Sylvia Plath Watches us Sleep...but we Don't Mind

by Victoria Richards

A Jewish woman has been having unnatural thoughts about the softness of another woman's skin. A feminist arranges to meet her online troll. A woman worries, under her duvet, whether she should sit content in a marriage that has turned comfortable...that is, until she falls in love with a tree... Short stories of midnight musings, of women itching to be heard and of delightful insanities.

“If there is a better way to spend an evening than curled up on an armchair with this beautiful book, then I don’t know about it and I don’t want to. Richards is a master storyteller and a generous god – always tempting you further into the myriad worlds she creates. These are stories which demand to be read and then read again. They are stories which stay with you long after you’ve had to put the book down and get up from the chair. They are stories about love and womanhood and faith and loss and longing; about drowning and breathing; about being alive and what we can do about it.”
- Amelia Loulli, Poet

"These eerie short stories themed around mental health, grief, and dysfunctional relationships are a strange delight to read. Victoria Richards' prose is artful, ethereal, and thrilling.”
- Golnoosh Nour

About the Author
Victoria Richards is a journalist, writer and poet. She has worked for BBC News, The Times and The Independent, has appeared on Newsnight, BBC World and ITV News and she is the Voices editor at The Independent.

In 2017/18 she was shortlisted in the Lucy Cavendish College Fiction Prize 2018, was highly commended in the Bridport Prize, came third in The London Magazine short story competition and second in the TSS flash fiction competition. She was also longlisted in the Bath Short Story Award 2017 and the National Poetry Competition.

She lives in London where she is working variously on a novel, a short story collection, poetry, flash fiction and books for children.

She is also a co-founder of The Second Source, a group of female journalists tackling sexual harassment in the media.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Collections, Short Story Collection

150 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2023

Reviews

[Nicole Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an absolutely banging debut short story collection!!

It was the perfect blend of weird and emotional. Damascus 5* pulled on my heartstrings. And The World Was Water filled me with anxiety. Below The Line satisfied the feminist in me.

[mae · Rating 4 out of 5]

i always have a hard time rating short story collections, because some were 2 stars and others were 5 stars.

[Alexandria ☾]

Dnf @ 20%. The first three stories were a slog and barely made sense, and that's not promising for the rest of the book. I'd rather just not waste any more time

[Thomas Goddard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let's just get something out of the way first and foremost... You get drawn in by the title. The title of this collection is just top tier lit-bait. The sort of title you want to tell people you're reading.

The eponymous story held me in awe. The level of tension it manages to conjure up via a sort of associative emotional topography. It leaves you with this really satisfying resonance afterwards.

Re: The Boat. When I was a kid I went to South Africa and almost drowned. In a pool. I remember it really vividly. This story brought a lot of that back. Cosmic coincidence, hardly likely to be important to anyone but me... But that's what great stories do, they connect with you in really intimate ways. Not always so overtly, but they stir up things long buried.

And The World Was Water, is another story that really stood out for me. It had a really strong message that stuck with me and I talked about it with my partner a bit afterwards. Really got me thinking.

It also, it is worth noting, tackles some themes of self-harm and suicide throughout. So just be prepped for that. For me that was a little tricky, I have a history of self-harm. That isn't a criticism, but the frequency of those references did mean that it wasn't a collection I could consume in one sitting. To balance that, it is a collection that I'd encourage anyone to read slowly. To savour.

Another very impressive collection from Fly On The Wall Press.

[Steph Grey · Rating 4 out of 5]

it’s a crazy thing for a four page short story to evoke a stronger emotional response from me than most of the full length novels i’ve read this year

4.5 stars for sure

[Elior · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the story “Elephants Don’t Live in the Jungle”, which cleverly I thought communicates the inherent wrongness of children being in the hospital and the contrast of that with finding there some of the nicest most empathetic interactions with other humans you’ll have anywhere. It’s quite alternate-worldly, the children’s hospital. As a parent who has spent nights in one I am probably primed to be sensitive to such stories, most famously represented by Lorrie Moore’s incredible “People Like That Are the Only People Here”. Richards’ story is a fine example.

Other stories were earnestly well-meaning with well-meaning political and social messages but weighed down by obviousness and over-reportage. Damascus 5* being the most notable culprit.

Several stories dealt with troubled marriages, most interestingly the title story which provides an admirably attention-grabbing title. It was the pick of that bunch. Then there’s a seemingly eerie supernatural story involving a little girl which fits in rather oddly with the rest of the collection, though it’s not a bad one.

[Lex · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

Weird, wonderful and sad. Standout stories were The Girl in the Photograph (creepy), Tsuris (sad), Damascus 5* (devastating) and Things my Mother Never Told me (harrowing). Below the Line was pretty funny as well.

I think I will start reading more short story anthologies from now on.

[Ally · Rating 4 out of 5]

for a debut story collection, this is EXCELLENT and COHESIVE. 4.5/5.

[theveryweirdgirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird et triste! Il faut je me l’achète en papier et que je l’annote!

[anfal]

DNF at 49%
lackluster writing, uninspiring stories, riddled with typos and grammatical errors. please stop invoking sylvia plath in your mediocre work just to sell it.

[mimo · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title caught my attention, naturally, but not all the stories held it.

I'd say my favourite is "Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning", which hits nicely and has a good style. In other stories, the prose feels overwrought or uninspired at times. "Below the Line" is just kind of bad to me, with the sort of punchline my mum would text in a group chat. But these are just my opinions, and it's kind of the nature of short story collections to be a bit uneven.

[Bethany Latham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was beautifully written, the writing style made the words come to life on the page, stunningly descriptive. Touched on uncommon themes at times, but done so in a way that both concluded the story but also left you wanting to know more. There were a few stories that I felt did not leave me wanting to know more, some felt like an unnecessary addition, just trying to fill the pages, but most stories were very impactful.
Read it in one day, struggled to put the book down for more than 30 minutes at a time

[chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favourite was definitely the last story (controversially)! It read like a Black Mirror episode and I loveddd that. The way that Earnest fell so deeply and completely in love with that tree that she got ARRESTED for it??? I can’t help but respect that from her quite honestly. Phillip didn’t match her freak but the tree sure did.

Some of the stories I felt myself rushing to get to the end of and others I didn’t want to end! Amazing collection overall even if I did accidentally spill tea over it 😢

[ettie · Rating 5 out of 5]

i thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories! i liked pretty much all of them. they each explored different topics like dysfunctional families, ill mental health, all of which were approached with a very respectful nature.

one story was set in a hospital, and a small section of the mother's internal thoughts very much resonated with me-

'I've only had a few hours of sleep but I feel wired. Time passes in a vacuum, here. I haven't opened my book, haven't checked my phone for Twitter or Facebook. I don't know what I've been doing, yet hours have passed, somehow. I've been here with her two nights already.'

i found it quite amusing as someone who's had a time or ten sat in hospital whether that's on a ward or in the emergency department. time is a different entity in hospital.

the following quotes are honourable mentions.

this one for my nan- how dare she keep dying again and again and again.

'the dead never stop dying, no matter how tired you are and how much you wish they wouldn't.'

and i dont need to explain this one.

'I wonder what happiness tastes like, and if it's possible to be so completely alone that you can trick your body into feeling full.'

[Lillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories were written very well but I wanted them to be longer. I don’t think I am a short story type of person, I prefer reading a whole book instead of a couple pages. If the stories had been longer it would be worth the 14$ I paid. All that said they were extremely well written which is why I am more annoyed that they were not longer. When I bought this I had not realized that it was a book of short stories.

[Olive Cushing · Rating 2 out of 5]

I DNFed this at like the 49% mark. I tried, I guess I’m just not a short story kind of gal - but they just weren’t all that great. There comes a point where the overuse of metaphor just makes things confusing or maybe I’m just stupid.
I came for some quirky short stories but instead I got a book where I read like 60 pages of but it felt like 600. I’m not rating this that low because I understand that this book is enjoyable to some…well if you’re into that kind of stuff anyway.

[Tracy Fells · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning debut short story collection from multi-talented writer Victoria Richards (she also writes exceptional poetry). I really enjoyed these stories: a thought-provoking mix of realist, political and magical realism. Every story surprised me in its own unique way. She has a distinct and memorable writing voice. I can't wait to read more from Victoria Richards.
Highly recommended.

[Tim Love · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked "Elephants don't live in the jungle", and "Sylvia Plath watches us sleep ... but we don't mind" is pretty good. "Never run from wild dogs" and "Earnest Magnitude's infinite sadness" are interesting in parts. The others have varied settings, but the plot and character development can be rather linear. There's a high body count of untimely deaths.

[Hailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 - I’d love to give this book a reread and annotate the physical copy. This is the first short story collection in a long time that kept compelling me to pick it up and keep reading it. I think upon a reread (especially the last story because I feel like I missed A TON) I’d definitely rate it higher because I think in my own eagerness to keep reading I missed some things.

[Stevie Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

As ever it’s impossible to rate a collection of short stories however there was something so engaging about this one. The stories are so poetic and some downright haunting, I loved it! Sure a couple stories may have fallen a little short but others completely made up for it, their view of gender, sexuality and lived experience is so wonderfully powerful.

[Bianca Baguio · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5)to be honest I opened this book to finish it the other day and realized I already had backstage a couple months ago

It was pretty good - nothing very important to say but weird and easily digestible collection of short stories that kept me engaged. bit of fun - shoutout Dean for getting it for me <3

[Renee Eshel · Rating 2 out of 5]

i really wanted to enjoy this but it kinda fell flat … last story was more interesting but atp i was done with the book. wanted it to b like machado’s one but just doesn’t even come close. very like … thin.

[Misha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me, I'm afraid. I didn't enjoy any of these, despite some having promising beginnings.

[edgar anja poe]

adding it to my tbr just because of the title

[Lottie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unique, evocative, inspiring, incredible. Everything I wish I could write. I see myself in so much of this.

[darian · Rating 4 out of 5]

like yah i be thinking about my tree lover after my husband cuts his finger off too

[Eli · Rating 3 out of 5]

more of a 2.5*

i could see the vision for some of these stories but they all just sort of missed the mark

[Floor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Erg vreemd en niet zo goed.