This Keeps Happening

by H.B. Hogan

A short, punchy, debut story collection



A bush party leads to self-immolation. A cab ride ends in warfare. A squirrel is eviscerated. A universally impossible dare is accepted and proves not to be fatal. The weird kid triumphs. The stories in H.B. Hogan's debut collection sizzle like butter on hot cast iron--they're rich and dark and full of scrappy, sordid and sparkling humanity.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

Published November 15, 2018

Reviews

[Etienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5/5. A short stories book that has a great ability to start from casual scene of life that rapidly, sometimes a bit more slowly, gets out of hands and pick the reader by surprise. People struggling, trying to do get by and for many reasons just have to deal with hard/strange situation. Better than expected, well written and entertaining. It lacks the wow effect to get a higher rating for me, but a good read.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Edgy" is a convenient, overused adjective, one often applied to fiction that is creepy or violent or that trolls the dark heart’s desires. But undeniably the stories collected in H.B. Hogan’s debut volume, This Keeps Happening, possess "edge" in abundance, enough "edge" to make even hardened readers squirm in their seats. However the collection also calls to mind other descriptors that are equally apt: bitter and subversive, to mention a couple. These are stories about people whose luck has run out, people overwhelmed by what life is throwing at them, people who have lost touch with society and any sense of purpose and have descended into a state of aimless drift. A lot of Hogan’s characters are isolated or self-medicating. Many of them are young, jaded and cynical, their own suffering having rendered them insensitive to the suffering of others, even those they supposedly care about. “Tara Firma” takes place at a chaotic beer-party in the woods. In the same tent and at the same time, Tara and Michelle, both drunk and high, have had sex with different men. Tara, with “no money, no food, nowhere to live,” consumed by worries of her own, has no patience for her friend’s post-coital moaning, though the act has obviously left Michelle miserable and deeply traumatized. “Words for Evelyn” tells the wretched tale of Evelyn and her mother Judy. Evelyn, lonely and stuck in a dead-end job, is repulsed by the older man who has moved into her mother’s house and mystified that Judy would welcome such a disgusting creature into her life. And in “Empties,” sixteen-year-old best friends Kerri and Jo, having dropped out of school, living rough and for the moment sponging off another friend, spend whatever cash they can scrounge on beer to get blitzed and put off the inevitable reckoning. With no plans and no ambitions, they live moment to moment, wishing for something better but in no position to do anything but take each day as it comes. Other stories feature an act of gross physical violation, a suicide fantasy and relationships in decline. Hogan never lets her reader off easily. She revels in dirty aspects of human behaviour that are genuinely alarming. But just as you encounter yet another gag-worthy scene, Hogan redeems the whole sordid enterprise with a sneaky example of her deft comic touch. This Keeps Happening is certainly diverting—fascinating in the manner of a car wreck that you can’t take your eyes away from but afterward feel shamed by the morbid curiosity that compels you to watch—and Hogan writes prose that is punchy and all the more forceful for being unadorned. And even though the reader finishes the book wondering if the author’s grotesque worldview is for real or simply posturing, it hardly detracts from a reading experience that is not soon forgotten.

[Phil Della · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slim collection has some excellent stories in it. Among my favourites are Words for Evelyn, A Fare for Francis, and Louis Remembers. If you like extreme behaviour or outrageous circumstances then these should satisfy. The prose is clear and straight-forward, so one doesn't feel as if a poem is being disguised as a story. However, I can't say I always understand what happens, as is the case with the ending of the first story, Tara Firma. If not for the back cover tip I would have completely missed what went down. I read a review that compared these stories to a lawyer's brief or a case built up as evidence, but I didn't find that to be the true. The writer is a lawyer by trade, so this has invited the comparison. On the whole, I'm most pleased that I jumped on the impulse to buy this book, but I'm stumped as to where I learned of it. I have a recollection that it had been compared to Raymond Carver, whom I love, although I cannot confirm this. I suppose such a comparison has more validity than the previous one, but I wasn't clubbed over the head with any likeness. Both authors write odd tales that go for the jugular and employ understated prose. And I am glad for it. Like all reviews employing a star system, I never know where to come down. If I think only of the stories that really killed then the result should be 5 stars, so that's what I'm doing. Home runs are rare and should be celebrated. This collection has several.

[parth shah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collection of short-stories with 80s/90s Toronto as a back drop. Well written, relatable and poignant work with good prose. Leaves you with a sense of doom.

Edit: Realizing how deeply impactful some of these stories are. Perhaps because they are so real and unfiltered. They unknowingly take root in your mind and will keep coming back to you as you go about your day, even months after you've read them. That's a sign of a good book :) Underrated gem.