An Archive of Brightness

by Kelsey Socha

Two stoic lobstermen harboring a secret affection. A lonely architect building houses and machines from the exoskeletons of scorpions in a desert town. A girl painfully growing into new wings. A flock of crows and an untidy vulture observe and collect these moments of human tenderness as they build an archive of brightness. Each love story becomes, in its own way, the end of a world—and the beginning of a new one.

Genres: Fiction, Queer, Short Stories, LGBT, Lesbian, Romance, Fantasy

144 pages, Paperback

Published August 30, 2022

About the author

Kelsey Socha once wrote and staged a performance piece about lobsters before subsequently quitting theatre to become a librarian. She is originally from Kalamazoo, Michigan, but now lives in Western Massachusetts with her wife and two cats.

Reviews

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A heartfelt and poetic dive into the inner worlds that come alive when you fall in love

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't normally write reviews- this book was absolutely beautiful. Magical, mystical, and at the same time beautifully human. Which is ironic, because it's being told by the birds. At times I felt like I was dreaming- the language is so poetic. Socha's incredible use of language paints vivid images that dance between figurative and quite literal. Only three characters are named, but the whole cast is unforgettable. Reminding us that we are nothing to the world in the grand scheme of things, but immensely important to those around us. Life is everywhere, and where there is life there is love.

[charlotte, · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rep: achillean character, sapphic characters

[Taylor (Virginia Woolf’s Actual Wife)]

That was so weird. I loved it

[Matthew Vesely · Rating 5 out of 5]

The kind of journey only a bird can take—a quick fly through everyday adventures that bring us right back down to earth. Honestly, this story is will make you lean in over and over again, reread countless passages, and have you thinking about it well past the last page.

[sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5. creative writing (derogatory). I wanted to like this SO badly, and I think there is absolutely an audience for this, but it just isn't me and I really did not have a good time reading this.

[Yentl · Rating 4 out of 5]

unlike anything I’ve ever read! beautiful snapshots of queer love at the end of the world, through the eyes of birds as the keepers of history. a small quiet book- I loved it.

[tillie hellman · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up.
on the one hand, this book was so imaginative and had so many lovely (queer) love stories going on. on the other hand, it felt like it was sacrificing clarity for mystique and i didn’t fully get a grasp on anything to really understand what was happening or why i should care.
but i really do love the houses made of scorpions and the women who fall in love there. the lobstermen were pretty good but TBH i think they needed to be expanded upon more. the second person was confusing, who was the you? and the i?
i liked the birds fine, but again, didn’t quite pull together in the end
i also just kept 1) almost falling asleep and 2) checking how close i was to being done which is not the Most encouraging sign of enjoying a book djdjdjdj
tldr: cool concepts, needed to be a bit more grounded for me to rlly enjoy

[Michelle Herrera · Rating 2 out of 5]

i wanted to love this book so bad but i spent most of my time reading it wondering what was actually going on and if i was missing something. im probably just not the right reader for this kind of writing 😀

[Tim Ubels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird and beautiful, but god to know the crows are keeping tabs on things. Socha's tender prose are memorable, and the birds are hard not to love. 3.5/5

[Lis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no idea what I just read. But the writing was enjoyable. And there were many lines I enjoyed. But I have no idea what happened. Or if anything happened.

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous. Stunning and original, aching and bright. I found this book purely by chance at the library, and now I'll have to buy my own copy of it so I can reread it again and again.

[Nati · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like I’m too stupid to understand literature

[Aklesia Maereg · Rating 4 out of 5]

i had a very vivid memory of being in a grocery store parking lot in greensboro with at minimum 100 crows in every direction playing while i read this…i think i know where they buried the archive of brightness

[Jess Reads Too Much · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 rounded up
This is one of the oddest books that I have read in my life. I love the aspect of these crows and vulture that record moments of brightness to transcribe into an archive. I'm a sucker for the type of storytelling that is layered - stories on top of stories.
This novella is wandering, turning back on itself and constantly switching between narrative threads. But once you get used to the style, you can really lose yourself in the writing. Every page of this book is filled with beautiful prose on love and loss and the end of the world. It's all poetry and metaphors and words that make you feel so much in such a short span of pages.
There are still parts of this book that I'm thinking over, pieces of it that I think will fall into place days after I've finished reading that will make this book all the better. My confusion is the only thing holding me back from a five-star, but if there's definitely room for me to come back and bump my rating up.
I believe that this book is something you need to experience. No words can really come close to describing this. It's small and intimate and beautiful. I am so glad that I stumbled across this.
If you loved This Is How We Lose The Time War, I think that you'll love this.

[James Garman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The blurb used to sum up this group of short stories is summed up this way here on Goodreads:

Two stoic lobstermen harboring a secret affection. A lonely architect building houses and machines from the exoskeletons of scorpions in a desert town. A girl painfully growing into new wings. A flock of crows and an untidy vulture observe and collect these moments of human tenderness as they build an archive of brightness. Each love story becomes, in its own way, the end of a world—and the beginning of a new one.

I listened to this on audiobook, and while I found it confusing at points, the discription is most true. It seems that it skips around as the narrative doesn't seem quite chronological. There are "the beginning of the end" and "the end of the end" and "the middle of....". The stories also jump from up north (Maine i believe) with lobstermen, the desert of the west with a town with houses made with unique materials, etc.

The reader had a soothing voice and the story flowed and while I didn't follow it as well as to know all the details, I did get that it is about love, and the "end of world, is a reset on everything including love.

[peniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Maybe crows have been spending too much time with humans. Not everything has meaning, certainly not “more” meaning. But crows, they like categorizing”

i am always in awe of anyone who can bring so much to life just by bending language to their will. reading this feels like bearing witness to the creation of worlds and nudging awake a lot of emotions i only ever feel overwhelmingly at very specific moments. it reads like poetry like a play and like a collection of fairytales but so intrinsically linked with reality that you feel You are the stories being read. opens up a world so immersive and grounding that you can only ever unlock if you strap in for the ride

this book takes comfort in the non-conclusive nature of living and loving and the act of care and how we could go our whole lives running around in circles trying to figure out why things are the way they run and never find it. we just have to live it and look and love and fly

[Aubry · Rating 5 out of 5]

My goodness, this book is an utter delight in a time where we need utter delights! The story unfolds as a murder of crows observe several queer relationships in various stages of forming, growing, and dissipating. Every bit of this book is suffused with tender lyricism, and queer love is explored in such a loving and positive way. Did I mention the plethora of anthropomorphic critters who round out the crows' roster of informants?? The disheveled vulture who reports findings to the crow is hard not to love, and the lobster who observe their lobstermen capturers are hard not to laugh at. What a rare and wonderful book!

[UwUzumaki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such an interesting novella, weaving between being a sort of anthology and something else entirely. The writing style is really engrossing, so the main pull of this book is just to be carried along with the fun prose. The tone is mostly whimsical with some bittersweet moments, but it's just short enough and paced fast enough that the tone never becomes grating. If anything, this was a really comforting read just focusing on (queer!) love and mundane moments and scary moments and intertwining the ordinary with the extraordinary.

[Jennifer Pullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind and delicate, also very meta-fictional. I'm not sure what I think of it, truly, but it was craft with great care, and I've never read anything quite like it, and I read A LOT, and including a great many experimental works, so the fact that it feels so unique to me means a lot.

[Lydia Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

- almost more like free form poetry
- Overbearing in parts
- Really ran with the birds (deff references to hope is a thing with feathers and Dreams by Langston Hughes and so many more)
- Very Mary Oliver on love but also way more sad

[megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

weird, confusing. lines that i wanted to write on my wall. but lost.

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely charming! I am CHARMED.

[Jae · Rating 3 out of 5]

cute. about crows and gays and some ends of the world.

[Desiree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Real weird book, and I loved it.
Funny, sweet, sad, and hopeful.

[Fletcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good writing, but I was not invested in any of the characters. This was like reading extended instructions for a logic puzzle. Never realized how helpful names were until I read this.

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely, strange little novella about love and life at the end of the world.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a novella that reads like a series of poems, weaving together tragedies and fairy tales and endless optimism in the wake of the end of the world. Even when the stories hurt, it has the pleasant feeling of pressing on a bruise or finding the tenderness on the top of a burnt mouth. Truly lyrical, unique, and unafraid of pushing the boundaries between the real and the nonsensical.

Etched into these many stories are lines that will resonate with you long after you finish reading.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A weird, sweet little novella about LGBTQ loves starting and ending. Sort of written like a screen play but not consistently.