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Exercises In Control
A formidable collection of short stories in the vein of Eley Williams, Clare Fisher, and Daisy Johnson.We do have a complaints procedure. You will find paper and a pen (chained) to the shelf by the bin. Write your concerns and then place them in the bin. PLEASE We do not allow items to be placed in the bin. Please do not write on the paper.A lonely woman invites danger between tedious dates; a station guard plays a bloody game of heads-or-tails; an office cleaner sneaks into a forbidden room hiding grim secrets. Compelling and provocative, Annabel Banks's debut short fiction collection draws deeply upon the human need to be in control - no matter how devastating the cost.
- GenresShort Stories
100 pages, Paperback
First published February 20, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
August 13, 2023
Debut short story collection
12 short stories in total
Published by Influx Press
Each story stands alone, though thematically they all draw on aspects of control, mundanity of the every day, identity or lack thereof and a sense of irritability in many of the three-dimensional characters.
These stories can be read quickly.
They're concise and clipped, their content often challenging, leaving you curious.
A station guard plays a game of heads and tails, while pushing a daily commuter at the station closer to the edge. A seemingly mundane office building reveals a harrowing secret in one of its rooms. A date at a beach results in bizarre circumstances.
Very much enjoyed this. I find some short story collection can become tedious, but every one of these kept me engrossed throughout.
12 short stories in total
Published by Influx Press
Each story stands alone, though thematically they all draw on aspects of control, mundanity of the every day, identity or lack thereof and a sense of irritability in many of the three-dimensional characters.
These stories can be read quickly.
They're concise and clipped, their content often challenging, leaving you curious.
A station guard plays a game of heads and tails, while pushing a daily commuter at the station closer to the edge. A seemingly mundane office building reveals a harrowing secret in one of its rooms. A date at a beach results in bizarre circumstances.
Very much enjoyed this. I find some short story collection can become tedious, but every one of these kept me engrossed throughout.
January 18, 2020
A bit patchy, as debut collections often are. The title story is very good; unsettling, grotesque, a little macabre. Rite of Passage was another highlight, with it's absurdly dark humour. Some of the others I was left thinking, What was the point of that?.
But Banks has quite a promising voice. I'll be interested to read whatever she does next.
But Banks has quite a promising voice. I'll be interested to read whatever she does next.
January 20, 2020
Just devoured EXERCISES IN CONTROL. This is some properly good short fiction. Made me sad, sick, smile; a lovely wee collection and worth your time.
June 8, 2024
A nice little collection of short stories - some good, some not so much. Payment to the Universe, With Compliments, and Harmless were standouts for me. 3 stars.
February 19, 2020
A lovely collection of short stories. Bold, bare; warm and cold, gentle and sharp. Banks writes with wit and sensitivity. 'Payment to the Universe', 'Exercises in Control' and 'With Compliments' particularly touched me. These stories take you through lightness and darkness of the human heart. A pearl among the pebbles. To be re -read more than once. We want more Dr Banks.
February 23, 2020
Exercises in Control, by Annabel Banks, is a collection of a dozen short stories from an author whose writing style brought to mind that of M. John Harrison, although these are neither fantasy nor science fiction. The stories have an unsettling and elusive quality that requires the reader to delve beyond what is obvious and engage with characters who are slippery and complex. There is an undercurrent of violence that manifests in actions against the narrators and those they encounter.
The collection opens with an impressive tale titled Payment to the Universe. A cleaner is working alone in deserted offices. Against instruction she enters a room and must make a decision about what she finds there. The sparse prose conveys her reasoning and packs a punch.
I was less impressed with Susan Frankie Marla Me. A woman describes outings with friends and the copying of behaviours that alter depending on who she is with. My aversion likely stems from the fact that I couldn’t warm to any of the characters or what they were doing in each situation.
Exercises in Control is a strong story but contained an upsetting element of animal cruelty that I would prefer not to now have in my head. A train station guard is watching a woman who he regularly sees on his shift. Curious to find out how she reacts, he stage manages a scenario and then observes from his unseen vantage point. His apparent lack of feeling, other than to satisfy his own needs, is shocking.
Rite of Passage recounts a weird date on a beach in Cornwall.
It is one of several stories that detail people behaving strangely. Men think violent thoughts that they sometimes act upon. Women self-harm in a variety of ways. If the stories are about self control – or its deliberate absence – then this comes with a need to exert power, to push against the strictures that family or society attempt to impose. There is a lack of hope, a struggle to cope, in many of the lives depicted.
Limitations turned me off with its sexual description in the opening lines – a man looking forward to seeing a woman again because of “how wet she gets.” Few of the men featured in any of the stories are given likeable traits.
Free Body Diagram features a woman who hitchhikes as a means of courting danger. She is a serial dater with no interest in forming a relationship. I enjoyed the ambiguous ending.
The Higgins Method is a violent interpretation of My Fair Lady. It has a quietly inserted side thread on how we treat and judge celebrities.
I enjoyed the oddness of Momentum with its suggestion of something inexplicable in a local man’s homemade box of tricks.
The oddness in With Compliments was more difficult to navigate. The character jumps lost me in places – who was who – although several of the scenarios resonated.
Harmless offers a wickedly delicious comeuppance for a man who tells a random woman he encounters to smile, expecting to be paid attention. I felt guilt at my feelings over the outcome and the woman’s reaction.
A Theory Concerning Light and Colours has an intriguing premise and unnerving ending but didn’t entirely hold my interest.
The closing story, Common Codes, features a man who wishes to impress a woman and ends up losing control of a lie he tells. I wondered what would happen next.
Seven of these stories have previously been published in literary magazines with some nominated for awards. From what I had heard of the writer I expected to enjoy her work. Perhaps it was this that led to my ambivalence with the overall collection. There is much that is admirable in the style and structure of the writing, which has obvious power and depth. Nevertheless, I struggled to engage with too much of the development. The inherent violence and relentlessly flawed character traits marred my enjoyment. A book that may benefit from rereading.
The collection opens with an impressive tale titled Payment to the Universe. A cleaner is working alone in deserted offices. Against instruction she enters a room and must make a decision about what she finds there. The sparse prose conveys her reasoning and packs a punch.
I was less impressed with Susan Frankie Marla Me. A woman describes outings with friends and the copying of behaviours that alter depending on who she is with. My aversion likely stems from the fact that I couldn’t warm to any of the characters or what they were doing in each situation.
Exercises in Control is a strong story but contained an upsetting element of animal cruelty that I would prefer not to now have in my head. A train station guard is watching a woman who he regularly sees on his shift. Curious to find out how she reacts, he stage manages a scenario and then observes from his unseen vantage point. His apparent lack of feeling, other than to satisfy his own needs, is shocking.
Rite of Passage recounts a weird date on a beach in Cornwall.
It is one of several stories that detail people behaving strangely. Men think violent thoughts that they sometimes act upon. Women self-harm in a variety of ways. If the stories are about self control – or its deliberate absence – then this comes with a need to exert power, to push against the strictures that family or society attempt to impose. There is a lack of hope, a struggle to cope, in many of the lives depicted.
Limitations turned me off with its sexual description in the opening lines – a man looking forward to seeing a woman again because of “how wet she gets.” Few of the men featured in any of the stories are given likeable traits.
Free Body Diagram features a woman who hitchhikes as a means of courting danger. She is a serial dater with no interest in forming a relationship. I enjoyed the ambiguous ending.
The Higgins Method is a violent interpretation of My Fair Lady. It has a quietly inserted side thread on how we treat and judge celebrities.
I enjoyed the oddness of Momentum with its suggestion of something inexplicable in a local man’s homemade box of tricks.
The oddness in With Compliments was more difficult to navigate. The character jumps lost me in places – who was who – although several of the scenarios resonated.
Harmless offers a wickedly delicious comeuppance for a man who tells a random woman he encounters to smile, expecting to be paid attention. I felt guilt at my feelings over the outcome and the woman’s reaction.
A Theory Concerning Light and Colours has an intriguing premise and unnerving ending but didn’t entirely hold my interest.
The closing story, Common Codes, features a man who wishes to impress a woman and ends up losing control of a lie he tells. I wondered what would happen next.
Seven of these stories have previously been published in literary magazines with some nominated for awards. From what I had heard of the writer I expected to enjoy her work. Perhaps it was this that led to my ambivalence with the overall collection. There is much that is admirable in the style and structure of the writing, which has obvious power and depth. Nevertheless, I struggled to engage with too much of the development. The inherent violence and relentlessly flawed character traits marred my enjoyment. A book that may benefit from rereading.
February 24, 2020
Exercises In Control is Annabel Bank's debut short fiction collection -, comprising twelve compelling and provocative stories on the subject of control, in all its forms.
**************************************
I must confess that I was not a lover of short story collections in the past, preferring to immerse myself in a full-length novel, but as I have got older, I have realised what I was missing out on - and I now make sure to add a sprinkling of shorter fiction into my TBR pile each year.
My particular favourites are collections from a single author, as they are a great introduction to the breadth of an author's work and writing style, particularly when they are musings on a single subject - so Exercises In Control certainly caught my attention. Oh boy, have they (and their author) caught my attention!
These stories are glorious and mindblowing in the ways they examine different forms of control. They are punchy, violent, viscerally shocking, bizarre and often darkly humourous - drawing you along weird and wonderful paths that will leave your head spinning.
Right from the first story, Payment to the Universe (short, sharp and, oh so, unexpected!), I knew I was going to love this collection, and raced through the book in double quick time - in fact, I made myself put it down to finish the next day in order to prolong the pleasure - which was over way too soon.
Each one left me wanting more...wanting to find out what happens next.....and they will have me thinking about them for a long time to come.
I cannot wait to read more from Annabel Banks - more short fiction would be delightful, but I am now longing for a full-length novel. When will it be finished, Annabel?
**************************************
I must confess that I was not a lover of short story collections in the past, preferring to immerse myself in a full-length novel, but as I have got older, I have realised what I was missing out on - and I now make sure to add a sprinkling of shorter fiction into my TBR pile each year.
My particular favourites are collections from a single author, as they are a great introduction to the breadth of an author's work and writing style, particularly when they are musings on a single subject - so Exercises In Control certainly caught my attention. Oh boy, have they (and their author) caught my attention!
These stories are glorious and mindblowing in the ways they examine different forms of control. They are punchy, violent, viscerally shocking, bizarre and often darkly humourous - drawing you along weird and wonderful paths that will leave your head spinning.
Right from the first story, Payment to the Universe (short, sharp and, oh so, unexpected!), I knew I was going to love this collection, and raced through the book in double quick time - in fact, I made myself put it down to finish the next day in order to prolong the pleasure - which was over way too soon.
Each one left me wanting more...wanting to find out what happens next.....and they will have me thinking about them for a long time to come.
I cannot wait to read more from Annabel Banks - more short fiction would be delightful, but I am now longing for a full-length novel. When will it be finished, Annabel?
September 17, 2020
These stories are best approached with as little prior knowledge as possible, I think, so that the sweet, sharp shock of them is not diluted. As such, I will keep this brief. There are twelve stories in this slim volume, each one bristling with a sense of compacted energy, an electrical crackle and spark that is exciting and unsettling in equal measures. At times I was reminded of Carmen Maria Machado’s brilliant collection, Her Body and Other Parties, and there is also a hint of the dystopian bleakness of Mary South’s You Will Never Be Forgotten, which I read earlier this year. But Banks’ style is all her own, and her spittingly ferocious, utterly confident prose probes human behaviour in a wonderfully confronting way. I particularly liked how the theme of dating was woven into so many of the tales, yet approached so differently in each. There is nothing predictable about these stories.
The standout story for me was Rite of Passage, teetering as it does on absolute screwball comedy, yet maintaining an edge of poignancy. I guffawed in a very unattractive manner, but I was also strangely moved by it. A Theory Concerning Light and Colours explored one of my weird obsessions, the condition of synthasthesia, in which people experience the stimulation of multiple sensory pathways, so that colours are heard, for example. I find it fascinating, and Banks’ story is so skilfully done. I honestly don’t think I am ready to talk about the title story yet – it is so powerful that I need to have a pause and then revisit it. THE MOUSE!
In keeping with Annabel Banks’ taut, succinct delivery, and not wanting to give anything else away, I shall wrap this review up here. If you haven’t already read this collection, I urge you to do so. And watch out for the mouse.
The standout story for me was Rite of Passage, teetering as it does on absolute screwball comedy, yet maintaining an edge of poignancy. I guffawed in a very unattractive manner, but I was also strangely moved by it. A Theory Concerning Light and Colours explored one of my weird obsessions, the condition of synthasthesia, in which people experience the stimulation of multiple sensory pathways, so that colours are heard, for example. I find it fascinating, and Banks’ story is so skilfully done. I honestly don’t think I am ready to talk about the title story yet – it is so powerful that I need to have a pause and then revisit it. THE MOUSE!
In keeping with Annabel Banks’ taut, succinct delivery, and not wanting to give anything else away, I shall wrap this review up here. If you haven’t already read this collection, I urge you to do so. And watch out for the mouse.
February 20, 2020
The raison d’être of Exercises In Control are the questions raised. Why do we need danger? Which responses do danger induce? Is danger always a choice, in reality or appearance? The fact that no definitive answers are given amplify these questions, resonating in the reader’s mind after putting the book down.
Full review of Exercises In Control on Slow Culture.
Full review of Exercises In Control on Slow Culture.
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September 28, 2020"Exercises in Control is a compelling short story collection by award-winning writer Annabel Banks and I greedily swallowed it whole. Each story stands alone though there are strong themes of free will versus invisible external forces, of harm and safety, that weave themselves throughout the collection..."
See Yasmina Floyer's full review at: https://theshortstory.co.uk/short-sto...
See Yasmina Floyer's full review at: https://theshortstory.co.uk/short-sto...
February 13, 2020
Not really much to say. There's some good writing but none of the stories really stick out, I felt that this collection consisted of tasters. When Banks publishes her first novel, then we'll see her full potential.
April 5, 2020
A charming debut, full of variety. The colored shards on the cover seem to mimic Banks' writing style: clipped yet vivid. I'm curious as to whether a different arrangement of the stories may have made this feel like more of an escalation, but it was enjoyable either way.
July 10, 2020
A collections of intelligent, thought-provoking, unusual, often dark stories. A number of these have really stayed with me after I’ve finished reading, and Banks has a great way of playing with language and meaning.
March 10, 2021
enjoyed this ! super quick collection of short stories
I actually thought the first few stories were the weakest and it got stronger as it went, by the end I was v absorbed and enjoying myself
In the vein of a slightly less weird / gross, more quotidienne Sisters / Paradise Rot / Boy Parts
I actually thought the first few stories were the weakest and it got stronger as it went, by the end I was v absorbed and enjoying myself
In the vein of a slightly less weird / gross, more quotidienne Sisters / Paradise Rot / Boy Parts
January 8, 2022
Short stories that are dark and dangerous.
They certainly made me think.
And I do believe that every person that reads them will see each tale in a different light and take something else away from it.
They certainly made me think.
And I do believe that every person that reads them will see each tale in a different light and take something else away from it.
February 23, 2020
whip-sharp crackingly good short stories that end up not quite where you think they are going. I raced through this one.
April 13, 2020
3.5
A great collection of stories, a few of which I thought were outstanding. Loved the themes explored and the style of the writing.
A great collection of stories, a few of which I thought were outstanding. Loved the themes explored and the style of the writing.
August 7, 2020
3.5 stars
August 9, 2020
Loved this short story collection!
May 19, 2021
Annabel Banks works between the lines of plot-expectation and form to produce works that are constantly surprising, and characters that have charm hard-wired. I enjoyed this collection immensely.
September 8, 2022
These stories did nothing to/for me
November 26, 2024
Banks is a creative genius.
September 6, 2025
Quick-witted, generous humour, and without spoiling too-much, a silent killer that humbles you within each story told.
I’d say it’s both quiet and alarming. Banks profiles as a sex-first, feminism, and, - hold the rage- , modern short-story fiction writer.
Exercises in Control will have you, the reader, restraining yourself against her every provocation at every edge of the book.
Personally, I found myself often recalling my own version of positively fiery mishap accounts equating to young need for daring past-lived experiences, reigniting my own need for incisive behaviour, not to mention - the use of Iconic British landmarks that creates a feeling which sat a lot closer to home. With words, there are turns and twists like no other…
A fun read, if you like horror, short-fiction, lust, suspense, thriller, psychology, dark-humour.
It is funny how men are being depicted in this book, really, quite insightful. Surprised. Though- I really shouldn’t be.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.
I’d give it a 4.5/5.
I’d say it’s both quiet and alarming. Banks profiles as a sex-first, feminism, and, - hold the rage- , modern short-story fiction writer.
Exercises in Control will have you, the reader, restraining yourself against her every provocation at every edge of the book.
Personally, I found myself often recalling my own version of positively fiery mishap accounts equating to young need for daring past-lived experiences, reigniting my own need for incisive behaviour, not to mention - the use of Iconic British landmarks that creates a feeling which sat a lot closer to home. With words, there are turns and twists like no other…
A fun read, if you like horror, short-fiction, lust, suspense, thriller, psychology, dark-humour.
It is funny how men are being depicted in this book, really, quite insightful. Surprised. Though- I really shouldn’t be.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.
I’d give it a 4.5/5.
March 23, 2022
do you ever read a book that you feel you're not cool enough to understand? yeah absolute bang of that off this. it's short stories which i normally love but i just didn't ~get~ a lot of them? i did really enjoy one about a cave at the beach though!
May 23, 2022
Wasn't very keen honestly- Nothing to do with the writing but I do think short stories can be hit or miss. I only liked one story out of the ones I read. I managed to get half way before putting it down unfortunately.
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