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Out of Body: Stories
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A wildly inventive collection of interconnected speculative stories—spanning the multiverse, demonic attachment, and life after death—from an electrifying new voice in fiction.
An aimless ghost haunts his ex-girlfriend for evidence that she’s actually upset about his death.
A group of teens discovers a machine that purports to predict the best day of its users’ lives.
A young woman is horrified to discover that an aggressive stranger she met on a night of bar-hopping now manifests in every photo that is taken of her.
A drunken posse descends into the woods in search of clowns that have been terrorizing their small town.
Chris Vanjonack’s fiction is haunted not only by specters of death, but by the elusive questions of life, and above all, the wonder and horror of the infinite. Uncanny, surreal, and infectiously clever, the stories in this linked collection contain horrors great and small, fueled as much by the fantastic as by longing, dread, and all-too-human frailties.
Morbidly funny and brilliantly observed, Out of Body is an atmospheric, dead original feast for the senses.
An aimless ghost haunts his ex-girlfriend for evidence that she’s actually upset about his death.
A group of teens discovers a machine that purports to predict the best day of its users’ lives.
A young woman is horrified to discover that an aggressive stranger she met on a night of bar-hopping now manifests in every photo that is taken of her.
A drunken posse descends into the woods in search of clowns that have been terrorizing their small town.
Chris Vanjonack’s fiction is haunted not only by specters of death, but by the elusive questions of life, and above all, the wonder and horror of the infinite. Uncanny, surreal, and infectiously clever, the stories in this linked collection contain horrors great and small, fueled as much by the fantastic as by longing, dread, and all-too-human frailties.
Morbidly funny and brilliantly observed, Out of Body is an atmospheric, dead original feast for the senses.
320 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication September 22, 2026
About the author
Chris Vanjonack
1 book23 followersChris Vanjonack is a writer and educator from Denver, Colorado. A recipient of an AWP Intro Journals Award, his fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared or are forthcoming in One Story, Book of the Month Club's Volume 0, Barrelhouse, Electric Literature, Ninth Letter, DIAGRAM, CRAFT Literary, Quarterly West, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and teaches creative writing at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop and at the Denver School of the Arts.
His debut short story collection, Out of Body, is forthcoming from William Morrow in September 2026.
His debut short story collection, Out of Body, is forthcoming from William Morrow in September 2026.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 14, 2026
This one was a wild ride! This is a collection of 10 interconnected horror stories, the last of which, “Heaven Is Fine For Girls Who Miss Their Mothers”. This one is the longest and we get tie ins with previous characters. The author does a great job giving a ton variety within these stories. I was thoroughly engaged throughout, but I couldn’t ever guess what would happen next. I took my time with these stories, reading about one a day. This is a very introspective book. If you are a fan of horror or sci-fi, or just love a complicated, bizarre universe, I think this book is for you!
April 20, 2026
Often reading a book of short stories, it seems common to prefer some over others. Or maybe there’s a story or two you just don’t vibe with. This collection is one of those rare ones for me where I loved every story. Every single one. I even pre-ordered the book before I finished it.
Reading each of them was like reading a script for a Black Mirror episode, where sci-fi and horror and humanity converge into something you can’t quite explain. A story where a kid can invent anything just by thinking about it. A story where a machine can tell you the date of your best day ever. A story where an Elevator Ritual can send you to a parallel reality. And so on, and so on. I loved how each of these stories focused on relationships through the lens of science or the supernatural - the final story (really, a novella), “Heaven is Fine For Girls Who Miss Their Mothers,” pulling details and characters from the other stories to build an experience I can’t even compare to anything else I’ve read.
The collection as a whole felt so organic, the writing and storytelling and world-building feeling beautifully effortless. I’m sure it took Vanjonack time to bring this book into the world, but it really felt like he just sat down one day and made a work of art that just fell out of his head. And this is his first book. Can you imagine what else he has living up there in his noggin?? I can’t wait to see.
*Thanks to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Chris Vanjonack for this eARC. This review contains my honest, authentic thoughts and opinions.*
Reading each of them was like reading a script for a Black Mirror episode, where sci-fi and horror and humanity converge into something you can’t quite explain. A story where a kid can invent anything just by thinking about it. A story where a machine can tell you the date of your best day ever. A story where an Elevator Ritual can send you to a parallel reality. And so on, and so on. I loved how each of these stories focused on relationships through the lens of science or the supernatural - the final story (really, a novella), “Heaven is Fine For Girls Who Miss Their Mothers,” pulling details and characters from the other stories to build an experience I can’t even compare to anything else I’ve read.
The collection as a whole felt so organic, the writing and storytelling and world-building feeling beautifully effortless. I’m sure it took Vanjonack time to bring this book into the world, but it really felt like he just sat down one day and made a work of art that just fell out of his head. And this is his first book. Can you imagine what else he has living up there in his noggin?? I can’t wait to see.
*Thanks to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Chris Vanjonack for this eARC. This review contains my honest, authentic thoughts and opinions.*
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March 15, 2026⭐️⭐️⭐️
It is always difficult to rate a collection of stories, so I am averaging in my score. My favorites in this book were Invent Everything and Phases. There were some very cool concepts in this collection: a a haunting from the perspective of the ghost, a group of girls who learn the date of best day of their lives and all the consequences that come with this knowledge, a man who wants to time travel to assume the identity of his past self. These are the beginnings of fantastic Sci-Fi storylines. Sadly, there is a consistent lack of resolution that feels unsatisfying, almost as if these were ideas not fully fleshed out or nobody was sure where to go once the concepts were established. I also struggled to maintain attention through numerous meandering parts in each story, and I don't know that I totally grok the final story in the book, which was supposed to bring everything together. It could be that I just don't like to work this hard when I am reading for fun (in other words, I may be the problem here).
There were elements of the writing style that reminded me of Yoko Ogawa, so if you are a fan of her horror writing style, this might be a good fit for you.
Thank you to NetGalley, Chris Vanjonack, and William Morrow for sharing an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
It is always difficult to rate a collection of stories, so I am averaging in my score. My favorites in this book were Invent Everything and Phases. There were some very cool concepts in this collection: a a haunting from the perspective of the ghost, a group of girls who learn the date of best day of their lives and all the consequences that come with this knowledge, a man who wants to time travel to assume the identity of his past self. These are the beginnings of fantastic Sci-Fi storylines. Sadly, there is a consistent lack of resolution that feels unsatisfying, almost as if these were ideas not fully fleshed out or nobody was sure where to go once the concepts were established. I also struggled to maintain attention through numerous meandering parts in each story, and I don't know that I totally grok the final story in the book, which was supposed to bring everything together. It could be that I just don't like to work this hard when I am reading for fun (in other words, I may be the problem here).
There were elements of the writing style that reminded me of Yoko Ogawa, so if you are a fan of her horror writing style, this might be a good fit for you.
Thank you to NetGalley, Chris Vanjonack, and William Morrow for sharing an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I went into this collection with excitement, because I love a collection of science fiction stories that are all about horrible, genius inventions and how they ruin people's lives. I will suspend my disbelief for the sake of a really well done story.
The first story started off strong--oh, a kid has invented some Terrible Things! So automatically, I was like, so the rest of this story is going to be about those Terrible Things, I can't wait!
Well, ... it wasn't, really. The Terrible Inventions make an appearance, but there's less of them than I expected. The rest of the stories are mostly about, um, really horrible relationships, and maybe Denver?
Maybe I was not the target audience for this book, specifically because I live in Denver and I also spent many years living in Fort Collins. (I will admit I got a spike of shock when I read about the characters going to Pour House in Old Town and then turning onto College Avenue-- imagine me shouting to no one, "OMG my home town? My old stomping grounds?") The problem was that the name drops happened constantly, a few times every story. The author takes a lot of time to illustrate how people went to CSU, how they are now on the corner of Speer and Colfax, how they are at this one really specific bar in downtown Denver, how they're looking at Denver Weather, how they went to the Denver Museum of Art.... you get my point.
Maybe if I weren't from Denver, I would read through all this extra detail and not really care. But because I have spent a significant portion of my life in Colorado, it really took me away from the ability to get lost in the magic of the Terrible Inventions and all the philosophical ways they interplay with the characters' lives. There was so much focus on grounding each story in the Real World that that the element of magic was just lost on me. I am a huge sucker for magical realism intertwined with science fiction, and something here was lost for me.
Coming to my thoughts on the philosophical intertwinement of science fiction and lofty ideas? I found it to be increasingly more grueling to get through each story. There are so many people in awful, abusive relationships, or neglectful relationships, or fizzled ones, or people just plain cheating on each other (I believe this happens in at least two stories). At least two of the stories' premises are entirely just based on loser men who can't get over their manic pixie dream girls. I mean, not to say that unrequited love can't be a topic of a story, but it didn't feel like it brought anything new to the table.
Finally, my last and greatest disappointment was this: almost all the stories are part of one whole overarching narrative! My favorite author's trick, to have short stories that seem separate but actually have glimpses of characters we've seen before, or characters we will see later! New perspectives come to light! More angles of the timeline!
The final story was meant to be the culmination of this, all the stories drawn into one. It's also, by far, the longest. I STRUGGLED my way through this one. It is We have seen this character before, and I was thinking, oh, this is going to be so cyclical and magical!
Girl no. The author slips from third person into second person and then spends so much time dragging their way through . I don't care about , omg, there are too many. The prose really takes off and by that I mean it rambles. I felt like I, too, was being . So if that was the intention of this story, then fine, it worked.
Unfortunately, It was not enjoyable whatsoever and I did not close the book satisfied with any sort of theme or meaning that was tied in through the . I got to the point where the woman being tumbled through all of this seems to be reflecting on EVERY SINGLE THING that ever happened or could have happened, that I felt that I was stuck in the fabled torment nexus
Oh, PS, my random nitpick: the story where . I did feel the theme of this story, as in the guy But at the same time it was just so very offputting to me and seemed so divorced from the rest of the science fiction concept of the book. Like huh?
By the end of the story, all I could really conclude is, I feel like every MC felt slightly the same-ish, maybe a reflection of the author themselves... and because of that, I kind of felt like I was watching the author's thoughts right as they graduated from college and were missing all the clubbing and pub crawls and hookups.
However, I really did enjoy the premise of the science fiction inventions, and I also liked the first story a lot (what IF the best day of your life was already over and you knew that for a fact????) so for that I round up from 2.5 to 3 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
The first story started off strong--oh, a kid has invented some Terrible Things! So automatically, I was like, so the rest of this story is going to be about those Terrible Things, I can't wait!
Well, ... it wasn't, really. The Terrible Inventions make an appearance, but there's less of them than I expected. The rest of the stories are mostly about, um, really horrible relationships, and maybe Denver?
Maybe I was not the target audience for this book, specifically because I live in Denver and I also spent many years living in Fort Collins. (I will admit I got a spike of shock when I read about the characters going to Pour House in Old Town and then turning onto College Avenue-- imagine me shouting to no one, "OMG my home town? My old stomping grounds?") The problem was that the name drops happened constantly, a few times every story. The author takes a lot of time to illustrate how people went to CSU, how they are now on the corner of Speer and Colfax, how they are at this one really specific bar in downtown Denver, how they're looking at Denver Weather, how they went to the Denver Museum of Art.... you get my point.
Maybe if I weren't from Denver, I would read through all this extra detail and not really care. But because I have spent a significant portion of my life in Colorado, it really took me away from the ability to get lost in the magic of the Terrible Inventions and all the philosophical ways they interplay with the characters' lives. There was so much focus on grounding each story in the Real World that that the element of magic was just lost on me. I am a huge sucker for magical realism intertwined with science fiction, and something here was lost for me.
Coming to my thoughts on the philosophical intertwinement of science fiction and lofty ideas? I found it to be increasingly more grueling to get through each story. There are so many people in awful, abusive relationships, or neglectful relationships, or fizzled ones, or people just plain cheating on each other (I believe this happens in at least two stories). At least two of the stories' premises are entirely just based on loser men who can't get over their manic pixie dream girls. I mean, not to say that unrequited love can't be a topic of a story, but it didn't feel like it brought anything new to the table.
Finally, my last and greatest disappointment was this: almost all the stories are part of one whole overarching narrative! My favorite author's trick, to have short stories that seem separate but actually have glimpses of characters we've seen before, or characters we will see later! New perspectives come to light! More angles of the timeline!
The final story was meant to be the culmination of this, all the stories drawn into one. It's also, by far, the longest. I STRUGGLED my way through this one. It is We have seen this character before, and I was thinking, oh, this is going to be so cyclical and magical!
Girl no. The author slips from third person into second person and then spends so much time dragging their way through . I don't care about , omg, there are too many. The prose really takes off and by that I mean it rambles. I felt like I, too, was being . So if that was the intention of this story, then fine, it worked.
Unfortunately, It was not enjoyable whatsoever and I did not close the book satisfied with any sort of theme or meaning that was tied in through the . I got to the point where the woman being tumbled through all of this seems to be reflecting on EVERY SINGLE THING that ever happened or could have happened, that I felt that I was stuck in the fabled torment nexus
Oh, PS, my random nitpick: the story where . I did feel the theme of this story, as in the guy But at the same time it was just so very offputting to me and seemed so divorced from the rest of the science fiction concept of the book. Like huh?
By the end of the story, all I could really conclude is, I feel like every MC felt slightly the same-ish, maybe a reflection of the author themselves... and because of that, I kind of felt like I was watching the author's thoughts right as they graduated from college and were missing all the clubbing and pub crawls and hookups.
However, I really did enjoy the premise of the science fiction inventions, and I also liked the first story a lot (what IF the best day of your life was already over and you knew that for a fact????) so for that I round up from 2.5 to 3 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Most of the stories in this collection feel half-baked, as if a few more rounds of editing could have made it a fully fleshed short story. Most of these lack the depth of emotional connection or a conclusion that could make them feel more complete. A story lacking emotion and conclusion, as a majority of these stories do, makes for a disconnected and apathetic reader. Almost every story in this collection is a great or interesting idea in the vein of Sci-Fi and then goes absolutely nowhere.
Invent Everything: One day in 9th grade science class, Jimmy Hammer opens an interdimensional portal under a classmate and realizes that he is a science fiction inventor. He invents his way through life, not considering until it feels too late exactly what the purpose of all of his creations is, or what matters most. 3.5/5
Elizabeth Kaplan's Best Day Ever: Seems the theme here, or at least the tie between the first two stories is how considering or not considering the future and impacts of your actions, can impact your actions. Three friends find a 'Best Day Ever' machine in high school in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and discover their best days. One girl's best day was her tenth birthday party, and she dies a short time later. Another's first day is when she's in her fifties, and she is content with this discovery. The final girl's best day is in 2019, and as it approaches it becomes all she can think about, and she wonders how much, if any, control she has over her own life. 3.5/5
Open Spaces: A couple that meets on a dating app in early COVID decides to spend quarantine together traveling to haunted parks across the U.S. to have sex in front of the ghosts. They find the idea transgressive and interesting, but too much of anything can start to feel normal, and with one of them having a lot more to return to at the end of quarantine, their relationship seems to also have a deadline attached. Kind of a nothing short story. 3/5
What We Look Like Together: Lilith (don't call her Lily) loves her local dive bar and taking pictures in the photo booth. On one visit, her friends aren't in the mood for a photo and an odd man at the bar bothers Lilith in line and ends up sticking his head in the booth for her pictures, telling her that she'll never be alone again. He then shows up in every picture ever taken of her. Literally nothing happens. The entire story is the setup and then just kind of nothing. 2.75/5
Phases: Ever since Henry died, he spends most of his time following around his girlfriend, Sol. He is also part of a ghost support group and 'hooking up' with a fellow ghost, as best ghosts can do. This author seems to take good and interesting ideas and turn them into a story where nothing happens. 3/5
There's Clowns in the Woods: Remember in August 2016 when creepy clowns in the woods in South Carolina made everyone obsessed with the idea of creepy clowns lurking? Vanjonack takes it a step further and sets up a story in which the creepy clowns are taking children from the neighborhood, and Lee needs to put a stop to it. A couple months ago he beat up a nineteen-year-old who was wearing a clown outfit and now his girlfriend needs space, so when a friend's son is abducted by one of the clowns, Lee takes a couple buddies into the words to hunt them down. 3/5
The Spirit Moves You: I don't even know what to say about this one... Too short to review without spoiling. 2/5
No Future: A man gets fired and broken up with and when he finds himself at rock bottom, he decides to become a time traveler for work to fix all of his mistakes. 2/5
Going Up: If you go to the CDC website, you will learn about the current phenomenon of bizarre phone calls from 'The Speaker' (well YOU won't but the characters in this story will). Kate has recently moved in with her boyfriend Tom and is contemplating her life choices. Is she happier here with him, teaching kindergarten than she would have been with her ex-girlfriend trying to make it as an artist? When Kate starts receiving calls from The Speaker, her boyfriend jumps into overdrive to figure it out while Kate wonders how long she can ignore them for. 2/5
Heaven is Fine for Girls Who Miss Their Mothers: We are reunited with Elizabeth Kaplan who has made prior appearances in the second and fifth story of this collection. In the beginning she dies in the car accident that we know killed her and then follows around the loved ones she left behind. One night, she enters the ocean and is brought back to her birth. Her life follows the same pattern, but there is no crash that night, and Elizabeth sees another version of her life. She watches as this version of herself lives a full life until she dies, at which point she is brought to her birth again, in yet another universe. She follows herself through many variations of her life (this story takes up about 30% of the book), and it connects to many of the other stories. 3.5/5
Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this novel.
Invent Everything: One day in 9th grade science class, Jimmy Hammer opens an interdimensional portal under a classmate and realizes that he is a science fiction inventor. He invents his way through life, not considering until it feels too late exactly what the purpose of all of his creations is, or what matters most. 3.5/5
Elizabeth Kaplan's Best Day Ever: Seems the theme here, or at least the tie between the first two stories is how considering or not considering the future and impacts of your actions, can impact your actions. Three friends find a 'Best Day Ever' machine in high school in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and discover their best days. One girl's best day was her tenth birthday party, and she dies a short time later. Another's first day is when she's in her fifties, and she is content with this discovery. The final girl's best day is in 2019, and as it approaches it becomes all she can think about, and she wonders how much, if any, control she has over her own life. 3.5/5
Open Spaces: A couple that meets on a dating app in early COVID decides to spend quarantine together traveling to haunted parks across the U.S. to have sex in front of the ghosts. They find the idea transgressive and interesting, but too much of anything can start to feel normal, and with one of them having a lot more to return to at the end of quarantine, their relationship seems to also have a deadline attached. Kind of a nothing short story. 3/5
What We Look Like Together: Lilith (don't call her Lily) loves her local dive bar and taking pictures in the photo booth. On one visit, her friends aren't in the mood for a photo and an odd man at the bar bothers Lilith in line and ends up sticking his head in the booth for her pictures, telling her that she'll never be alone again. He then shows up in every picture ever taken of her. Literally nothing happens. The entire story is the setup and then just kind of nothing. 2.75/5
Phases: Ever since Henry died, he spends most of his time following around his girlfriend, Sol. He is also part of a ghost support group and 'hooking up' with a fellow ghost, as best ghosts can do. This author seems to take good and interesting ideas and turn them into a story where nothing happens. 3/5
There's Clowns in the Woods: Remember in August 2016 when creepy clowns in the woods in South Carolina made everyone obsessed with the idea of creepy clowns lurking? Vanjonack takes it a step further and sets up a story in which the creepy clowns are taking children from the neighborhood, and Lee needs to put a stop to it. A couple months ago he beat up a nineteen-year-old who was wearing a clown outfit and now his girlfriend needs space, so when a friend's son is abducted by one of the clowns, Lee takes a couple buddies into the words to hunt them down. 3/5
The Spirit Moves You: I don't even know what to say about this one... Too short to review without spoiling. 2/5
No Future: A man gets fired and broken up with and when he finds himself at rock bottom, he decides to become a time traveler for work to fix all of his mistakes. 2/5
Going Up: If you go to the CDC website, you will learn about the current phenomenon of bizarre phone calls from 'The Speaker' (well YOU won't but the characters in this story will). Kate has recently moved in with her boyfriend Tom and is contemplating her life choices. Is she happier here with him, teaching kindergarten than she would have been with her ex-girlfriend trying to make it as an artist? When Kate starts receiving calls from The Speaker, her boyfriend jumps into overdrive to figure it out while Kate wonders how long she can ignore them for. 2/5
Heaven is Fine for Girls Who Miss Their Mothers: We are reunited with Elizabeth Kaplan who has made prior appearances in the second and fifth story of this collection. In the beginning she dies in the car accident that we know killed her and then follows around the loved ones she left behind. One night, she enters the ocean and is brought back to her birth. Her life follows the same pattern, but there is no crash that night, and Elizabeth sees another version of her life. She watches as this version of herself lives a full life until she dies, at which point she is brought to her birth again, in yet another universe. She follows herself through many variations of her life (this story takes up about 30% of the book), and it connects to many of the other stories. 3.5/5
Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this novel.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This is a collection of ten stories that I have to admit I did not fully appreciate until hitting the final three stories. The first seven stories were mostly all just okay for me — not bad by any means but nothing that really wowed me either. If anything, these first seven just felt like they only skimmed the surface of what they could offer and really left me wanting more. (However the fourth story, “What We Look Like Together,” was an outlier here because I did enjoy that one quite a lot.)
So as I was reading through the first chunk of stories I was fully prepared to settle on an average three star rating and call it a day, but then the final three stories came into play and they completely changed my mind about the entire collection. “No Future” and “Going Up” both had some interesting ideas that grabbed my attention quickly while being just long enough to pull off what felt like a proper full story arc. Although out of these two, I’d have to say “Going Up” manages to be a bit more of a standout and even though I was perfectly satisfied with the length and the ending of the story, I kind of want a full book in this particular universe as well. The idea of The Speaker, who is an unknown entity that randomly calls people and begs them to take ownership of a still beating heart, is perfectly creepy and mysterious and the world seems to have no idea why this phenomenon is actually happening.
But the final, and longest, story is the absolute standout of this collection. Spanning the final 35% of the book, “Heaven is Fine for Girls Who Miss Their Mothers” managed to be a moving and powerful story that also made me sit back and reflect on some of the earlier stories as well. It really re-framed the collection as a whole for me and I definitely gained a new appreciation for those stories that I had originally been writing off as just okay. I don’t want to give too much away here because I really think going into “Heaven…” blind will offer the best reading experience, so I’ll just say that reading it really made pushing through the beginning half of the book absolutely worth it for me.
I’d definitely recommend this to readers who are interested in speculative fiction and aren’t afraid to just sit back and trust the process. I may be rating this as a four overall due to some of the less interesting stories, but I’d argue that sitting through all of them is definitely worth it for those final three — which I would individually rate at a 4, 4.5 and 5 respectively.
(I received an advance review copy of this book from the publisher, William Morrow, via NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.)
So as I was reading through the first chunk of stories I was fully prepared to settle on an average three star rating and call it a day, but then the final three stories came into play and they completely changed my mind about the entire collection. “No Future” and “Going Up” both had some interesting ideas that grabbed my attention quickly while being just long enough to pull off what felt like a proper full story arc. Although out of these two, I’d have to say “Going Up” manages to be a bit more of a standout and even though I was perfectly satisfied with the length and the ending of the story, I kind of want a full book in this particular universe as well. The idea of The Speaker, who is an unknown entity that randomly calls people and begs them to take ownership of a still beating heart, is perfectly creepy and mysterious and the world seems to have no idea why this phenomenon is actually happening.
But the final, and longest, story is the absolute standout of this collection. Spanning the final 35% of the book, “Heaven is Fine for Girls Who Miss Their Mothers” managed to be a moving and powerful story that also made me sit back and reflect on some of the earlier stories as well. It really re-framed the collection as a whole for me and I definitely gained a new appreciation for those stories that I had originally been writing off as just okay. I don’t want to give too much away here because I really think going into “Heaven…” blind will offer the best reading experience, so I’ll just say that reading it really made pushing through the beginning half of the book absolutely worth it for me.
I’d definitely recommend this to readers who are interested in speculative fiction and aren’t afraid to just sit back and trust the process. I may be rating this as a four overall due to some of the less interesting stories, but I’d argue that sitting through all of them is definitely worth it for those final three — which I would individually rate at a 4, 4.5 and 5 respectively.
(I received an advance review copy of this book from the publisher, William Morrow, via NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.)
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Short story collections have always been the trickiest thing for me to review. There’s no single narrative thread to pull on — just a series of moments, moods, and worlds that each bring something different to the table. Rating them feels almost unfair, because you’re essentially averaging out a whole spectrum of experiences into one number.
Out of Body is exactly that kind of collection — wildly uneven in the best and most frustrating ways.
The concepts here are genuinely distinctive. Vanjonack is clearly working in a space where sci-fi meets horror, and the result is this eerie, atmospheric blend of the mundane and the otherworldly. Grief, confusion, consequence, the weird texture of real life — all of it gets filtered through scenarios that feel both unsettling and somehow deeply human. When it works, it really works. But here’s my honest issue: some of these stories have such strong, compelling openings that when they don’t fully stick the landing, it stings more than it would have otherwise. A few left me wanting — not in the delicious, haunting way good horror should, but in a wait…that’s where we’re going? kind of way. So close. Just not quite there.
My attention drifted in and out depending on the story, which isn’t always a knock on the writing — collections just hit differently depending on the day, the mood, the reader. But a handful of these? Complete wild rides that had me fully locked in.
What I keep coming back to is how badly I want more of each world. Every idea here feels like the seed of something bigger — a novel, a film, a limited series. The concepts are clever enough and specific enough that I genuinely think they could sustain that. In a way, that’s the collection’s biggest strength and its most bittersweet quality: you leave wishing you could stay longer.
If you love sci-fi horror and don’t mind a mixed bag, Out of Body is worth the ride. It might be the perfect read for fans of slow burns, atmospheric unease, and stories that linger in your head even when they don’t fully deliver.
Just go in knowing it’s a spectrum — some stops hit harder than others, and that’s okay. Three stars feels right: not every story landed for me, but enough of them did to make it worthwhile.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity and the ARC.
Out of Body is exactly that kind of collection — wildly uneven in the best and most frustrating ways.
The concepts here are genuinely distinctive. Vanjonack is clearly working in a space where sci-fi meets horror, and the result is this eerie, atmospheric blend of the mundane and the otherworldly. Grief, confusion, consequence, the weird texture of real life — all of it gets filtered through scenarios that feel both unsettling and somehow deeply human. When it works, it really works. But here’s my honest issue: some of these stories have such strong, compelling openings that when they don’t fully stick the landing, it stings more than it would have otherwise. A few left me wanting — not in the delicious, haunting way good horror should, but in a wait…that’s where we’re going? kind of way. So close. Just not quite there.
My attention drifted in and out depending on the story, which isn’t always a knock on the writing — collections just hit differently depending on the day, the mood, the reader. But a handful of these? Complete wild rides that had me fully locked in.
What I keep coming back to is how badly I want more of each world. Every idea here feels like the seed of something bigger — a novel, a film, a limited series. The concepts are clever enough and specific enough that I genuinely think they could sustain that. In a way, that’s the collection’s biggest strength and its most bittersweet quality: you leave wishing you could stay longer.
If you love sci-fi horror and don’t mind a mixed bag, Out of Body is worth the ride. It might be the perfect read for fans of slow burns, atmospheric unease, and stories that linger in your head even when they don’t fully deliver.
Just go in knowing it’s a spectrum — some stops hit harder than others, and that’s okay. Three stars feels right: not every story landed for me, but enough of them did to make it worthwhile.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity and the ARC.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
First off thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.
WOW. This book made me feel all the things. This book is a collection of 10 short stories that become intertwined at the end.
From the first story I immediately thought that this was very much like black mirror.
I throughly enjoyed some of these stories, while others I did not. A lot of these were left open ended and meant to be introspective, but many left me wanting more of a conclusion.
I wish that there was more connection to all of the stories instead of just two or three connecting at the end. I also think that the last story was entirely too long (although I understand what the author was trying to do)
I would definitely recommend this book to any sci-fi horror enjoyers.
WOW. This book made me feel all the things. This book is a collection of 10 short stories that become intertwined at the end.
From the first story I immediately thought that this was very much like black mirror.
I throughly enjoyed some of these stories, while others I did not. A lot of these were left open ended and meant to be introspective, but many left me wanting more of a conclusion.
I wish that there was more connection to all of the stories instead of just two or three connecting at the end. I also think that the last story was entirely too long (although I understand what the author was trying to do)
I would definitely recommend this book to any sci-fi horror enjoyers.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Out of Body: Stories is a wild collection of Interconnected stories that span the multiverse.
Three young girls find a device that can predict your Best Day Ever.
A couple travels the country during lockdown and has sex in haunted locations.
A man in South Carolina hunts clowns that have kidnapped many children from his town.
Many of the stories take place in Denver or some version of the city. Denver is a place I lived in for a while, so I really enjoyed the namedrops of bars and parks I frequented.
If you like ghost hunting, summoning demons, sex, and interdimensional travel, this one's for you!
Three young girls find a device that can predict your Best Day Ever.
A couple travels the country during lockdown and has sex in haunted locations.
A man in South Carolina hunts clowns that have kidnapped many children from his town.
Many of the stories take place in Denver or some version of the city. Denver is a place I lived in for a while, so I really enjoyed the namedrops of bars and parks I frequented.
If you like ghost hunting, summoning demons, sex, and interdimensional travel, this one's for you!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow books for the ARC! Anthologies can really be a mixed basket. I love them, but there’s always gonna be some stories that are stronger than others. I really enjoyed the ideas for basically all of these stories, but for me personally the endings just didn’t stick it and I was wanting to know more and have less ambiguity for every ending. Don’t get me wrong-I enjoy ambiguous endings! But I think I was so wrapped up in the mysteries of the stories, I wanted to know more.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Out of Body is a fun, existential collection of weird little stories. Like with any short story collection some are stronger than others, but overall Out of Body is an excellent showing. They're thought provoking and relatable. Chris Vanjonack captures the at time daunting question of "what if..." and the infinite possibilities of life (and death!) in a unique and memorable way.
I would love to see what Vanjonack could do with a novel and will definitely be looking out for what comes next.
I would love to see what Vanjonack could do with a novel and will definitely be looking out for what comes next.
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