What do you think?
Rate this book
To God
“Esther Yi's To God is a feral, virtuosic feat of language and form. It reads as though Beckett were reincarnated as a spiritually abject young woman, or if Grace Paley took acid in the future. In an age of stylistic homogeneity, it's a rare gift to come across a book that feels this completely and shockingly original.” —Andrew Martin, author of Down Time
From the author of the acclaimed debut Y/N comes a daring collection of fiction about alienation, sex, and religious inquiry.
The cityscape of To God is in decay. There are drifters with nowhere to go and nothing to do, boxers with dreams of making it big (they won’t), artists who never get a chance to make art, women who frighten the men they love, and children who are more adult than the adults. Nothing goes right for these people—but what does going right mean anyway? After all, in the world of To God, it’s the loser who wins, the faceless who expresses, the atheist who truly believes, and the geriatric who’s reborn.
At the heart of To God is a voice, a beam of light that cuts through the entire collection to rearrange and reincarnate the world wherever it falls. Navigating the daily vicissitudes of work, love, and ideology, this voice asks: How do I know myself, and how do I know others? What does it feel like to know at all? What if I believe in nothing? Then what makes me live? Responsive to and born out of absence, this voice experiments with presence: a body, a personality, a set of relationships. Absence fuels the imagination, a kind of unbridled prayer, and this ritual becomes a stairway that the reader is invited to ascend, armed with an ever intensifying question to God, until the entire material world recedes out of view—only to reappear with greater urgency than before, openly necrotic and broken, itself a plane of mystery we can never call home, and its stakes all the more real for it.
To God illuminates the confused coordinates of contemporary life, its absurd contradictions, and our growing disconnectedness not only from each other but from our own selves. At the atomic level of language, the infrastructural level of genre play, and the cosmic level of existential threat, Esther Yi’s talent radiates.
From the author of the acclaimed debut Y/N comes a daring collection of fiction about alienation, sex, and religious inquiry.
The cityscape of To God is in decay. There are drifters with nowhere to go and nothing to do, boxers with dreams of making it big (they won’t), artists who never get a chance to make art, women who frighten the men they love, and children who are more adult than the adults. Nothing goes right for these people—but what does going right mean anyway? After all, in the world of To God, it’s the loser who wins, the faceless who expresses, the atheist who truly believes, and the geriatric who’s reborn.
At the heart of To God is a voice, a beam of light that cuts through the entire collection to rearrange and reincarnate the world wherever it falls. Navigating the daily vicissitudes of work, love, and ideology, this voice asks: How do I know myself, and how do I know others? What does it feel like to know at all? What if I believe in nothing? Then what makes me live? Responsive to and born out of absence, this voice experiments with presence: a body, a personality, a set of relationships. Absence fuels the imagination, a kind of unbridled prayer, and this ritual becomes a stairway that the reader is invited to ascend, armed with an ever intensifying question to God, until the entire material world recedes out of view—only to reappear with greater urgency than before, openly necrotic and broken, itself a plane of mystery we can never call home, and its stakes all the more real for it.
To God illuminates the confused coordinates of contemporary life, its absurd contradictions, and our growing disconnectedness not only from each other but from our own selves. At the atomic level of language, the infrastructural level of genre play, and the cosmic level of existential threat, Esther Yi’s talent radiates.
208 pages, Hardcover
Published October 13, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
A very cerebral, abstract collection of stories that helped solidify Yi's authorial voice (from my perspective, anyway). I'd recommend this for fans of K-Ming Chang, with the caveat that this collection doesn't hesitate to leave the reader behind at any opportunity! With a sentence or two, Esther Yi flips these stories on their head and takes you in a multitude of directions at once. The entries feel more like frantic, breathless confessions, rather than narratives with a distinct throughline. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I'm certain it will play no small part in the polarizing reception of this book...
The stories all feel cohesive, but I'd struggle to pinpoint a list of themes that help convey exactly what it is about. Many of the entries focus on our built environment, set in a growing city that, from one lens, feels like a utopia and, from another, like a dystopia. It's as expansive and elusive as the narrators in each entry. Their identity is built upon the absence of one, and they all yearn for something -- even if that something appears spontaneously and leaves just as abruptly.
My favourite entry in the collection was Dent, where the narrator works for a company that develops simulations to recreate the memories of its customers. Of all the entries, it feels the most tractable and echoes the themes of artificiality and disconnection that the broader collection hints at. I think the core theme Yi wanted to explore in the collection was our collective hubris and the consequences of 'playing God', and some entries do this better than others.
If you approach this with the right expectations (expect to be confused, and let Yi's prose carry you along), I think there are moments of genius in this collection. At the same time, there are a lot of dense, abstract passages in which I was only able to make meager strides in understanding. I preferred Yi's debut release, as I think her style is best conveyed in long-form narratives, but this was an intriguing read, I think fans of Y/N will enjoy as well.
Thank you to Astra House for the e-ARC!
---
I don't care what the haters say: I loved Y/N! And my years of stanning the book paid off... because here I am, the first gay person to read this on Goodreads.
I haven't felt like this since I threw the first brick at Stonewall.
Substack | Bookstagram | BookTok | BookTube | Bookshop.org Store | Libro.fm Bonus Offer
The stories all feel cohesive, but I'd struggle to pinpoint a list of themes that help convey exactly what it is about. Many of the entries focus on our built environment, set in a growing city that, from one lens, feels like a utopia and, from another, like a dystopia. It's as expansive and elusive as the narrators in each entry. Their identity is built upon the absence of one, and they all yearn for something -- even if that something appears spontaneously and leaves just as abruptly.
My favourite entry in the collection was Dent, where the narrator works for a company that develops simulations to recreate the memories of its customers. Of all the entries, it feels the most tractable and echoes the themes of artificiality and disconnection that the broader collection hints at. I think the core theme Yi wanted to explore in the collection was our collective hubris and the consequences of 'playing God', and some entries do this better than others.
If you approach this with the right expectations (expect to be confused, and let Yi's prose carry you along), I think there are moments of genius in this collection. At the same time, there are a lot of dense, abstract passages in which I was only able to make meager strides in understanding. I preferred Yi's debut release, as I think her style is best conveyed in long-form narratives, but this was an intriguing read, I think fans of Y/N will enjoy as well.
Thank you to Astra House for the e-ARC!
---
I don't care what the haters say: I loved Y/N! And my years of stanning the book paid off... because here I am, the first gay person to read this on Goodreads.
I haven't felt like this since I threw the first brick at Stonewall.
Substack | Bookstagram | BookTok | BookTube | Bookshop.org Store | Libro.fm Bonus Offer
Want to Read
October 7, 2026ominous
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
. . .This nun—also not dressed for God—seats herself before a board game. It never quite gets going, because she keeps throwing the dice onto the table, waiting for a particular number to appear and cursing under her breath whenever anything else does.('No Right Hand')
Ana is miffed: "What's the point of wanting something you know you'll probably get after eight tries?
"I don't want it once in a while," the nun mutters without looking up. "I want it every time but always by chance."
Enigmatic, ambiguous, alien, deploying stark fantastical imagery in depressive-opressive liminal spaces. where you can't be sure whether the phantasmagorical is innate to the world or the depressive-obsessive narrator, or if the narrator is the world, engaged in writing, that is, in a great long sickness, that is, in birth. This urge [to write] befalls me whenever I feel deeply unwell, but not so unwell that I have no interest in feeling better. ('Ultramontane')
Misanthropic, in a compassionate sort of way. Egomaniacal in a self-eviscerating sort of a way— . . .for I was as arrogant as I was servile, and I expected to be used as beautifully as possible. ('Author Biography (No Picture)')
_____
Note: This review is based off an advanced reader's copy provided by Astra House through NetGalley. This reviewer claims freedom from conscious or unconscious bias. because of a rejection of any partition or innermost truth to the flat anthology of existence..
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This was... too dark, too sad. It made me feel very hopeless, just like a lot of the characters (often the same character?) in these stories/vignettes. It's hard to even know what this is. Are these short stories? A novel? A long philosophical essay disguised as fiction? It feels like visiting one of those neon dystopian cities that you can find in a lot of sci-fi books, but we are not downtown where all the lights are shining at night and the cars are flying and robots are walking around. Here, everything happens under the sun, maybe at noon, when the dystopia doesn't look like the future is here but only reminds you that the past has failed. Or it happens in a musky room where something is rotting, an abandoned church about to be demolished, the darkest alley in town. Some paragraphs are beautiful, and at the center of this I can see how desperate everyone is to be loved, to be known, to hear God answer at least one question. But all Yi captures is the absence. That promised voice isn't there, it is either missing or I didn't get it. Perhaps Lent wasn't the best time for me to read this, but I guess I don't regret it. It is well written, and the ideas are interesting. I just didn't like it.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley and Astra House for letting me read To God by Esther Yi.
I have no idea what happened.
There were times where I could see where we were going, but often I felt like the meaning got overshadowed by the bloated sentences, and it lost me completely. Every story clearly has something to say, and the characters are interesting and serves the narrative well, but the whole thing loses its meaning in the grandeur of the words.
I was mostly interested because I could see where Yi was going with Y/N and that she clearly had some astute observations about the darker side of people, and while some of those observations carry on in this book, I just got lost in the end.
Not for me, but if you like weird literature this could be worth a shot.
I have no idea what happened.
There were times where I could see where we were going, but often I felt like the meaning got overshadowed by the bloated sentences, and it lost me completely. Every story clearly has something to say, and the characters are interesting and serves the narrative well, but the whole thing loses its meaning in the grandeur of the words.
I was mostly interested because I could see where Yi was going with Y/N and that she clearly had some astute observations about the darker side of people, and while some of those observations carry on in this book, I just got lost in the end.
Not for me, but if you like weird literature this could be worth a shot.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
you know when you’re reading the words on a page, but struggling to make sense of them? that’s how I felt reading this book. it’s a collection of abstract short stories centred on modern alienation and full of absurd scenarios.
I really wanted to love it, and at first, I did. I was drawn in by how different and inventive it felt compared with what I usually read. but about halfway through, I started losing track of what I was reading. I know this is experimental fiction, and a style I’m less familiar with, but I often found the sentences themselves difficult to process. I kept wondering what I was missing. ultimately, I just didn’t get it, and I really wish I had.
at times, it reminded me of Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation. that book felt bizarre to me too, but I could follow the writing and make sense of what I was reading. here, I kept getting lost.
still, I was so excited by the premise that part of me doesn’t want to give up on it. I hope I’ll pick it up again someday and realise I was wrong about it all along.
thank you so much to Astra House and NetGalley for the e-ARC!
I really wanted to love it, and at first, I did. I was drawn in by how different and inventive it felt compared with what I usually read. but about halfway through, I started losing track of what I was reading. I know this is experimental fiction, and a style I’m less familiar with, but I often found the sentences themselves difficult to process. I kept wondering what I was missing. ultimately, I just didn’t get it, and I really wish I had.
at times, it reminded me of Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation. that book felt bizarre to me too, but I could follow the writing and make sense of what I was reading. here, I kept getting lost.
still, I was so excited by the premise that part of me doesn’t want to give up on it. I hope I’ll pick it up again someday and realise I was wrong about it all along.
thank you so much to Astra House and NetGalley for the e-ARC!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The worst reading experience I've had this year. I didn't get it, and I constantly lost track of where the story was even going. Maybe it's a skill issue, or maybe it's just not meant for me.
April 6, 2026
This was quite different in terms of writing style than anything I have read before (and it lead me to want even more to pick up Yi’s other novel). As someone who often struggles through short story collections, I found that the interwoven elements, themes, and settings here helped it to feel more cohesive, although each had enough of their own message and unique characters to stand apart as well. There was a lot of exploration of language, labour, love, identity, and of course, religion and belief throughout the stories, and some observations on these that really struck me. These stories may retread topics that have been written about in many ways before but they do so with a unique voice and aren’t striving to reach a particular conclusion, so the impact never feels forced.
Want to Read
October 7, 2026This cover....great googly moogly.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
If I were to give you a list of comp titles, it would be something like: Osamu Dazai meets Bae Suah meets second half of Y/N meets Twin Peaks.
I am usually not the biggest fan of the "debut novel to sophomore short story collection" pipeline that a lot of contemporary authors seem to favour, but with Esther Yi, I felt differently. Her debut novel coincided with my deep dive into the K-pop industry, and while I liked her writing and the overall set up, Y/N felt like two separate books crudely stitched together. The first part was engaging and intriguing, while the second part took a sharp surrealist turn and did not feel conclusive or satisfying in any way. The imagery and the prose were huge standouts to me, but the novel format clearly was not working all that well. And so I was curious to see how Yi would approach short fiction, which felt much more suited to her overall style as an author.
And much more suited it was! What a book. First of all, what a cover — it fits incredibly well and is a huge indicator of what this book is like on the inside. Set in a world that is exactly like our own, yet also not, where the borders of reality and surreality blur together, and you can never be sure what the next corner or paragraph will reveal. It is not grounded, it is not linear, and it will not give you a satisfying conclusion. But it is an incredibly compelling collection that absorbed me completely; I did not want to leave the amorphous universe that Esther Yi has created, nor did I want to read any other book simultaneously, lest my impressions of To God be diluted.
I have seen some reviews calling To God depressing and nihilistic, which I cannot entirely agree with. The world here is incredibly bleak, and all the characters are pilgrims searching for things that inevitably escape their grasp. While it sounds harsh, I actually found this book incredibly soothing, poetic, and moving. It is very much filled with cracks for the light to get in. The entire philosophy of To God is concerned with absence, distance, and dissatisfaction. It proposes that we consider the act of being removed from God (and being unable to reach God or know whether God even is for sure) as holy as the act of connection and oneness itself.
Yi then transposes the same logic to the relationships humans have with others and themselves — how we can never meld past the corporeal boundary into a metaphysical and physical unity of souls. How this will always be an act bound to end in the frustration of loss. Her characters stumble all over her somewhat familiar, somewhat dystopian landscapes, trying to reinvent and complete their own selves, which they all start discovering once the connections they cling to fail and reality itself reshapes. What a reassuring and deeply humane notion.
The imagery of these short stories is just as striking as in Y/N, but even more inventive, outrageous, and moving. To God contains some of the most stunning passages and fits of imagination I have ever read. There was not a page that did not surprise me, and I wanted to sit with this book for a long time, both while reading it and long after I was done. The only negative thing I have to say is that I don't think it starts out the strongest. I found the first few short stories rather underwhelming, but it gradually builds up in intensity and thematic depth.
If there is anything one can say about this book for certain, it is the fact that Esther Yi is not interested in popular appeal — she is interested in doing her own thing on her own terms. Y/N was still an experiment in negotiation with the public, while To God is very much a "take it or leave it" affair. This is not a book for everyone, but when it finds its readership, I think it will resonate deeply. It is the best new release I have read this year thus far, real 'weird fiction', and one of the most thought-provoking conceptual works I have come across in a long while. I cannot wait to see what is next in store for us.
Thank you NetGalley and Astra House for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I am usually not the biggest fan of the "debut novel to sophomore short story collection" pipeline that a lot of contemporary authors seem to favour, but with Esther Yi, I felt differently. Her debut novel coincided with my deep dive into the K-pop industry, and while I liked her writing and the overall set up, Y/N felt like two separate books crudely stitched together. The first part was engaging and intriguing, while the second part took a sharp surrealist turn and did not feel conclusive or satisfying in any way. The imagery and the prose were huge standouts to me, but the novel format clearly was not working all that well. And so I was curious to see how Yi would approach short fiction, which felt much more suited to her overall style as an author.
And much more suited it was! What a book. First of all, what a cover — it fits incredibly well and is a huge indicator of what this book is like on the inside. Set in a world that is exactly like our own, yet also not, where the borders of reality and surreality blur together, and you can never be sure what the next corner or paragraph will reveal. It is not grounded, it is not linear, and it will not give you a satisfying conclusion. But it is an incredibly compelling collection that absorbed me completely; I did not want to leave the amorphous universe that Esther Yi has created, nor did I want to read any other book simultaneously, lest my impressions of To God be diluted.
I have seen some reviews calling To God depressing and nihilistic, which I cannot entirely agree with. The world here is incredibly bleak, and all the characters are pilgrims searching for things that inevitably escape their grasp. While it sounds harsh, I actually found this book incredibly soothing, poetic, and moving. It is very much filled with cracks for the light to get in. The entire philosophy of To God is concerned with absence, distance, and dissatisfaction. It proposes that we consider the act of being removed from God (and being unable to reach God or know whether God even is for sure) as holy as the act of connection and oneness itself.
Yi then transposes the same logic to the relationships humans have with others and themselves — how we can never meld past the corporeal boundary into a metaphysical and physical unity of souls. How this will always be an act bound to end in the frustration of loss. Her characters stumble all over her somewhat familiar, somewhat dystopian landscapes, trying to reinvent and complete their own selves, which they all start discovering once the connections they cling to fail and reality itself reshapes. What a reassuring and deeply humane notion.
The imagery of these short stories is just as striking as in Y/N, but even more inventive, outrageous, and moving. To God contains some of the most stunning passages and fits of imagination I have ever read. There was not a page that did not surprise me, and I wanted to sit with this book for a long time, both while reading it and long after I was done. The only negative thing I have to say is that I don't think it starts out the strongest. I found the first few short stories rather underwhelming, but it gradually builds up in intensity and thematic depth.
If there is anything one can say about this book for certain, it is the fact that Esther Yi is not interested in popular appeal — she is interested in doing her own thing on her own terms. Y/N was still an experiment in negotiation with the public, while To God is very much a "take it or leave it" affair. This is not a book for everyone, but when it finds its readership, I think it will resonate deeply. It is the best new release I have read this year thus far, real 'weird fiction', and one of the most thought-provoking conceptual works I have come across in a long while. I cannot wait to see what is next in store for us.
Thank you NetGalley and Astra House for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
My full review for To God can be found here: https://papercryptid.blog/2026/10/05/...
This is a dizzying and surreal short story collection! While at times it bordered on the abstract to the point where it lost me, the writing style is incredible.
This is a dizzying and surreal short story collection! While at times it bordered on the abstract to the point where it lost me, the writing style is incredible.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
To be completely honest I didn't fully enjoy this book. Anthologies are very divisive for me, I either really like it or feel total disinterest for it. Unfortunately I couldn't connect with any of these stories, even with the ones I liked most. I felt like the writing, despite being well done, felt distant. The stories do make sense in their context but I have no idea what most of them were truly about. A lot of it felt too abstract and dense for me. I can tell a bunch of people will enjoy this if it finds its right audience. To my disappointment I wasn't part of that audience at all.
Here are some rambly thoughts I jotted down about each story:
Autobiography
Very uninteresting, although it has an interestingly built character. I was severely bored. Not off to a good start.
White Anton
Also made me utterly bored. I really don't see the point, the message of these two first short stories. I was expecting something more impactful and some more creepy religious imagery, but that's entirely my fault.
Centripetal
The beginning (the very first lines) were super interesting and eerie but the rest of it… was just ok. I couldn't connect with it and couldn't care less.
No Right Hand
This was the most interesting one so far. It was super weird, but like, nothing to write home about.
Sumo's Picture
That was interesting! I liked the ending, it was quite impactful.
Mister's Wound
I don't really care about this story enough to comment about it.
Dent
There are some interesting aspects and intense quotes but overall it talked about an office job and a company which makes me uninterested. Although, I mildly enjoyed this.
Lazarus City
Probably my favorite one. What a weird little story that was! I enjoyed the dialogues and the ending line so much.
Mutter
It's interestingly written but I don't really get the point. Maybe I'm missing something.
Ultramontane
It was interesting but forgettable. Had some nice quotes.
Akey
Intriguing setting and characters. Feels like I missed something, though.
Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for this eARC! This was my honest and unbiased opinion.
Here are some rambly thoughts I jotted down about each story:
Autobiography
Very uninteresting, although it has an interestingly built character. I was severely bored. Not off to a good start.
White Anton
Also made me utterly bored. I really don't see the point, the message of these two first short stories. I was expecting something more impactful and some more creepy religious imagery, but that's entirely my fault.
Centripetal
The beginning (the very first lines) were super interesting and eerie but the rest of it… was just ok. I couldn't connect with it and couldn't care less.
No Right Hand
This was the most interesting one so far. It was super weird, but like, nothing to write home about.
Sumo's Picture
That was interesting! I liked the ending, it was quite impactful.
Mister's Wound
I don't really care about this story enough to comment about it.
Dent
There are some interesting aspects and intense quotes but overall it talked about an office job and a company which makes me uninterested. Although, I mildly enjoyed this.
Lazarus City
Probably my favorite one. What a weird little story that was! I enjoyed the dialogues and the ending line so much.
Mutter
It's interestingly written but I don't really get the point. Maybe I'm missing something.
Ultramontane
It was interesting but forgettable. Had some nice quotes.
Akey
Intriguing setting and characters. Feels like I missed something, though.
Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for this eARC! This was my honest and unbiased opinion.
May 21, 2026
Grateful for NetGalley for letting me read an ARC of this book.
To God is a sweeping collection of short stories that touch on spiritual and cosmic themes within contemporary life. This was as abstract as it gets, perhaps to a fault. There was barely any structure or semblance of solid ground to latch on, which made this book quite difficult for me.
I think I understood what Yi wanted and intended to do, and that is to describe humanity in the midst and against decaying worlds. What becomes of you when you lose everything? How does one move forward with black holes in their reality? A constant battle between absence and presence.
Standouts for me were Mutter and Akey 💔
To God is a sweeping collection of short stories that touch on spiritual and cosmic themes within contemporary life. This was as abstract as it gets, perhaps to a fault. There was barely any structure or semblance of solid ground to latch on, which made this book quite difficult for me.
I think I understood what Yi wanted and intended to do, and that is to describe humanity in the midst and against decaying worlds. What becomes of you when you lose everything? How does one move forward with black holes in their reality? A constant battle between absence and presence.
Standouts for me were Mutter and Akey 💔
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley and Astra House for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
To God is one of those books where I can recognise how talented the writer is while also admitting that the reading experience didn’t work for me.
Esther Yi’s collection is weird, cerebral and preoccupied with alienation, faith, desire, labour and the distance between ourselves and other people. There are some genuinely quite brilliant ideas here, and Yi’s prose is easily the strongest part of the book. Her writing can be grotesque, funny, beautiful and unexpected. There were images and lines that really crept under my skin!! I never doubted that I was reading someone with a very distinct authorial voice.
But I also spent a significant amount of this collection feeling like I was standing outside of it.
The stories are extremely abstract and often resist any obvious sense of plot or resolution. That can absolutely be the appeal, but for me there were stretches where the philosophical density overwhelmed whatever emotional connection I might have had to the characters.
I also found it uneven. Some stories pulled me in through their imagery or sheer bizarreness, while others left almost no impression on me at all. The collection does become more interesting as its recurring ideas begin to accumulate, but I’m not sure that was enough to make every individual story work for me.
What I did appreciate was that the bleakness never felt entirely empty or torture-porny. Beneath all the existential dread is an interesting preoccupation with people continually reaching for God, love, meaning or another person and discovering that complete connection may be impossible.
I admired To God more than I enjoyed it.
To God is one of those books where I can recognise how talented the writer is while also admitting that the reading experience didn’t work for me.
Esther Yi’s collection is weird, cerebral and preoccupied with alienation, faith, desire, labour and the distance between ourselves and other people. There are some genuinely quite brilliant ideas here, and Yi’s prose is easily the strongest part of the book. Her writing can be grotesque, funny, beautiful and unexpected. There were images and lines that really crept under my skin!! I never doubted that I was reading someone with a very distinct authorial voice.
But I also spent a significant amount of this collection feeling like I was standing outside of it.
The stories are extremely abstract and often resist any obvious sense of plot or resolution. That can absolutely be the appeal, but for me there were stretches where the philosophical density overwhelmed whatever emotional connection I might have had to the characters.
I also found it uneven. Some stories pulled me in through their imagery or sheer bizarreness, while others left almost no impression on me at all. The collection does become more interesting as its recurring ideas begin to accumulate, but I’m not sure that was enough to make every individual story work for me.
What I did appreciate was that the bleakness never felt entirely empty or torture-porny. Beneath all the existential dread is an interesting preoccupation with people continually reaching for God, love, meaning or another person and discovering that complete connection may be impossible.
I admired To God more than I enjoyed it.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley and Astra House for this ARC!
Rating: 3.5 Stars rounded up.
“To God” is Esther Yi’s second book, following in the steps of the equally enjoyably confusing “Y/N”. Normally I would attempt to give a short overview of the plot of a book in an ARC review, but I genuinely don’t think I could come up with a way of succinctly summarising any of this.
This is a collection of different stories, all featuring unnamed female narrators, who seem to move through the world with a distinct lack of deeply felt emotions, appearing almost wrapped in cotton. On the whole, this book emits an aura of existential dread.
Yi has a very strong authorial voice, and so despite the fact that there doesn’t necessarily seem to be a whole lot of connection between any of the stories, the book as a whole feels cohesive.
Thematically I would interpret a lot of this to be about a certain sense of alienation, a not-quite desire to connect that still ultimately fails.
I don’t think this is the right kind of book for someone who needs to connect with characters to enjoy a book (like really, any characters at all. I can’t say I found any of that here.) but if you want a beautifully written novel that creates some of the most immersive atmospheres I have ever experienced, and you are willing to wade through a lot of philosophising and sit with and accept your confusion, I do think this would be the right book for you. I certainly plan on re-reading it in the future.
Rating: 3.5 Stars rounded up.
“To God” is Esther Yi’s second book, following in the steps of the equally enjoyably confusing “Y/N”. Normally I would attempt to give a short overview of the plot of a book in an ARC review, but I genuinely don’t think I could come up with a way of succinctly summarising any of this.
This is a collection of different stories, all featuring unnamed female narrators, who seem to move through the world with a distinct lack of deeply felt emotions, appearing almost wrapped in cotton. On the whole, this book emits an aura of existential dread.
Yi has a very strong authorial voice, and so despite the fact that there doesn’t necessarily seem to be a whole lot of connection between any of the stories, the book as a whole feels cohesive.
Thematically I would interpret a lot of this to be about a certain sense of alienation, a not-quite desire to connect that still ultimately fails.
I don’t think this is the right kind of book for someone who needs to connect with characters to enjoy a book (like really, any characters at all. I can’t say I found any of that here.) but if you want a beautifully written novel that creates some of the most immersive atmospheres I have ever experienced, and you are willing to wade through a lot of philosophising and sit with and accept your confusion, I do think this would be the right book for you. I certainly plan on re-reading it in the future.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
𝄢 : To God by Esther Yi . 2.5 stars .
────────
𝄢 : my thoughts .
ㅤ ׅㅤ ׅ Whilst I truly wanted to enjoy this read, I feel it wasn't meant for me. I requested the book from Netgalley because I was deeply intrigued by the cover, and hence wanted to know what words lay beyond the cover. Unfortunately, looks can be deceiving.
ㅤ ׅㅤ ׅ I felt as though each story lacked a certain flow between each individual story, leaving the blood of the entire book congealed and clotted between each one. Whilst each section held the same particular kind of dark atmosphere, I found myself getting lost, and not being able to claw my way back to the purpose of the collection.
ㅤ ׅㅤ ׅ I'm unsure if the reason this read fell flat of my expectations was because it truly wasn't what I expected it to be, or if it was too incoherent, and drifted from its full collection's intended purpose to fully enjoy.
ㅤ ׅㅤ ׅ With that being said, these thoughts are simply that -- my own thoughts. I do believe that this collection has potential for a higher rating with a few tweaks, and Yi's prose is well-written and lush. If you enjoy short-story collections, dark thematics, and beautifully-written prose, then I believe that this book will be enjoyable.
────────
I would like to sincerely express my gratitude to both Netgalley and the author of this collection, Esther Yi, for offering me this opportunity to read To God before its release in September. 𓏲𝄢
────────
𝄢 : my thoughts .
ㅤ ׅㅤ ׅ Whilst I truly wanted to enjoy this read, I feel it wasn't meant for me. I requested the book from Netgalley because I was deeply intrigued by the cover, and hence wanted to know what words lay beyond the cover. Unfortunately, looks can be deceiving.
ㅤ ׅㅤ ׅ I felt as though each story lacked a certain flow between each individual story, leaving the blood of the entire book congealed and clotted between each one. Whilst each section held the same particular kind of dark atmosphere, I found myself getting lost, and not being able to claw my way back to the purpose of the collection.
ㅤ ׅㅤ ׅ I'm unsure if the reason this read fell flat of my expectations was because it truly wasn't what I expected it to be, or if it was too incoherent, and drifted from its full collection's intended purpose to fully enjoy.
ㅤ ׅㅤ ׅ With that being said, these thoughts are simply that -- my own thoughts. I do believe that this collection has potential for a higher rating with a few tweaks, and Yi's prose is well-written and lush. If you enjoy short-story collections, dark thematics, and beautifully-written prose, then I believe that this book will be enjoyable.
────────
I would like to sincerely express my gratitude to both Netgalley and the author of this collection, Esther Yi, for offering me this opportunity to read To God before its release in September. 𓏲𝄢
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
After really enjoying Y/N, I was excited to read To God, and while there are moments of striking prose and compelling thematic ambition, this collection ultimately didn’t resonate with me as strongly.
Esther Yi continues to explore alienation, belief, identity, and emotional disconnection with a distinct and highly intellectual style. The collection creates an atmosphere of urban decay and existential uncertainty that feels intentional and immersive, and there are several passages that are beautifully written and conceptually sharp.
However, I found the stories emotionally difficult to access. The abstraction and philosophical layering occasionally created distance rather than intimacy, leaving me admiring the craft more than feeling fully engaged with the characters or narratives themselves. Compared to the emotional intensity and cohesion I felt while reading Y/N, this collection felt more uneven for me personally.
Still, readers who appreciate experimental literary fiction and heavily voice-driven work will likely find much to admire here.
Esther Yi continues to explore alienation, belief, identity, and emotional disconnection with a distinct and highly intellectual style. The collection creates an atmosphere of urban decay and existential uncertainty that feels intentional and immersive, and there are several passages that are beautifully written and conceptually sharp.
However, I found the stories emotionally difficult to access. The abstraction and philosophical layering occasionally created distance rather than intimacy, leaving me admiring the craft more than feeling fully engaged with the characters or narratives themselves. Compared to the emotional intensity and cohesion I felt while reading Y/N, this collection felt more uneven for me personally.
Still, readers who appreciate experimental literary fiction and heavily voice-driven work will likely find much to admire here.
October 14, 2026
Thank you to Astra Publishing for the advanced reader copy.
This was very different from what I expected. I was expecting the stories to flow into each other much more than they do, but it ended up feeling very disjointed. This collection of stories about the people in this metropolitan area cover topics of capitalism, religion, loneliness and motherhood.
While some of the stories showed a deep level of character interiority with an undercurrent of loneliness, others felt fairly surface level and ill placed. Removing some of the stories would have helped to keep that undercurrent of loneliness and make for a more cohesive theme.
The cover is definitely the best thing about this collection.
This was very different from what I expected. I was expecting the stories to flow into each other much more than they do, but it ended up feeling very disjointed. This collection of stories about the people in this metropolitan area cover topics of capitalism, religion, loneliness and motherhood.
While some of the stories showed a deep level of character interiority with an undercurrent of loneliness, others felt fairly surface level and ill placed. Removing some of the stories would have helped to keep that undercurrent of loneliness and make for a more cohesive theme.
The cover is definitely the best thing about this collection.
October 16, 2026
Fascinating and thought-provoking in its cerebral gloom that sticks to you long after reading, even if that stickiness isn’t the most pleasant feeling (it’s difficult to wash off!).
Yi is challenging at the macro (an entire story that spins off a character’s head wound; hell yeah) and micro level (sentences that shove you through gnarly images and thoughts occasionally requiring you to re-read for basic comprehension and sometimes just for the thrill of her originality and beauty) but isn’t that what all art should aim to do?
Amongst the protest of “AI could never” TO GOD is my new favorite bully against the sick machine.
Yi is challenging at the macro (an entire story that spins off a character’s head wound; hell yeah) and micro level (sentences that shove you through gnarly images and thoughts occasionally requiring you to re-read for basic comprehension and sometimes just for the thrill of her originality and beauty) but isn’t that what all art should aim to do?
Amongst the protest of “AI could never” TO GOD is my new favorite bully against the sick machine.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
'To God' felt a lot like 'Y/N' but at the same time they are nothing alike.
Yis prose is absolutely great and nobody doubts her abilities as a writer but just like 'Y/N', 'To God' didn't really reach me.
While I actively hated 'Y/N', I felt indifferent about 80% of the protagonists and their shenanigans in her newest work.
A standout for me and maybe the highlight of the whole 'collection' (i am still not sure if ut really is a short story collection in the most classical sense) was 'Lazarus City'.
It is a quick read and surely not a waste of time but maybe I will skip her future releases.
Yis prose is absolutely great and nobody doubts her abilities as a writer but just like 'Y/N', 'To God' didn't really reach me.
While I actively hated 'Y/N', I felt indifferent about 80% of the protagonists and their shenanigans in her newest work.
A standout for me and maybe the highlight of the whole 'collection' (i am still not sure if ut really is a short story collection in the most classical sense) was 'Lazarus City'.
It is a quick read and surely not a waste of time but maybe I will skip her future releases.
September 12, 2026
e-arc provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
This is a collection of standalone stories, all sharing the same theme and mood. However, in my opinion, the quality across the stories feels uneven. Some I really enjoyed - for example, the one about the tooth throne - but there are also some that honestly just slipped right past me. For me, the like/dislike ratio among the short stories is about 60/40.
Anyway, this kind of collection is perfect for “taking a break,” so I definitely recommend it!
This is a collection of standalone stories, all sharing the same theme and mood. However, in my opinion, the quality across the stories feels uneven. Some I really enjoyed - for example, the one about the tooth throne - but there are also some that honestly just slipped right past me. For me, the like/dislike ratio among the short stories is about 60/40.
Anyway, this kind of collection is perfect for “taking a break,” so I definitely recommend it!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Very interesting short stories with good premises, though the execution was a mixed bag. This writing can be so absurd and abstract that the stories can feel inaccessible at times. I would imagine it works for other readers, but it often didn't for me. Yi is clearly a talented writer and this collection did make me want to check out her novel.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for a review.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for a review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
NetGalley ARC Review-
Very melancholic and depressing, but not in a sad way but in a way that makes the reader reflective on their own lives. The book at first reads autobiographical, but as you read further you realise that each of the chapters/stories may or may not have different narrators. And isn't that what life is? Multiple perspectives and multiple phases come together to form the life that we live, that we exist in.
Very melancholic and depressing, but not in a sad way but in a way that makes the reader reflective on their own lives. The book at first reads autobiographical, but as you read further you realise that each of the chapters/stories may or may not have different narrators. And isn't that what life is? Multiple perspectives and multiple phases come together to form the life that we live, that we exist in.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
To God was a strong, philosophical collection of short stories examining urban life under late stage capitalism— alienation, connection, love and religion are all facets of its characters’ lives that it explores.
Admittedly, this was a difficult read for me, but I gained a lot from sitting with it and tuning in to the rhythm of each story. The thread of absurdism that runs through the stories really captured my attention, as did the unique characters in the various stories.
Admittedly, this was a difficult read for me, but I gained a lot from sitting with it and tuning in to the rhythm of each story. The thread of absurdism that runs through the stories really captured my attention, as did the unique characters in the various stories.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC!
This is an abstract and intelligent collection of short stories. It’s well written and thought provoking. But I think I just found the structure and flow of both the prose and the overall book to be difficult to fully get into. I unfortunately DNF’d at 30% - I think it just wasn’t the book for me.
I think if you are someone who likes short stories and deeply reflective pieces of literature then this would be right up your alley!
This is an abstract and intelligent collection of short stories. It’s well written and thought provoking. But I think I just found the structure and flow of both the prose and the overall book to be difficult to fully get into. I unfortunately DNF’d at 30% - I think it just wasn’t the book for me.
I think if you are someone who likes short stories and deeply reflective pieces of literature then this would be right up your alley!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
To God is a short story collection with spiritual themes. Yi's prose is special and her writing is funny, beautiful and grotesque at the same time.
The stories told in To God are dark and sad - I felt an absence through out this collection. Like I was standing outside looking in.
I believe that readers who appreciate experimental literary fiction will enjoy this collection more then I did.
Thanks to NetGalley and Astra House for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
The stories told in To God are dark and sad - I felt an absence through out this collection. Like I was standing outside looking in.
I believe that readers who appreciate experimental literary fiction will enjoy this collection more then I did.
Thanks to NetGalley and Astra House for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
October 7, 2026
Some of these stories were so abstract it sometimes felt a bit like a runaway train and I just had to surrender to not understanding. That said, Yi has such a specific writing style and I really respect that. Some of her descriptions were so unique and grotesque I was pretty in awe of them lol. Fave stories - No Right Hand, Dent, and Mutter. The rest of them… idk. Not my fave collection, and think her writing style is probably better suited to longer form.
October 13, 2026
Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this book. I wanted to try another Esther Yi book but I think her prose is not for me.
Short stories are very hit or miss for me, many times I don’t like most of them. And in this instance I couldn't connect with any of these stories. I really don’t know what most of them were about truly, they were too abstract.
Thanks to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for an eARC.
Short stories are very hit or miss for me, many times I don’t like most of them. And in this instance I couldn't connect with any of these stories. I really don’t know what most of them were about truly, they were too abstract.
Thanks to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for an eARC.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
doesn’t feel as propulsive as y/n, but it embraces yi’s signature themes/tones—the curdled/abject unreality of unruly desire, a terse nihilism that has no center and spills brusquely out the edges of mouths and landscapes—with a balder flair that might read as uneven to some, but feels even more pinpoint-sharp and grandiose to me in its voracious rot
Read
September 21, 2026Although not an avid short story collection reader, Yi's interwoven themes managed to make the reading experience more cohesive. From themes of alienation and the spiritual it can be hard at times to know whether these worlds are meant to be utopian or dystopian - but I guess that's the point of the reader's autonomy.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews