Wrong Heaven

by Amy Bonnaffons

"In her amazing, wildly inventive collection, Amy Bonnaffons writes about transformation, each story further complicating the world as we know it. With a style that blends humor and sincerity in such strange, perfect ratios, Bonnaffons reveals the mysteries inside of us, just waiting to make themselves known. The Wrong Heaven, so wondrous, will alter you in all the necessary ways." —Kevin Wilson

In The Wrong Heaven, anything is possible: bodies can transform, inanimate objects come to life, angels appear and disappear.

Bonnaffons draws us into a delightfully strange universe, in which her conflicted characters seek to solve their sexual and spiritual dilemmas in all the wrong places. The title story's heroine reckons with grief while arguing with loquacious Jesus and Mary lawn ornaments that come to life when she plugs them in. In "Horse," we enter a world in which women transform themselves into animals through a series of medical injections. In "Alternate," a young woman convinces herself that all she needs to revive a stagnant relationship is the perfect poster of the Dalai Lama.

While some of the worlds to which Bonnaffons transports us are more recognizable than others, all of them uncover the mysteries beneath the mundane surfaces of our lives. Enormously funny, boldly inventive, and as provocative as they are deeply affecting, these stories lay bare the heart of our deepest longings.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Magical Realism, Fantasy, Feminism, Contemporary, Book Club

Paperback

First published July 17, 2018

Reviews

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Irreverent, at times humorous, a very original use of magical realism, in a book of shorts that are totally original. I enjoyed these, they were quite shocking at times, but because of that they drew me in. Always wondered what the next one would bring. Not easily interpreted, think these stories will mean something different to each reader.

My two favorites, were the title story in which a young woman buys plastic statues of Jesus snd the Virgin Mary. When plugged in they speak, and what they say is not quite what one would expect. The ending, totally unexpected. The second was about a woman who needs and doesn't want to give up a room that she doesn't share with her husband. She is a dollhouse maker, and she makes the family to go with the houses out of clay. One day two of the clay children come alive with some strange results. Entertaining and surprising. Taking the reader to very unexpected situations.

As much as I enjoyed these, I would not recommend to every reader. There are many sexual situations, language etc. If that doesn't bother you, as I said these are very unique, a very out there use of magical realism. Some great prose and insights as well.

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

debuts can be underbaked and short stories are not always my thing, but this collection is TIGHT. mt. stackmore has a couple of short story collections in it right now, and i've been grabbing around them in the stack because i am apprehensive about reading short stories in general, and because reviewing short story collections is such a drag. but i read this one in a single day, much of it in the hour-or-so i spent at the bar waiting for connor to do some skype meeting thing so i could go back to his place and resume marathoning orange is the new black. they're stories to devour - exceptionally fast-paced without being superficial, they flow so well you just zoooooom right through 'em. they are funny but also very, very sad.

very sad.

but funny.
but sad.

you can daisy-pluck it if you want, but it's more like a blend of both, where you're laughing, but it makes the hollow parts of your heart hurt to do so.

i'm gonna cop out of writing a proper review of this by choosing an excerpt from each story instead of painstakingly reviewing each one individually like a chump.

but first, a super special call-out quote from Horse because this could be about me right now, except no one even calls me in for an interview. it's my cover letters that have no soul.

Serena graduated with honors, and won an award for her thesis on eighteenth-century women's novels. For her, intellectual labor felt like labor, in a good way, the way waitressing had for me: honest and exhausting and satisfying. But after graduation, despite her accolades, she couldn't find a job. She had dozens of interviews, almost got several tenure-track positions, but in the end they always went with someone else. I encouraged her, but privately ascribed her failure to her meekness with strangers; with friends she was self-possessed, often cuttingly funny, but she was a cipher in interviews. She seemed to equate "professionalism" with a total erasure of her personality.

THAT IS WHAT I DO!! AND IT IS NO GOOD. i assure you, i have a personality AND i can also be professional. please someone hire me!

okay, here comes the excerpt parade:

THE WRONG HEAVEN
★★★★☆

I shouldn't have been so stuck up in the bloom of my youth. I turned away six objectively impressive men. They were all just so boring. But it's also boring, I now realize, to be alone.

THE OTHER ONE
★★★☆☆

What moral life wasn't Sisyphean, tilted toward failure as much as success? The best one could do, it seemed, was to accept that paradox and try to really fucking enjoy oneself in the breaks between pushing the rock uphill.

HORSE
★★★★☆

Q: Will I need to make out a will, then?

A: Yes. You may not bring anything with you to Atalanta Ranch, besides your body.

Q: Can my loved ones visit?

A: Yes.

Q: Will they recognize me?

A: Most of them claim to, but it is impossible to determine how much this recognition depends upon wishful thinking.

Q: Can they ride me?

A: We don't recommend it. So far, every attempt has ended in tragedy.

BLACK STONES
★★★☆☆

"This is what I get for being a smart-ass," said Sarah. "When you don't take life seriously, death starts to take you seriously. It assumes you've been playing for the wrong team."

THE CLEAS
★★★★★

In theory I do not approve of faking, but in practice it's easier than explaining. I prefer to call it performing, and over time I've grown expert: the breathing that quickens to match my partner's, the soft moans, the desperate yelps that signal the formal end of another person's responsibility for my pleasure.

A ROOM TO LIVE IN
★★★★★

Was it possible to do a courageous thing fearfully? Perhaps one might propel oneself into the future even in a state of tension and panic, even with one's fingers curled in a death grip around the past.

ALTERNATE
★★★★☆

But eventually we learned a sadder kind of lesson: no matter how creative their sexual practices or identity politics, all couples fail in the same way. Barck Obama had promised us the future. Instead we got what we'd always had: the present. It was just as provisional and unsatisfying as ever, as clogged as ever with obligation and regret. Despite our best efforts to become different people, we had remained ourselves.

LITTLE SISTER
★★★☆☆

At night, after Buddy leaves, my mother sits at the kitchen table and makes life-affirmation collages. She cuts pictures out of magazines and glues them to sheets of construction paper. The pictures are of the mountains and the beach and other places we have never been.

"They say you have to envision the life you want," she explains.

"Who's 'they'?" I ask.

"Oprah." She takes a drag of her cigarette and replaces it in the ashtray, then cuts out a small picture of ballet slippers and tentatively places it in the center of the empty page. She frowns, then removes it. "My feet are too big anyway," she says. Then she stands up, gathers the magazines, and stacks them with the recycling by the door. She looks down at the pile, gives it a soft little kick with her foot. "The problem," she says, "Is that I have the wrong kind of magazine."

DORIS AND KATIE
★★★★★

"Partners." Perhaps this was the best word for her and Doris, after all. They didn't sleep together, of course. But "friends" seemed like a hollow word for what they'd become: their lives peeled down like carrots, so that they were the only ones left standing. Her children moving away, with families of their own; Evan returning after leaving her - twice - just in time to get Parkinson's; then Fareed passing away too, a year after Evan, facedown in the flowerbeds.

Then again, in some ways the two women were less like partners - willing intimates - than like survivors of the same catastrophe: thrust together yet always a bit apart, each insulated by her own ghosts.

GODDESS NIGHT
★★★☆☆

I met Sharon at something called Goddess Night. I had come to meet girls. I wasn't a lesbian, but I hoped to become one.

Everyone knows now that heterosexuality isn't real, it's basically brainwashing. Plus I had heard women kissed with softer lips and knew what to do down there because they had the same business going on. Also, women probably did not do things like ask you to "play dead" and then jerk off onto your face, or if they did, they'd Obtain Consent first and it would be called Play. Men just did what they wanted and didn't call it anything.

come to my blog!

[Melki · Rating 5 out of 5]

The hubby and I were heading to Lowe's one Saturday, listening to the tail end of Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me. Then This American Life came on, and we were treated to a reading of a short story that began with two women meeting in the kitchen every morning to inject one another.

The two needles look identical, although their contents are different. We have different goals. Serena wants to become a mother. I want to become a horse.

Well . . . that certainly caught our attention. We got as far as the part where the main character's feet turn into hooves before arriving at our destination, and the call of the lumber and plumbing supplies grew too strong. And, doggone it! - I never remembered to go to NPR.org to check out the end of the story. BUT, miracle of miracles, it's in THIS BOOK. I feel as though this is my reward for standing bored to tears while my husband carefully examined over 27 two-by-fours before deciding that none of them were good enough, and we'd have to try Home Depot instead.

I just loved these stories. They were the perfect mix of fantasy and reality, tossed with a spicy blend of quirkiness.

- A women returns her light-up Jesus and Mary statues because . . . they're too judgmental.

- We meet two old friends in their sixties - one has discovered the other's secret, not realizing her pal is hiding something even more private.

- A dollhouse creator's world is rocked when her tiny dolls come to life.

- One woman hopes to regain what she's lost by ridding herself of an ear worm.

This is an absolutely perfect collection with not a dud in the bunch. I honestly cannot wait for MORE by this author.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The publisher sent this to me, and I read and enjoyed the first story, but then this book was swept up in a cleaning endeavor and I went looking for it today. I'm so glad I did; these are wonderful. They make me think of the feeling of the first story collection I read by Karen Russell - the wholly underappreciated St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, and also some touches of the earlier stories of Aimee Bender. The shared characteristics are touches of imagination or unreality, significant enough that it effects the characters, but small enough that the reader can choose to explain them away (insanity? hyperbole?)

The setting of these stories is a lot of fun too. I think of them as magical suburbia. The first story is about a woman bringing home inflatable lawn versions of Mary and Jesus, and they start speaking to her. Another has two female friends who are injecting each other - one to help her get pregnant and the other to transform into a horse. That one has some true sticking power. Many of the characters are unhappy in their relationships and sexuality, or at least they know that what they have isn't quite the right fit yet. There is this combination of awkwardness and yearning that really works, and it feels like it is a thread throughout the stories.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

When a debut short story writer is compared with Karen Russell (definitely can see it) and George Saunders (not so much), I’m IN, with both feet.

And indeed, Amy Bonnaffons doesn’t disappoint. All of the stories are well-crafted and fun, and a couple of them are extraordinary. The eponymous first story, The Wrong Heaven, is a totally irreverent rift of Jesus and Mary lawn statues from Papa’s Plastics who chatter and reproach and become increasingly bullying. Obviously, the story isn’t for everyone but I laughed out loud.

The second, entitled Horse, can be summed up in these sentences: “We have different goals. Serena wants to become a mother. I want to become a horse.” The narrator enters a scientific study to actually metamorphize a horse, which “requires bravery. Our hope is that the Centaurides living among us will be viewed not as freaks or as failures but as emblems of courage: female animals who gathered up all the uncertainties of their existence into one single, massive risk.”

There are other great stories too – Doris and Katie, a surprisingly poignant look into the relationship between two old friends who may soon be forced to part. Or Alternate, a young woman chosen as an alternate to dine with Obama during the campaign, who is coping with her own definition of what “change” is all about. Or A Room to Live in”, where a female sculptor carves two young children from imported Tahitian balsa wood—and must hide from her husband that they have come alive.

There is a lot here that deals with the theme of creation – how we create and recreate ourselves, how we create others, and how sometimes, we serve as our own gods. Amy Bonnaffons has talent to spare and is a great chronicler of the human condition. Thanks to Little Brown for placing this on my radar and providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

[el · Rating 2 out of 5]

i hesitate to call the stories laid out in this collection "magical realist"—which i've seen them called before—because, more often than not, the strange occurrences occurring within the pages of the wrong heaven are treated as unusual + abnormal to the main character and/or world. so, by definition, they are—largely—not magical realist.

and also because...i can't give horse girls that kind of power. i just can't.

how to describe this short story collection......hm.....it's giving gaslight gatekeep #girlboss energy. very much weird for the sake of weird, as in, the self-proclaimed "not like other girls" girl who thinks of herself as funny without ever evoking any kind of laughter and treats daily life like an a24 film featuring a white sex cult ending in death and flowers. so, like, ottessa moshfegh-style fiction, without so much mental illness.

i don't know how to parse the inexplicable, insular worlds contained in these pages except to say that they walk the line between uncomfortably meta and totally in the dark about it all, as in: aware of race+class privilege and how that pervades every crevice of existence, while totally unwilling to probe what that might mean for the main characters (and supporting cast) of the collection. in other words, the wrong heaven is a book that wants to be in on the joke, even as it perpetuates the ideas that made the joke necessary in the first place.

how do i put this another way....this book is like that moment in get out (2017) where the dad goes, "by the way, i would've voted for obama a third time if i could," if the actor delivering the line had been in on why that's an absurd thing to say to a black person. this might seem like a bit of a mental leap, but there is literally a short story in this collection featuring obama as a speaking character. yeah.

throughout each and every short story in this collection, amy bonnaffons seems intimately aware of the fact that her worlds are alarmingly white—which is strange considering the time and setting—and will also comment on this over and over, while doing nothing about it.

the few rare appearances of people of color exist to deliver a racial punchline, and make a main character's microaggressions seem deliberately comedic—why a korean guy's first name is "tony," where the guy with a latin-sounding name might come from as an introductory question, how two white kids came to reenact a slave/slave owner dynamic as playful rough-housing. this recurring narrative decision is more strange than any of the fantastical elements in the wrong heaven.

for example, the choice to describe every character but the "caribbean nannies" as white/blonde in one short story seriously puzzles me. like i said, if throwaway comments like these are supposed to communicate something profound about race and class on the east coast, they do an awful job of it, when these are the only people of color present in bonnaffons' stories. just offhand observations about the women of color who perform labor for the rich white moms that populate the world. like i said! strange!!!!

beyond this repeated transgression, i very quickly came to understand—and expect—certain mechanics from bonnaffons' stories. the only way to describe their head-scratching nature is to say that they're like indulging your intrusive thoughts. more often than not, the crux of a story is the main character bursting into tears, some inanimate object or ephemeral concept coming to life without explanation, or really bizarre, oddly-placed sex. like, an alarming amount of sex—had slipshod and with abandon.

you might be in the middle of a short story following an f/f couple's relationship strife, then think to yourself: no...is the sudden appearance of this random, meaningless male side character going to end in...sex...awkward, incomprehensible sex that has no place or build-up in the narrative...

9 times out of 10, the answer is yes.

filing this collection under the domestic dread tab divider, because these are short stories that are profoundly panicky about womanhood. the nuance here is that this panic is frequently "solved" by sex. or, in one case, turning into a literal horse.

unbearably white, and aware of this whiteness at every turn, while trying to be wry about it just didn't work for me. the only short story i enjoyed from this collection was, "a room to live in," which was uncharacteristically thoughtful and probably the closest depiction to a healthy relationship that you'll find in the wrong heaven (which isn't saying much). i will be gaslighting gatekeeping girlbossing no further, thank you.

[Vicky "phenkos" · Rating 4 out of 5]

MY GR friend Jill recommended this and, having read the first story on a Kobo preview, I can totally see why. The story begins with two lists, one including evidence that 'Jesus is on my side', and another one with evidence that he isn't. Evidence in favour mixes up such unrelated items as 'Word of God, as appears in Bible' with the existence of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (lol!). The twists in the story are irreverent and fun; two statues of Mary and Jesus are bought from a shop and plugged in, at which point [SPOILER ALERT!!!] they start conversing with the narrator claiming to have all the answers but refusing to give them away for free. Not to worry, they can be unplugged at will! tbc

[Kseniya Melnik · Rating 5 out of 5]

With her stunning debut The Wrong Heaven, Amy Bonnaffons has upgraded magic realism for the modern age. In her universe, a woman can take her destiny into her hands by having a child on her own or transitioning into a horse; a younger sister can be stillborn and also grow up under the bed of her grieving older sister; a handsome, aroused angel can visit you just before death and offer a mysterious stone; and an identity crisis can be hastened toward resolution by a goddess named Sharon. Reminiscent of Kelly Link, Karen Russell, and Chris Adrian, these stories about friendships, marriages, sexuality, and spirituality, beg to be read with a pen for the purpose of constant underlining—for, seen through Bonnaffons’ slyly humorous and sharp sensibility, even the most bizarre, heartbreaking, and mundane moments appear more precious, interesting, and worth living.

[Read By RodKelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

One hell of a good collection of stories! Slightly strange and extremely funny, with much intelligence, and a few beautiful revelations, just the way I like.

[Uriel Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE WRONG HEAVEN is a collection that transcends its "debut" label. Amy Bonnaffons tangles us in a web of stories that are magical, morose and bear a quality of greatness only seasoned writers can achieve. Whether we're immersed in the lives of dolls come to life, a woman transforming herself into a horse or the turbulent relationships between best friends and lovers, each story is brought to stunning life with Bonnaffons' raw, restrained and sardonic prose. Everything about this collection rings true and reaffirms the power of short form fiction.

[Zachary Houle · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is it like to be a woman? Is being a woman a lot like becoming a horse, being able to roam wild and free? Is being a woman tied up in other women’s curses, the sort of curse that puts Alanis Morissette’s “Hand In My Pocket” stuck on instant repeat inside your head and singing the song in a solitary karaoke bar might be the only cure for this ailment? Is being a woman tied up in the friendships one has with other women, dying to know your particular secrets? Or is being a woman about having children, but not real children — pieces of hand-carved art that comes alive in your hands? Well, in a way, I suspect that Amy Bonnaffons’ debut short story collection The Wrong Heaven could be about these things. As inventive and daring as it is for blending fabulist stories with those of kitchen sink ordinariness, it is also dark and disturbing and strange and peculiar. To be honest, I’m not quite sure what to make of it — but that might be because I’m male and Bonnaffons writes from a female point of view.

The collection reminds me a lot of Anita Dolman’s fantastic collection of short stories released last year, Lost Enough, in that sexuality is fluid and strangeness is told from a woman’s point of view. The two authors share enough of a commonality that I’d say if you’ve read one of them, you should go out and read the other. In a sense, Bonnaffons’ collection reminds me a lot of Jonathan Lethem in all of his modes — genre-defying and literary — and it should be of no surprise that Lethem is namechecked in the Acknowledgements section of this book as someone who helped Bonnaffons as a writer along the way. What might be the collection’s strength or conversely its glaring weakness, is that these stories are not interconnected by style, though the themes of sexuality, religion and high art versus low art all play a part in these tales. And, yes, one of the stories is about a woman who can take a medicine to transform herself permanently into a horse.

Read the rest here: https://medium.com/@zachary_houle/a-r...

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Wrong Heaven is a collection of ten short stories in Ms. Bonnaffons's debut book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them all--in fact, I devoured the book in two days. The writing is clear and crisp--no fat on those bones--and immensely pleasurable to read. The wit, the humor, subtly creeping beneath the surface; I loved it. And the irreverence for so many topics, from religion to more progressive topics (e.g., the "White Savior" complex--"Many of the white women nodded enthusiastically, including some who had, minutes earlier, claimed to love the movie.").

I really want to emphasize how wonderful I think the writing is in this book. Each story has a clear idea, with sharp characters and clearly defined psychology. Most of the stories had a touch of magical realism--Murakami-esque for all you fans out there. These are works of fiction where some unbelievable moments slip right in as if nothing extraordinary occurred. And the stories have purpose--a message--along the lines of a Tolstoy short (although these are much shorter).

One thing I really appreciate about this book is that it is entirely female focused. I know that in my own reading, I generally read male authors, not by choice, but I noticed it reviewing my read-books list. I think we men should read more from the female perspective, to see both that a) women think about and deal with many of the same issues that we deal with; and b) women think about, consider, and experience life in many ways that are completely foreign to us and that we would never consider "normal" even though it is in fact a normal perspective for millions of women (e.g. men regularly treating them like shit).

I liked all of the stories, though if I had to pick a favorite at this very moment, I would probably choose "Horse." It is brilliant. It is a masterpiece. I wish it were a novel. The intro has such a hook and I just couldn't stop reading. The plot is fascinating. Women turning themselves into horses! And it has a great quote, "She seemed to equate 'professionalism' with a total erasure of her personality." This is totally relateable, both for myself when I was younger, and with countless people I've worked with over the years.

I chuckled out loud numerous times reading "The Wrong Heaven." The religious irreverence really did it for me.

I think there is a lot here for many readers to enjoy. I hope many of you give the book a shot.

[Ylenia · Rating 4 out of 5]

[ 4.25 stars ]

Absolutely loved this collection. All the stories were intriguing and exactly the right kind of weird.

[Isaiah Lamb · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I must have completely misunderstood what this book was supposed to be about. Though, to be fair, the description was rather vague. I personally assumed that this book would be about people genuinely wrestling with their faith in God and describing their raw, unique, and difficult experiences in doing so. But the book became quickly overly sexual and without clear resolution. I tried to continue, because I truly do value the realistic and sometimes ugly struggle that faith can be, but I came to the chapter about attempting to "become a horse" and I simply couldn't follow along any more. I'll give it 2 stars lest there is something later in the book that might have redeemed it, but unfortunately I will not be around to read it.

[Eduardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of urban foibles and surreal coping mechanisms hints at the dialogue between the conscious and unconscious mind. The more I let the stories sit in the back of my head, the more wonderful they become. “Horse” was my favorite, but all the stories will leave an aftertaste that requires contemplation to decipher.

[Gila Gila · Rating 4 out of 5]

A piece of luck: I happened on this collection of short stories, knowing nothing of the author, and without looking at a review or anything else, went on in. The first few stories left me so happy and awake that I was buzzing. Magical realism that felt equally magical and true. So hard to pull that off!

Most of stories that followed sadly didn’t cast the same spell, particularly those that suddenly and unexpectedly retreated into invariably depressing realities (where magic would have been so welcome). There was one other where the dark magic employed actually frightened me, despite my not taking to the story itself. Still, the pieces I loved are odd and wonderful, and they are what I’ll hold on to.

The opening title story, in which an elementary school teacher, deeply grieving the loss of her pet and coping with that loss through regular evenings of gin, (and some worryingly bizarre behaviour) buys a Jesus and Mary set of large garden figureines, only to find they speak out loud to her whenever she plugs them in. She’s not entirely thrilled. They become a true problem, until eventually just the right unexpected character comes to her assistance. The story moves like a hazy dream, lit by electric glowing statuettes.

Horse, the third story, is quite well known, and an absolute gem. Somewhere there are horse-obsessed cowgirl lesbians who have printed this story out and papered their barn walls with it. Two women staring down permanent changes. Have a baby and become a single mother, responsible for a brand new human being? Give up entirely on being human and become a horse with a long mane, hooves like boots sculpted from the strongest bone, losing the ability to think or speak in a human tongue? Mmm, soft sweet powdery new baby smell, the warmth of a tiny new person clinging to you. Mmm, grass, sky, wind; solitude. So many hard choices. Such a memorable piece of writing.

The other story I’m carrying in my head is A Room to Live In. It may be too sentimental for some readers - it has shades of the old children’s book The Borrowers - but it’s far from featherweight. We know the narrator has endured something unbearable in her life which has left her desperately self protective (that we’ll never learn what specific horror or grief befell her oddly works in the story’s favour). She loves her husband, but needs a protective safety bubble around her, even with him. Here they are in their kitchen at the story’s opening, doing dinner dishes together:
“I was thinking,“ he said carefully, “that we could do something.”
“You mean sex?”
“Well, actually, I was thinking in larger terms.”
“What terms?”
“Well, I was thinking we could have a child.”
“Tonight?”
“No, just sometime.”
“I don’t know. Where would it sleep?”
“Well, it could sleep in my room, and I could sleep in yours.”
“Where would I sleep?”
“In your room too.”
“With you?”
“ - Yes.”
We’d been over this before. Carl had suggested many times before that as my husband, he had the right to share my bed.

What then unspools is told in a halting voice trying to find its own strength; an unexpected, deeply felt story of puppetry, parenthood and magic. Well, not in that order, and not that it matters. A lovely little
bubble of a story that grows brighter and brighter.

There are other bits and pieces I admired within this collection, but these three will stay with me, start to finish. Which is a lot, I think, in this form. Really, one marvelous, memorable short story whose light stays on after you’ve closed the book is a lot.

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really excited to read this book when I received it. It seemed like it would be funny, light and witty. And too some I think it would deliver on those exceptions.

However for me personally it did not hit the mark. I found it difficult to go with the flow of each short story and find that humor for myself that was being displayed. My facial expression while reading it was so confused and it was all around totally unenjoyable for me.

However I do think if you think this books sounds like your kind of humor then you should pick it up and give it a try for yourself. It was quirky, really weird and a little twisted. But not necessarily in a bad way. An acquired taste.

I have to give it up to the author for delivering a book that was %100 unique and not predictable. Which although did not do it for me, I respect all the same.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’d been waiting for this collection since hearing “Horse” on This American Life, but unfortunately the collection just didn’t work for me. The touches of magical realism often felt incompletely imagined, there as an oddity rather than to build the story into something larger. The prose is sparse but also often states too plainly what characters are thinking; there was somehow less room for discovery than I’d like. In a few stories everything came together near perfectly, so I’ll probably keep an eye out for her work in the future.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where else can you willingly suspend disbelief and enjoy short stories about choosing to change into a horse, a talking Mary and Jesus statue purchased at Tony's Catholic Bonanza, miniature dollhouse dolls who come alive and play in their "God's" apartment but in the "THE WRONG HEAVEN"?
(I received pre-publication access thanks to Edelweiss.)

[Skylerhayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this short story collection. You could take the stories as deep as you wanted or you could just let them simmer at the very top of your consciousness. You can chew on them and spit them out. You can cry this was meaningless! Then the next second realize it was indeed very truthful. Highly recommend!

[Carole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciated Bonnaffons’ efficiency. She has an effective sparsity of words that give you the whole story and do nothing extra for you. It’s a technique that makes her work emotionally bleak, but also gives you little enough that some story concepts work, and some fall. Instead of laboring through descriptions of what I didn’t care for, I will say that the sparse narration of “A Room to Live In” made it touching, the final image of “Doris and Katie” made the whole thing round and just the right size to hold in a hand, and I’m glad “The Wrong Heaven” was first and the title story; it deserved both.
My habit is arguing with book jacket quotes, and so, to Kevin Wilson, author of Perfect Little World and The Family Fang, I do not think this book altered me in all the necessary ways. I do not think this book altered me, I think it made me sad for part of the drive from Ohio to Michigan after I read while eating a pathetic lunch at a highway rest stop after five hours of interstate. That wasn’t really altering me, and it certainly wasn’t necessary.

[Jaksen]

No rating.

Magical realism, heavy on the religious aspect, even if she's making light of it, as in a satire. I don't get most of it. I tried the first story in which a woman buys two plastic statues, one of Jesus, the other of Mary, and then they talk to her. Meanwhile she's got a dead dog in the freezer.

Yep, magical realism is just making up stuff as you go, which many a writer does do. However, and this from a reader whose favorite book is 'Alice in Wonderland,' I just don't get it and am not spending time trying to get it. Life is too short.

No rating and a dnf. Giving this book to a friend who might like it.

Won this in a Goodreads giveaway, which I entered as I like short stories.

[Cynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raucous. Sexy. Graphic. Great Fun.
Except one story was so graphic and disrespectful that I had to take a shower after I read it. Still I, would read it again. Except maybe I might just read something else by Bonnaffons.

Raucous. The Plastic Jesus Song came to mind when reading the first story,"Wrong Heaven."
The old-timey way my brothers and I and many of the people we grew up sang this some in an ironical sing-song voice:
Plastic Jesus Lyricsto be said-sung in ironical voice
Billy Idol's version (2005?)
The lyrics and song are about having faith in a car dashboard decoration of a glued on plastic Jesus, not about Jesus of the Bible.

[Mits · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual so the short story collections, some were better than others. I particularly enjoyed the first two (?), the one about the Mary and Jesus lawn ornaments and the one about the woman who was becoming a horse. I found these to walk the line between absurd and believable perfectly, with the strangeness feeling less strange because of the humanity of the characters and their mild acceptance of the strangeness in their lives. The one about the horse woman also had a particularly effective narrative style, switching between an FAQ of the procedure and the woman’s first person narrative. The audiobook narrator also had the perfect nondescript voice to suit the characters (although her men all sounded like losers... but I guess they were).

[Lisa Beaulieu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magical realism done with humor and heart. Loved it. The story of the woman who tries to become a horse, while her friend tries to become a mother, is just so good. Another woman making lists trying to decide whether Jesus is for or against her, hilarious and true. (The mild arguing between Mary and the recalcitrant Jesus is pure gold.) My favorite may be Stone - also the one I least understood. Any comments on your thoughts about that story are welcome.

[Anna Karm · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not for me, I only read it because my son Robert asked me to. Just weird.

[Molly Costello · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Incredibly fun collection of stories that absolutely need to make it to the stage.

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the copy I had belonged to me I’d have annotated the hell out of it; but alas, the Mooresville Public Library will be expecting it back.

[Amy O’Regan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It made me think.

[Meg Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good, I could not put it down. One of the best collections of short stories I’ve read in a long time. She is an amazing story-teller and has such natural creativity that it’s easy to forget you’re reading and not just day-dreaming. Will definitely be reading more of her work!