Thanks for This Riot: Stories

by Janelle Bassett

Winner of the Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, THANKS FOR THIS RIOT explores the limits of kindness, the weight of being needed, and the fear of being misunderstood.

A group counselor is taunted by a truth-divining piano bench, a voice actor shouts her abortion at the state capital, a tired caregiver tangles with a pair of stand-up comics, a small-town newspaper office shelters an otherworldly tattletale, a backwoods acupuncturist leans on her least-exciting offspring, a girl in a strapless bra takes a vengeful go-kart ride, and a woman gets surgery to lower her expectations (she thinks it went “okay”).

Grouped by types of riot—external riots, internal riots, and laugh riots—THANKS FOR THIS RIOT is a poignant and mordantly funny collection with a distinctly feminist viewpoint.

"An acerbic examination of family and femininity."—Kirkus Reviews

“Janelle Bassett’s voice is one I can’t get enough of. The stories in Thanks for This Riot are fresh and unique and wickedly off-kilter, but also burn with a wry, age-old, ironic wisdom. This collection is bitingly funny, but sincerely so, with little lies and harmless untruths taking on an edge and inflicting irresistible damage.”—Timothy Schaffert, author of The Perfume Thief and The Titanic Survivors Book Club

“Janelle Bassett’s writing is hilarious, intense, and alive. Every story in this collection is off-kilter in the best possible way. The characters are all trying to make sense of themselves in a world that doesn’t fit quite right. Reading this felt like being tickled forcefully, laughing even as it got uncomfortable.”—Katya Apekina, author of Mother Doll and The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish

“Janelle Bassett is a phenomenal writer. These stories are smart, irreverent, hilarious, and so wonderfully intimate. It is rare to find a writer who can balance humor with such earnest human emotion, and Bassett does it on every page. This collection is gold.”—Alison Espach, author of Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance and The Wedding People

Genres: Short Stories

Paperback

Published September 1, 2024

Reviews

[Janelle Bassett · Rating 5 out of 5]

big fan 🙃

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happy Pub Day 8/1/24!!!
Hilarious and so so so good and weird and I love it!
Janelle Bassett is genius. My 90's baby heart is just so happy after reading these stories. More than once, my husband came outside to check on me because he heard me laughing so hard he didn't think it could have possibly been from a book. How is such a feisty, tell it like it is, badass collection of stories able leave you so lighthearted?

As someone who usually gets too wrapped up in humor to notice nuances in characters' emotions, I appreciate the balance these stories bring. Emotion doesn't take away from the humor, and vice versa. I truly cannot recommend this enough. The stories are so strange I'm having a hard time talking about them without giving too much away... Just read this, please. Seriously. It's friggin good.

{Thank you bunches to NetGalley, Janelle Bassett and publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!}

[Anne Earney · Rating 5 out of 5]

A surprising, unusual collection of short stories. I enjoyed almost all of them, but unfortunately the ARC was missing some formatting, including titles for most of the stories (in some cases there wasn't even a space between stories), so I can't easily tell you which were my favorites. I'd have to do a combination of re-reading while mapping the stories with the titles and I'm not particularly motivated to do that. Some of the stories are more or less normal, while others are quite unusual. It's a reading adventure in a good way.

Bassett is a St. Louis writer, which I didn't realize until I stumbled across a story set in Missouri - a very nice surprise.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories ended up blowing me away. After a slow start, each story became more curious and inventive than the last and at least two felt like they could be the premise for a full blown Hollywood blockbuster. Expected, sometimes brilliant, often strange but well worth reading. The only part that I struggled with a bit was the haphazard feeling structure (or lack there of) because the early stories were fairly normal and I was expecting a consistent narrator but they shifted quite a bit. The digital ARC also lacked some formatting to make story beginning/end clear. That aside, these are well worth reading and I'd love to read more from Janelle.

[victoria marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Winner of the Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction

such a fresh voice & loved this debut short story collection so very much! (plus, that cover design artwork, amiright‽)

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Struggled to rate this, as is often the case with short story collections. Really creative, inventive story collection, quirky and offbeat characters and situations that surprise and draw you in. But many of the stories ended so abruptly they felt unfinished.

[Ryan Lowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great selection of short stories! I'm thinking David Sedaris meets Jennifer Egan.

My favorite stories are the ones with just a tincture of speculative stuff: my two favorites are the alien in a robot suit who works at a local newspaper and the woman who is considering a gentle operation to "lower her expectations." These are the stories that most remind me of Jennifer Egan's "Goon Squad" and "The Candy House." =)

All of Bassett's stories have a great, funny voice. I like that every character is just a little unreliable, a little broken, but still speaking with grit, humor, and thoughtfulness nonetheless.

[Hattie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks for these riots

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A ton of fun. Interesting ideas, beautiful language, silly distillations of life's mundanity (I can't stop thinking, "Thanks dish soap!"). Bassett is a writer who knows how to describe a tiny moment in a way that is both uniquely hers and utterly knowable. By her own prose, "minutiae assumes great import, becomes magnified: the throb of your pulse, the rasp of hair shaft against cotton weave of your pillow, the shifting of our limbs beneath the weight of blankets, the watery occlusion when eyelid meets eyelid, the sylvan susurration of air leaving and entering our mouth. The mattress presses up from underneath, bearing you aloft. The drink of water waits beside your bed, tiny silvered bubbles pressing their faces to the glass."

As for the ideas, one has to give it up for "All I Need Are These Four Walls and Some Positive Feedback" and its tale of Treatie the second-generation Delightco confectioner, which I know is probably too bizarro for some, but hey, they have the right to be wrong.

In perhaps my favorite piece in the collection, "Perceptor Weekly", a journalist is paid by a sentient blob to intuit what she cannot, which is to say everything. "Take comfort in the fact that your understanding is not needed."

Also worth a nod:

"The Crowded Private Cottage": Hollywoodies get a chance to be obnoxiously entitled in their own AirBnB rental

"Babies Don't Keep": a young girl encounters her grandmother's dubious ex-boyfriend in a convenience store

"These New Francescas": a woman soberly assesses her relationship with a divorcee father devolve from the thrill of young love to the inevitable suburban whatever: "Today we're picking up the kids and taking them to the mall for roast beef sandwiches and quilted vests"

"Bulk Trash Is For Lovers": a woman sees emotional connection with street garbage in a series of "harsh reality parades". "She swallowed it, started walking off, then came back for one more swallow in case this garbage rainwater, out of everything she'd tried or meant to try, was the thing that finally made her feel permanent."

"Safe Distances": an "aunt" connects with her "niece" by ransacking her personal history for petty behaviors to brag about.

"Enviable Levels" a woman undergoes a... medical procedure... to have her expectations lowered. Really outstanding idea and execution here.

It seems like I'm listing virtually every story, so I'll end my call-outs with "The Right Light", where a woman's interrupted lunch at the park takes on potentially universe-shaking proportions. It feels particularly apt to read this on the first day of what, for me and everyone I care about, at least, is going to be a harrowing four years:

"This is it, buddy. the present is at hand constantly, and what are you going to do with it? How you wait in line at the post office is the whole shebang. The way you behave at the buffet is a full indictment of your entire being, so scoop your baked ziti accordingly."

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Concepts that sound great in theory don't always reach their full potential in practice. Such is the case with Janelle Bassett's short story collection Thanks for This Riot, in which characters grapple with various "riots"--coming of age on your own terms; the discrepancies between social media and reality; the desire to belong somewhere, anywhere. Given the book's description, I anticipated loving it; unfortunately, each story missed the mark for me, and I can't say I truly enjoyed any of them.

One word of praise (because I'll always do my best to muster up at least one): Bassett sure has an active imagination, and has no qualms against embracing the weird and wacky. Case in point: The story about a sloth-adjacent humanoid creature who's owned by a candy company because she apparently manifests chocolate out of thin air, and is also an Instagram celebrity. I'm more than happy to suspend my disbelief on such a premise, and I appreciate a writer willing to take creative risks.

Even in her quieter stories, Bassett has solid concepts with dynamic characters--I just wanted more from them. Many stories ended so abruptly that it seemed as if Bassett discarded them the moment she no longer felt like writing, and by the third time this happened, I disengaged. An ambiguous ending is one thing; an ending with no sense of conclusion whatsoever is another. For example, "No Space is Too Small When Your Head is Detachable" features an isolated protagonist who claims not to be lonely, despite spending inordinate time watching her neighbors and tallying their habits. This character is fascinating, but the story ended just as I thought we were about to go deeper.

Finally, I was somewhat put off by Bassett's habit of overexplaining her story to readers. This was most obvious in the opening story, "More Restrictive Than Supportive," in which a teenage girl wears a strapless bra for the first time while away from her overbearing religious mother. Near the end of the story, the protagonist states how she now realizes her mother uses fear as a means of controlling her daughter's body--while this is certainly true, any good reader would have already understood this without needing to be told. Overexplaining reads as patronizing, as if readers aren't smart enough to understand the story, and it put a bad taste in my mouth very early in the collection.

I'm happy for the readers who found this collection entertaining; sadly, it just didn't gel with me.

Thank you to NetGalley and University of Nebraska Press for the advanced copy!

[October Hill Magazine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review by Julia Romero, Book Reviewer at October Hill Magazine

I remember 2020 being a year that we became uncharacteristically preoccupied with how we care about each other. We did things, or didn’t do things, for the greater good of our family, friends, and strangers. The collective acknowledgment that we were going to suffer together for a brighter future continues to make me emotional to this day.

Janelle Bassett’s debut collection, Thanks for This Riot: Stories, won the 2023 Raz-Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction which guaranteed her publication by the University of Nebraska Press. While reading, I couldn’t help but think that Bassett was likewise remembering and reckoning with the harrowing terror and rousing hope that came out of 2020. While there’s only one story that deals explicitly with COVID, the essence of Bassett’s collection invokes the questions we were asking ourselves over and over during the height of the pandemic: What type of person do I want to be? And what really matters?

Her stories contain self-sacrifice, the act of caring—both the significant weight and the immense joy—and longing for connection. Her characters often flounder, as many of us no doubt did, but their intention shines through...

Read the rest of the review in October Hill Magazine's Fall 2024 Issue

[Sara Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure, I'm friends with the author, which is kind of a humblebrag because who wouldn't want her as your friend after reading this collection? This collection is SO funny and so weird and so heartbreaking and so sharp. Usually, when you're reading, you feel lucky if you get one really keen observation or solid one-liner per page, and Bassett has them showing up multiple times a paragraph! Bassett moves effortlessly between stories that are grounded in our world (a sheltered teen feeling daring in a strapless bra, a woman whose boyfriend is mostly using her for babysitting) and ones with a speculative twist (a small-town paper has a visitor from another world, a bench seems to force the truth out of anyone who takes a seat). But whether the stories are fantastical or everyday, Bassett always finds incredible emotional truths. What does it mean to be wanted, needed, by the people around you? What if you really want to do the right thing, but you're pestered by your stubborn desires? Is it better to be selfish or selfless, and is there any middle ground? Overall, this is such a gorgeously funny collection, with humor wielded in the best possible way: to make us all feel a little smarter and, somehow, a little funnier ourselves, just by picking up this book.

[Stroop · Rating 3 out of 5]

A varied collection of fifteen short stories. While not every essay resonated with me, I appreciated the writing style and especially enjoyed “Bulk Trash Is For Lovers” and “More Restrictive Than Supportive”. I would recommend this to readers looking for stories of women grappling with or ruminating on societal expectations and whether to heed them.

Thank you to University of Nebraska Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

These stories did nothing for me - they weren't funny or interesting or particularly insightful - and I had a really hard time finishing this very short book. The one adjective I can ascribe to all of the stories is "bizarre." This book just wasn't for me.

[Christopher McCready · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just fantastic. I never expected to have so much to unpack and think about in a collection of short stories. I can't decide if I want more or if I prefer the shorter format. Prove it and Full Stop were probably the most engaging for me, but they are all good.

[lex · Rating 3 out of 5]

if im being real i didn't really get the overarching theme tying the anthology together- a lot of the stories stand on their own but some of them seem unfinished. interesting premise but sometimes you can suffer without it being a whole internal riot idk

[Jan Stinchcomb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smart, funny, lively, timely.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

well written and funny!