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Places Like These: Stories
A widow visits a spiritualist community to attempt to contact her late husband. A grieving teenager confronts the unfairness of his small-town world and the oncoming ecological disaster. A sexual assault survivor navigates her boyfriend's tricky family and her own confusing desires. A mother examines unresolved guilt while seeking her missing daughter in a city slum. A lover exploits his girlfriend's secrets for his own purposes. Whether in Ecuador or San Francisco, small-town Ontario or northern Manitoba, the landscape in each of Carter's poignant short stories reflects each character's journey.
Psychologically complex and astute, Places Like These plumbs the vast range of human reactions to those things which make us human—love, grief, friendship, betrayal, and the intertwined yet contrasting longing for connection and independence.
Psychologically complex and astute, Places Like These plumbs the vast range of human reactions to those things which make us human—love, grief, friendship, betrayal, and the intertwined yet contrasting longing for connection and independence.
- GenresShort StoriesCanada
220 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 18, 2023
About the author
Lauren Carter
8 books43 followersLauren Carter is the author of five books: the forthcoming short story collection Places Like These, the novel This Has Nothing to Do with You, winner of the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, and her debut novel Swarm, which was longlisted for CBC Canada Reads, as well as the poetry collections Following Sea and Lichen Bright, longlisted for the ReLit Award. Her work has also appeared in anthologies, including 15: Best Canadian Stories (edited by John Metcalf) and Voicing Suicide (Ekstasis Editions). She has been published in a wide variety of periodicals including The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, National Geographic Traveler, and the literary journals Fiddlehead, Prairie Fire and Grain. Longlisted multiple times for the CBC literary awards in both fiction and poetry, she's also been nominated for the Journey and Giller Prizes. A transplanted Ontarian, she currently lives near Winnipeg, Manitoba with her husband, Jason, and rescue animals Merlin and Mo.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 18, 2023
An enjoyable collection of short stories.
I started to find my groove about half way through the book. The stories started hitting differently and had my attention.
My thanks to Bookhug Press for this gifted copy!
I started to find my groove about half way through the book. The stories started hitting differently and had my attention.
My thanks to Bookhug Press for this gifted copy!
April 14, 2023
"You come to places like these and expect to be called on. You come, expecting glimmering eyes to fall on you, flutter closed, and a voice to speak, clear enough to not be questioned."
Back on Valentine's Day in 2014, I stood at an old abandoned gas station in Serpent River, where the Greyhound buses heading to Sault Saint Marie and Sudbury intersect. A million anxious and fearful thoughts whizzed around my brain. As I got off the bus, the air was cold and crisp, and quiet and comforting. Waiting for my ride for the next stage of this long trip, I looked up and realized that the full moon silenced those worries and allowed the space in me to accept that even though I was feeling lost, I am safe. The feeling was one of overwhelming peace I had only had glimpses of in my past. The following few weeks of my life in that part of the country were life-changing and life-affirming that I still carry as sacred with me to this day. This is the feeling I had read the last three stories in Lauren Carter's newest collection Places Like These.
"She was here now. The hope in her felt ravenous, not like a thing with feathers but with fangs and claws and an insatiable, violent hunger."
Lauren Carter's new collection of short stories finds a gentle and loving way to cut rite through the human condition. This deeply personal and lyrically reflective journey into the human psyche felt like it could also qualify as poetry. There were so many passages that I underlined and took pause of how the words felt in my heart. Through adolescent experiences all the way into middle age, there were many memories conjured on these pages. Through themes of wanderlust, all sorts of relationships, loss, starting all over again, addiction in locations such as Northern Ontario, Ecuador, San Franscisco, and the Prairies, Lauren brings the reader through a spectrum of connection.
"This is a sad confession, I know, but, as my mother used to say, there are many ways to live a life, and this is the way I've lived mine: under a heft of cascaded rubble, sipping at any available air. Sweet it is, though, when it's so rare."
The last three stories about Lara and her friends were amongst the standout selections in this collection. My other favourite stories from Places Like These by Lauren Carter include
River's Edge
Tenderloin
Grass Fire
Dear Leila, Dear Timothy
The Great and Powerful
Point of Ignition
"It's just another part of the reality."
"There's only so much a person can take, especially me, especially lately."
"There I stood, half-naked, captive in the shadow of the large sign that explained how prairies are made. How they need to be burned to the ground, blackened by fire, for any new shoots to grow."
"Sometimes blood smears on the smooth celluloid showing up as scars on people's faces, shadows on calm water like creatures threatening to rise."
"People find what they need."
"Life's long and then you're forty, fifty, sixty."
Back on Valentine's Day in 2014, I stood at an old abandoned gas station in Serpent River, where the Greyhound buses heading to Sault Saint Marie and Sudbury intersect. A million anxious and fearful thoughts whizzed around my brain. As I got off the bus, the air was cold and crisp, and quiet and comforting. Waiting for my ride for the next stage of this long trip, I looked up and realized that the full moon silenced those worries and allowed the space in me to accept that even though I was feeling lost, I am safe. The feeling was one of overwhelming peace I had only had glimpses of in my past. The following few weeks of my life in that part of the country were life-changing and life-affirming that I still carry as sacred with me to this day. This is the feeling I had read the last three stories in Lauren Carter's newest collection Places Like These.
"She was here now. The hope in her felt ravenous, not like a thing with feathers but with fangs and claws and an insatiable, violent hunger."
Lauren Carter's new collection of short stories finds a gentle and loving way to cut rite through the human condition. This deeply personal and lyrically reflective journey into the human psyche felt like it could also qualify as poetry. There were so many passages that I underlined and took pause of how the words felt in my heart. Through adolescent experiences all the way into middle age, there were many memories conjured on these pages. Through themes of wanderlust, all sorts of relationships, loss, starting all over again, addiction in locations such as Northern Ontario, Ecuador, San Franscisco, and the Prairies, Lauren brings the reader through a spectrum of connection.
"This is a sad confession, I know, but, as my mother used to say, there are many ways to live a life, and this is the way I've lived mine: under a heft of cascaded rubble, sipping at any available air. Sweet it is, though, when it's so rare."
The last three stories about Lara and her friends were amongst the standout selections in this collection. My other favourite stories from Places Like These by Lauren Carter include
River's Edge
Tenderloin
Grass Fire
Dear Leila, Dear Timothy
The Great and Powerful
Point of Ignition
"It's just another part of the reality."
"There's only so much a person can take, especially me, especially lately."
"There I stood, half-naked, captive in the shadow of the large sign that explained how prairies are made. How they need to be burned to the ground, blackened by fire, for any new shoots to grow."
"Sometimes blood smears on the smooth celluloid showing up as scars on people's faces, shadows on calm water like creatures threatening to rise."
"People find what they need."
"Life's long and then you're forty, fifty, sixty."
July 3, 2023
A collection of short stories with an undertone (OK, maybe overtone) of darkness. While not happy stories, they are well-crafted and engaging. I appreciate the challenges of making a short story - to be meaningful with simplicity and fewer words feels harder for me, and as a reader, I am grateful.
September 29, 2023
Gotta support my local authors.
Someone else said insultingly that it’s typical can lit depressing stories about sad people, but to me thats true in a positive way and the prose itself is very skillful.
I think Zombies is my favourite but there’s 7-8 more perfect little sad stories for rainy afternoons.
Someone else said insultingly that it’s typical can lit depressing stories about sad people, but to me thats true in a positive way and the prose itself is very skillful.
I think Zombies is my favourite but there’s 7-8 more perfect little sad stories for rainy afternoons.
May 12, 2023
Review of Lauren Carter’s “Places Like These"
When I read this collection of short stories, I felt tense, like I was staring into the heart of a volcano or peering off the edge of a cliff. Right from the first page, readers experience spare and evocative descriptions of setting, seasons, emotional landscape, and jumps in time. The stories depict startling betrayals, drinking and drug use, tragic accidents, confused desires, infidelity, mental illness, sexual abuse, incarceration, altered imagination, and family dysfunction.
One especially poignant story, “Tenderloin,” tells of a couple desperate to find their addicted, homeless daughter. In “Grass Fire,” the narrator describes her marriage - “There are many ways to live a life and this is the way I’ve lived mine, under a heft of cascaded rubble, sipping at any available air.”
In “Rhubarb,” the narrator describes a rhubarb sprout - “Tiny, wizened leaves that look like brains, stalks sprouting from a tissuey pocket that’s fleshy and pink. Against the dun-coloured earth, the plant is vibrant red, like part of a human being pushing out of the ground.”
Also, she knows small town life in Canada. Her portrayals of the stifling boredom and petty jealousies and intense friendships ring true. And, although her stories take place in settings ranging from Argentina to The Pas in Manitoba, and offer brilliant descriptions of specific places and cultures, the characters always carry their emotional baggage (secrets, heartache, betrayals, and unmet sexual desires).
Many of them long to escape their too-familiar communities and the trap of marriage, jobs, and family. They hang out in bars and on rooftops and in movie theatres, yearning for something different, tired of how parents, partners, friends, teachers, and lovers act and react. But they don’t even know what they want or how to get it. Just like real life.
Carter never flinches or looks away from the veracity she has created; she does not offer platitudes or easy endings. Things don’t turn out the way one expects. After I read her book, I found it hard to stop thinking about these stories, with their detailed jumps in time, brilliant use of language, and sharp insights into reality.
When I read this collection of short stories, I felt tense, like I was staring into the heart of a volcano or peering off the edge of a cliff. Right from the first page, readers experience spare and evocative descriptions of setting, seasons, emotional landscape, and jumps in time. The stories depict startling betrayals, drinking and drug use, tragic accidents, confused desires, infidelity, mental illness, sexual abuse, incarceration, altered imagination, and family dysfunction.
One especially poignant story, “Tenderloin,” tells of a couple desperate to find their addicted, homeless daughter. In “Grass Fire,” the narrator describes her marriage - “There are many ways to live a life and this is the way I’ve lived mine, under a heft of cascaded rubble, sipping at any available air.”
In “Rhubarb,” the narrator describes a rhubarb sprout - “Tiny, wizened leaves that look like brains, stalks sprouting from a tissuey pocket that’s fleshy and pink. Against the dun-coloured earth, the plant is vibrant red, like part of a human being pushing out of the ground.”
Also, she knows small town life in Canada. Her portrayals of the stifling boredom and petty jealousies and intense friendships ring true. And, although her stories take place in settings ranging from Argentina to The Pas in Manitoba, and offer brilliant descriptions of specific places and cultures, the characters always carry their emotional baggage (secrets, heartache, betrayals, and unmet sexual desires).
Many of them long to escape their too-familiar communities and the trap of marriage, jobs, and family. They hang out in bars and on rooftops and in movie theatres, yearning for something different, tired of how parents, partners, friends, teachers, and lovers act and react. But they don’t even know what they want or how to get it. Just like real life.
Carter never flinches or looks away from the veracity she has created; she does not offer platitudes or easy endings. Things don’t turn out the way one expects. After I read her book, I found it hard to stop thinking about these stories, with their detailed jumps in time, brilliant use of language, and sharp insights into reality.
March 4, 2023
Extraordinary stories decorate the pages.
How did the book make me feel/think?
Places like These, reads like a cipher; hidden inside are codes unlocking everything in life that makes us human.
Being Canadian allowed me to slide through the pages visiting familiar landscapes.
I dig deeper into my mind.
Where am I now?
What’s happening?
An electric current flows through me—sparking something inside of me.
Is humanity flailing?
Don’t judge the homeless. We are all only one trauma away from joining them.
Are we all cloaked with uncertainty?
What is our journey about?
Where do we find meaning, and in what?
The prose is lyrical and unbounded, painting life with broad strokes of a once colourful but now fading brush.
Does anything really matter?
A day passes, and relationships change, leaving longing behind.
I’m sad. Not a debilitating sadness, but a warm, somehow comfortable one, where understanding is lying in wait.
The extraordinary stories decorating the pages of Places Like These will challenge life perceptions and deliver readers to a place of wanting to be more, love more, think more, embrace more, and judge less.
WRITTEN: 4 March 2023
How did the book make me feel/think?
Places like These, reads like a cipher; hidden inside are codes unlocking everything in life that makes us human.
Being Canadian allowed me to slide through the pages visiting familiar landscapes.
I dig deeper into my mind.
Where am I now?
What’s happening?
An electric current flows through me—sparking something inside of me.
Is humanity flailing?
Don’t judge the homeless. We are all only one trauma away from joining them.
Are we all cloaked with uncertainty?
What is our journey about?
Where do we find meaning, and in what?
The prose is lyrical and unbounded, painting life with broad strokes of a once colourful but now fading brush.
Does anything really matter?
A day passes, and relationships change, leaving longing behind.
I’m sad. Not a debilitating sadness, but a warm, somehow comfortable one, where understanding is lying in wait.
The extraordinary stories decorating the pages of Places Like These will challenge life perceptions and deliver readers to a place of wanting to be more, love more, think more, embrace more, and judge less.
WRITTEN: 4 March 2023
September 8, 2023
The author has a talented way with words, some clever turns of phrase but her tone is uniformly grim in story after story. The characters are listless, boring, depressed and it's catching. After reading a few of these stories it became a slog.
At first, I was impressed by how the author dropped the reader into someone's life for a brief episode limning characters and background in a few clever paragraphs. However, what a group of sad sacks. She couldn't have at least one or two successful and/or happy characters? The last 3 stories are vaguely inter-related, with the same cast of 3 or 4 adolescent girls but instead of hanging together better, the narration is so herky-jerky it's actually difficult to follow who's talking or what's happening - not that anything much happens in any of these stories.
Typical Canlit - gloomy stories about loser characters.
At first, I was impressed by how the author dropped the reader into someone's life for a brief episode limning characters and background in a few clever paragraphs. However, what a group of sad sacks. She couldn't have at least one or two successful and/or happy characters? The last 3 stories are vaguely inter-related, with the same cast of 3 or 4 adolescent girls but instead of hanging together better, the narration is so herky-jerky it's actually difficult to follow who's talking or what's happening - not that anything much happens in any of these stories.
Typical Canlit - gloomy stories about loser characters.
March 4, 2023
Places Like These by Lauren Carter is a riveting collection of short stories. Written with an astute awareness of human frailty, Carter delves into the psychology of her characters, exposing their many foibles and vulnerabilities. Both evocative and poignant, readers will be taken on whirlwind emotional journeys as they explore love, friendship, grief and disappointment in these accomplished tales.
April 10, 2025
I love Lauren Carter's books, especially this one. After each story, I would think, just wow, this is my favorite story in this book. Then, I would read the next story and think the same. This book is an excellent collection of diverse and highly enjoyable stories! I know that I loved it, and I think that you will too!
January 20, 2023
Interesting book of short stories some I found better than others but they were all a it weird. I think a lot the references were lost on me being British. They were all quite dark with little humour, but they were interesting and liked the authors writing style
March 8, 2023
Not uplifting stories if that's what you're seeking, but this author has talent. These are not stories of everyday situations, but I liked them overall.
I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!
I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!
April 29, 2023
Full review soon!
Thank you to Book*hug Press for my advance review copy!
Thank you to Book*hug Press for my advance review copy!
May 6, 2023
A solid debut collection of very well crafted stories - each one complete in and of itself. They remind me very much of Alice Munro stories - only much darker and grittier.
Read
May 8, 2023Thanks to the publisher for gifting me a copy.
May 27, 2023
A enjoyable read of short storys. Can dip in and out of it as and when or can read all in one sitting. A read that will get you thinking.
July 4, 2023
Exceptional collection of short stories. They pack a lot into only a few pages.
January 19, 2024
Amazing book, but especially "Tenderloin", maybe one of the most heartbreaking short stories I've ever read.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews