The Extremities!

by Samantha Kimmey

One day at work, a young newspaper reporter is suddenly struck with a mysterious pain in her hands that renders her unable to type. Kim initially believes the disorder—as she refers to it—will disappear quickly. But attempts at treatment fail and no medical professional seems able to diagnose her. Is it a problem of posture? Stress from work? Fear of nearby wildfires or a past trauma, perhaps connected to the tragic death of her maybe-a-hoarder mother many years ago? Though the disorder puts her job, her relationship, and her state of mind in jeopardy, Kim begins to feel a strange kinship to the pain, a desire to “obey” it—a sentiment affirmed by her naturalist boyfriend, who has plans of his own for an idyllic future. Will submitting to the pain enable Kim to transcend it, or will it further derail her from the life she intended to lead?

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction

319 pages, Paperback

Published October 7, 2025

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeah. No. No thank you.

I wanted to DNF this one so many times. It's slow, repetitive, and just plain frustrating. But I kept convincing myself to push through, hoping it would get weirder, stranger, better. It didn’t. There was a little twist right at the end that was kind of cute, but not enough to justify the 260-page endurance test that came before it.

Kim, a young reporter at a small-town paper, is suddenly struck with sharp pains in her fingers, making it nearly impossible to do her job. Doctors are baffled. Her editor blames stress. Her boyfriend—an earth and mushroom kind of guy—prescribes break time and brews up some truly vile-sounding tinctures and soups. Her dad just wants her to come home and mooch off him for a while.

Then there’s the dictation software, gifted by her boyfriend’s friend Lee. It mangles everything Kim says. She spirals, worrying her coworker will steal her stories. Meanwhile, her boyfriend joins a group of emergency evacuationists preparing the town for a potential fire. And Kim? She’s stuck obsessing over her malfunctioning hands and glitchy software while the plot loops like a broken record.

It just keeps going. And going. And going.

This book is a slow crawl through finger pain, soup trauma, and dictation despair. If you’re looking for surreal horror, keep walking... this one’s stuck in neutral.

[Renee Godding · Rating 2 out of 5]

One day at work, a young newspaper reporter is suddenly struck with a mysterious pain in her hands that renders her unable to type. A string of doctors offer her a string of diagnoses, ranging from carpal tunnel, to arthritis, to her body’s way of communicating an unresolved trauma. Helped (and often times hindered) by her coworkers, editor and naturalist boyfriend, Kim finds herself faced with a dilemma. Will she fight The Disorder, or is she better off submitting to it…

I go into any book that explores chronic pain and disability through the lens of “weird fiction” with high hopes. Unfortunately, this was not for me…
The Extremities was a 300+ page endurance test, that I frankly struggled to finish. Instead of an insightful narrative on the topic of cohabiting in a body with (chronic) pain, I found myself slogging through “carpal tunnel - the memoir” with the world blandest main character…
I don’t mind an unlikable protagonist, and I’m actually very interested in reading about characters who cope with their chronic illness in ways that I personally don’t relate to. Kim on the other hand, was less unlikable and more of a “blank slate” living an utterly mundane life. For a novel that’s largely about the protagonists inner world, that’s bound to be a problem…

The story itself never truly grabbed me either. On multiple occasions, I felt like it was on the brink of communicating something meaningful, but each time it failed to follow through with it fully. It flirts with the idea that Kims troubled relationship with her mother (who was a doctor with a ailment herself) is related to her current illness, but doesn’t truly dive into what that means to her. It emphasizes the fact that Kim struggles to communicate the nature of her pain to her doctors, but never shows us the isolation and loneliness that comes with that inability to communicate.
Then there were the multiple subplots of the “extremities”. Apart from referring to her literal “extremities” (hands) as the source of trouble in her life, Kim struggles with other “extremes” and contradictions too. Traditional medicine vs her naturalist boyfriend’s approach to health. The neat world of corporate life and journalism vs the wild natural disasters she’s writing about. The idea of physical pain vs mental suffering. Fighting pain vs submitting and surrendering to it, and incorporating it into your inner world… ALL OF THESE could’ve been interesting, if only they’d been developed more.

Overall, I truly wanted to like this book, but the entirety just felt underdeveloped and fell completely flat against my lack of engagement.

Many thanks to Netgalley and University Of Iowa Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Suki J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kim, a young reporter living in a remote area with her boyfriend, starts to experience chronic pain in her hands.
We follow her as she undergoes various tests and treatments to try and solve the problem.
I read after finishing the book that this is absurdist, which I could definitely see, unfortunately though it just didn't work for me.
I found it quite boring, and the narrator referred to people by their relationship to her (my boyfriend, my editor, the other reporter, etc), which would have been fine, except that it was entirely inconsistent, and different characters were referred to by their actual names.
I wanted to feel more engaged by the writing but ultimately this was not a book for me.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story was rather unique & interesting to me as I’ve never read anything like it before which is honestly a breath of fresh air.
We follow a young newspaper reporter named Kim who is struck with a mysterious pain in her hands that renders her unable to type she attempts treatment which fails and medical professionals are unable to diagnose her.

‘I was fearful of disturbing it, like the disorder was some animal that would go berserk if it realised it was confined in the cage of my body.’

I found the flashbacks between Kim and her mother rather interesting. Her mother also dealt with her own medical issues that had no solution. It’s like Kim was seeing herself in her mother.

I fell in love with the writing style straight from the beginning but felt that some parts of the plot dragged.

Thank you University Of Lowa Press & NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

['*•.¸♡ nay♡¸.•*' · Rating 3 out of 5]

What drew me to the book is how weird the synopsis sounds! And this book is definitely weird, so in that aspect I wasn’t let down. I enjoyed the concept, and the voice of the author. The story seems strange while also being completely believable.

I did find the main character to be a little annoying, but just because I didn’t like her doesn’t mean I didn’t find her compelling! I still cared about the story and where it was heading even as I was rolling my eyes at Kim.

The pacing was slow for my liking at many points, which I felt was a distraction from the story.

I’m giving 3 stars to this because I think the story is unique and the authors voice is compelling. I would have liked to see a more consistent pacing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

[Leila · Rating 3 out of 5]

the writing here was compelling and the story was unlike anything I have read in literary fiction, but my main issue was an inability to really connect with kim (the protagonist) as a character or the story overall, which made it drag. I believe that this was probably just personal taste coming into play and I genuinely do think that many people will enjoy this book. its one of those weird litfics, reminiscent of maybe sayaka murata, but still felt pretty fresh and incomparable.

[Spiros · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that this is the only time I have ever bought a book in a retail establishment directly from the author: why I neglected to have Sam sign her opus is something I can’t explain. Anyhow, she has written an engaging, layered tale of life in the face of environmental, physical, psychological, and emotional degradation, stretching across a couple of generations, that also packs a hefty dose of intrigue which persists right through to the final pages.

[J Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Extremities! by Samantha Kimmey had me engaged from the beginning and left with some questions in the end, but mostly in a good way.

We're reading both a document and about the creation of the document. This isn't anything like what you're probably picturing when I say 'document.' A little bit journal, a little bit diary, and all composed by a progressively less reliable narrator. I think one thing that kept me interested all the way through was that there are multiple ways into and through the novel, so if plot A seems to be lagging, mentally shift to plot B.

I think the main takeaway, at least for me, is the health/medical issues as a whole. From feeling like a stranger in your own body to the lack of ability in the healthcare area to diagnose pains and ailments that aren't very visible or even easy to describe to how others see those suffering from invisible health issues. In looking at those things, we interact with various issues, such as how women often aren't taken seriously when they present such conditions or how many men, across the political and cultural spectrum, feel the right to manipulate women because they (think they) know what is best for them. From economic inequity to environmental and climate issues. And especially with how we think about ourselves, individually. How we can be our own most enthusiastic supporter as well as our own cruelest critic, often influenced by how much we internalize how others see us or think of us.

I know I may have missed something that would have made the ending more clear to me (in spite of reading the last couple chapters several times) but if I did I don't mind. The ending, ambiguous (even if it largely points in one direction) as I read it, gave me space to "co-write" the ending with Kimmey. I can take everything I learned about her throughout the book and within reason give her an ending I think is fitting. Having said that, I don't want to make it sound like the end just leaves you with no resolution. There is a most likely way to read the end and it certainly ties things up. But there is some wiggle room for a reader who might want to have a certain final "product" in the person of the protagonist.

I am going to go off on a tangent, which in my world is a compliment for a book, I like to go off and think about other meanings or interpretations that the writer may or may not have intended or anticipated. This one is about the title. Extremities, her pain was in her hands, two of her extremities. And what was happening there, how it was affecting the entire body, how it was harming the organism as a whole though mostly limited to the extremities. We also see throughout the book how extremities in society, extremists in society, can harm the larger body, society as a whole. Extreme weather events and environmental effects because of climate change. Extreme economic inequity, extreme use of technological "advancements" pitched as help yet used for surveillance and control. Indeed, Extremities!

I would recommend this to most readers who like introspective books that use flashbacks and current events to flesh out the character we're learning about. I would hesitate to just suggest that readers who know they prefer straightforward style, punctuation, and plot structure will fall in love with this, but I think most will come away having enjoyed some aspects of it. I know this all might sound convoluted, I apologize, but I have been thinking about various things ever since I finished it and I didn't take the time to try to organize this better.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Bailee Ford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you University of Iowa Press & Netgalley for this arc!
The writing was strong & I was really impressed at how the author described pain in unique ways (or chose not to describe it as a narrative device). However, I just don't think this novel accomplished the weird litfic conclusion it endeavored to. It was clear the author was attempting to draw parallels between Kim's mysterious pain and the ailments her mother faced, but the connections did not feel strong enough. I could have used a few more vignette's of Kim's childhood to help paint that picture and strengthen the parallels. Overall, I wanted more info about Kim's background. I was convinced we would learn she had a traumatic history with a fire and that this recurring pain in her hands was an old injury that is flaring due to the stress of reporting about fires at her job. Maybe it's just me, but without a specific event or something connecting the fires to the pain in her hands, the fire narrative felt extraneous (or at least not as impactful).
Perhaps my biggest complaint of this book is that I just didn't like the main character. I could normally get past this, but the issue is that the narrative is slower paced and not broken up by much dialogue or interactions with other characters. It makes it hard to power through when you already don't like the narrator and you're sorta stuck with them.
Also I would've dumped the boyfriend wayyyyyy earlier on in the book, but I guess he was needed for the extraneous fire plot.

[Belinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book because of its very cool cover. It's a great design!

Kim is a reporter at a small newspaper who really loves her job. One day, while transcribing a community meeting (minor note: it is impossible to transcribe live text using a qwerty keyboard. Human hands just can't type as fast as humans can speak), Kim starts to feel intense pain in her fingertips. She takes a few days off to recover but "the disorder" as she calls it, persists.

At the same time, wildfires threaten the town Kim and her boyfriend live in and the human world seems to be slowly succumbing to natural disasters. Powerful people are using their their money to save themselves and manipulate the public. And, Kim's boyfriend is dreaming of an idyllic future on the land.

This book is weird! It's absurdist while at the same time being hyper-real. You could see all of the events described in this book actually happening (and the competition between Kim and the other reporter she works with, genuine lol). But (and this is a big but), the character of Kim is so annoying. She sees a doctor because of her pain but instead of telling him her actual symptoms she tells the doctor what she thinks he wants to hear, so he obviously cannot properly diagnose her. Kim struggles to communicate with everyone, which I found a bit frustrating.

I think this would be good for fans of Sayaka Murata and Maud Ventura.

[Greeshma · Rating 5 out of 5]

First and foremost, the amazing cover definitely captures your attention. I was really compelled about this book based on the blurb and the fact it was set in Pt Reyes.

The star of the book is obviously the narrator. Kim is an extremely unreliable, slightly neurotic and way too in her own head narrator with a sudden onset of inexplicable pain Kim as a narrator is frustrating and you want to shake her into clarity so many times. But who hasn't been there or has had a friend who can't just get out of their own way. I certainly felt a level of kinship with the narrator. This narrator is some ways reminded me of the protagonist in A year of rest and relaxation. This book deals with a lot of prescient topics such as environmentalism, classism, toxic and not so toxic relationships, psychosomatic and physical pain. Samantha handles both the protagonist and the otherwise heavy topics in this story with great lightness, peppering it with quirky characters, vivid descriptions and some really heartbreaking moments.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and University of Iowa Press for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Extremities follows Kim, a reporter who suddenly has horrific pain in both of her hands that leaves her unable to type. Desperate to get back to typing for work, she tries a variety of treatments and reflects on events over her life. The writing was strong, and I really enjoyed Kimmey's various ways of describing pain-they were so relatable. The amount of research that must have gone into the various treatments Kim tries was impressive, and the concept was interesting. I felt the pacing was slow throughout the novel and that made it difficult for me to want to continue reading-I tend to prefer books that have more interactions between other characters or a quicker pacing.

[Imke · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up judging by the cover because I loved the look of it. I will never do that again lmao. I wanted to love it because I thought the book would be about accepting your body's boundaries or maybe about climate change. And when it turned into a rant from a boring main character I just wanted to DNF it. So many times I was thinking 'ahh this could be where a really good twist or storyline happens!' but... nope. Disappointing book, even though I did like the chapters where the main character was talking about her mother

[Michael Kuntz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great debut novel from miss Kimmey!
An odd, looping navigation through the labyrinths and sucker punches of unwelless.
It had a good balance of hypnotic pacing, quirky desperation, touching tenderness and a pinch of trashy mystery novel.
A solid addition to anyone's Wacky Women In Peril book collection.

[Alison Buckholtz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! I couldn’t put this book down. The story is totally original, the plot is engrossing, the pacing keeps you turning the pages, and the subject is relevant to current events. Just completely engrossing on every level. I bought copies to give to friends…that’s how good this book is.

[Esther Moran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling, darkly funny, very timely

I loved this novel--it surprised me every step of the way and kept me involved and intrigued until the final, unexpected twist at the end. If you're looking for a unique story, this is the book you want.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was unlike I've read this year! So well written and such an interesting premise. I love where the story goes. Put this on your to read list! Especially if you want something a little different.

[Miss Wuthering · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was impressive and has a unique voice and concept. The amount of detail really blew me away.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

[Elle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can see why this book wouldn’t be for everyone but it is for me!!

[Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Huh… idk