I heard Amina Gautier read one of her stories at a conference several years ago. I immediately connected with her characters, her style of writing, and her willingness to write about lives that we rarely see up close. I believe that our culture focuses heavily on reading for entertainment. And of course, we should love what we are reading. But just as the people love are human and flawed, and sometimes even maddening, so are stories. We stay with them. We believe in love, and in the beauty of the human heart, broken, lost, stolen, and still hopeful. This is what makes a good short story collection for me. Hope. I don't exactly what qualities in the writing make me feel hope. But I feel it here, in Gautier's stories.
April 15, 2012
Some stories are really beautiful, such as "Dance With Me", but a few of the short stories fall flat. Ones like, "Some Other Kind of Happiness" have abrupt endings and over developed character and setting for such a short tale. This could have worked so much better as a novel. The characters in the book could have been a circle of friends and the narrative could have floated from person to person. For now, each story feels like a potential book, that ends when Gautier doesn't know how to continue.
Still, Gautier manages to create character voices that are important to hear and minds that are intriguing to live in. And her dialogue is always dead on.
Still, Gautier manages to create character voices that are important to hear and minds that are intriguing to live in. And her dialogue is always dead on.
April 8, 2012
Most short stories fall into 1 of 2 categories: centered around some monumental moment or lead to some life-altering conclusion. Rare are those which fall into neither. These are the ones I like best. At Risk is a collection of short stories that focus on everyday lives of everyday people. Each story contains a moment or event that has the potential to be life-altering, but the protagonists aren't always ready for it. These stories are about realistic people living realistic lives.
March 3, 2014
This is the best story collection I've read in years. Gautier really knows how to write--she shows and doesn't tell, her characters are authentic (and they surprise me in almost every story), and there is as much tension between sentences as there is in the plot. I love this book, and I'm going to use it in my next fiction-writing class so I can show my students how to do it right.
May 10, 2014
Liked this book a lot and it's an excellent choice for a book discussion with teens. The ambiguous endings frustrated me until I realized that my true frustration stems from the no-easy- answer reality portrayed in the stories. A powerful and important read.
May 16, 2014
Vivid characters facing the difficulties of the world. Moving, lyrical, terrifying, and ultimately up-lifting.
June 3, 2014
Basic situations that outlined an at Risk population of individuals.
March 8, 2015
Smart stories with complicated characters. I flew through this in a day, it was so good.
Gautier is definitely a writer to watch.
Gautier is definitely a writer to watch.
Read
June 2, 2019Moving stories of fate. The brutality of the white girls in the expensive private school is frightening and beautifully rendered.
January 28, 2015
LOVED THE SORT STORIES WANTED MORE
April 4, 2017
Another heartbreaking (but beautifully done) collection by Gautier.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews