Everything's Changing

by Chelsea Stickle

Everything is changing in towns across the United States. What we think we know is wrong. Animals have gone wild. Myths and fairytales are upended. Women’s bodies are growing weapon appendages. Nothing is certain anymore. The stories we tell ourselves are shifting. EVERYTHING’S CHANGING is a chapbook full of stories. Everyday magic, transformations, chaos, and coming to terms with the world as it is and how we want it to be. Stories within have been published in journals such as Okay Donkey, CRAFT, Cheap Pop, Fractured Lit, and more.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

37 pages, Paperback

Published January 13, 2023

About the author

Chelsea Stickle is the author of the flash fiction chapbooks Everything's Changing (Thirty West Publishing, January 2023) and Breaking Points (Black Lawrence Press, 2021). Her stories appear in CRAFT, Chestnut Review, Gone Lawn, Tiny Molecules, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and others. Her micros have been selected for Best Microfiction 2021 and the Wigleaf Top 50 in 2022. She's been nominated for Best Small Fictions, Best of the Net, Best Microfiction and the Pushcart Prize. She lives in Annapolis, MD with her black rabbit George and a forest of houseplants.

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant chapbook of eighteen flash/micro-stories in only twenty-five pages. Girls and women are the “everything” that’s changing, along with the animal world — in particular, partying raccoons and vengeful peacocks (absolutely loved the conclusion of the peacock story). A different story about the birds I love to watch is an indictment on people, and its details made me cringe: powerful piece.

In one favorite story a girl is stuck in a block of marble; I hesitate to say more. There are also the girls whose bodies produce sharp objects when they’re touched; and a town where girls aren’t allowed to scream (some of them have solutions). Stickle is a great writer and her stories deserve a reread. I always envy those who can do so much with so little.

4.5

[Hobart · Rating 4 out of 5]

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S EVERYTHING CHANGES ABOUT?
When I finished this, I sent a quick email to the publicist that started with, "How is anyone supposed to write something about Everything Changes??" There's a decent chance that this post could end up as long as—if not longer—than several of the stories in the book. I'll try to avoid it.

This chapbook contains 20 flash fiction pieces previously published in a variety of outlets about...well, I don't even know how to summarize this (I already alluded to that, didn't I?). Here's what's on the Publisher's site:

Everything is changing in towns across the United States. What we think we know is wrong. Animals have gone wild. Myths and fairytales are upended. Women’s bodies are growing weapon appendages. Nothing is certain anymore. The stories we tell ourselves are shifting. EVERYTHING’S CHANGING is a chapbook full of everyday magic, transformations, chaos, and coming to terms with the world as it is and how we want it to be.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT EVERYTHING'S CHANGING?
The rest of that email I sent read, "So weird, so good, so beyond explanation..." And that's going to be a theme for this post. My notes for the first story, "Worship What Keeps You Alive" ended with "So, this is going to be a weird book." And I didn't know how right I was.

Weird, but compelling. This collection includes what could be the best AITA ever (I'm so glad it's fictional). "Modern Ghosts" is something I'm going to re-read. The story "Party Animals" just made me happy. There were a few that fell a little flat for me, and they'll probably be your favorites.

The prose isn't just concise, it's crisp, with some stunning imagery. Stickle has a way with words that's impressive—and not a little disturbing (I mean that as a compliment). I'm so glad that I read this—and will be getting her previous chapbook soon.

This is a fast, strange, and overall enjoyable read—pick it up!

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from the author and Lori Hettler of The Next Best Book Club in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Chelsea Stickle’s upcoming flash chapbook, Everything’s Changing. I enjoyed being swept into surreal experiences, among them a mother freeing her child from a block of marble, a marionette shop in Prague that’s a little too real, and a tony neighborhood plagued by feral peacocks. Even a popular subreddit that falls apart becomes a study in story, movement, and resonance in Stickle’s skilled hands. In this can’t-put-it-down chapbook, Chelsea brings people, places, and their fates to life in flashes that reverberate well after the final sentence.

Highly recommend. There’s so many voices and perspectives.

Read more here. https://www.fivesouth.net/post/follow...

[Emily Perkovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg this was my favorite kind of weird. I want a million little tiny weird stories from Stickle. Like right now.

[Kristin Tenor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chelsea Stickle’s delightfully weird flash fiction chapbook, EVERYTHING'S CHANGING, builds an instantaneous connection with readers. Stickle dedicates her chapbook to “everyone who got called 'weird' like it was a bad thing,” signaling we are in very good hands as we take a deep dive into these surreal worlds where daughters are carved out of blocks of marble, body parts fall off at random during dinner parties and raccoons get drunk on a Tuesday night. At the same time, several of the women in these stories are not only challenged by bizarre circumstance, but also the unrealistic expectations a generational society has placed upon them, which again resonates and stays with the reader long after this collection is finished.

Urgent, unique, poignant—EVERYTHING'S CHANGING is a chapbook not to be missed.

[J.L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stickle doesn’t pull any punches with the start of this chapbook, which starts the way I anticipated but then gets very weird. Despite the back cover description, I had expected more “realistic” stories, so this is an immediate departure from Stickle’s previous collection. But like the dedication says, weird is not a bad thing. Even the weird here is sometimes sweet, sometimes dark, and always poignant. Each of these microfiction selections uses a spark of magical realism to say something about the real world. This isn’t a collection to rush through, because once again, Stickle’s unique take on fiction deserves to be heard and savored.

Favorite Story
“AITA for falling apart at a dinner party?” excellently parodies both a familiar story format and the strange cultural way we look back on the last few years with such impossible expectations.

Disclaimer: I received a digital review copy of this chapbook from the author.

[Runalong · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very impressive chapbook of flash fiction tales that are often surreal, occasionally scary and always emotionally invest the reader

Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...

[Allison Renner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stickle writes amazing stories that suck you in and spit you out with your imagination spinning in the best way. She makes the unbelievable seem normal, from catching the moon to falling apart at a dinner party. The story styles are unique and fit each piece perfectly, from a Reddit AITA post to an experienced ghost teaching a newbie the lay of the land. Many pieces made me laugh and quickly turned dark and emotional, which is impressive considering the tight constraints of Stickle’s micros and flash fiction. This is definitely a collection I’ll revisit often, and also highly recommend her first book, Breaking Points.

[Al Kratz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great chapbook of flash fiction centered on change and disintegration that’s often the only response to an impossible world. I wrote up a full review at https://alkratz.com/2023/01/15/on-che...

[Not Sarah Connor Writes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book by The Next Best Book Club in exchange for an honest review!

This was a fantastic chapbook filled with surreal, moving, and unforgettable stories.

Read the full review on my blog!

[Nina Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Ghost Girl Ballet," the final story in Chelsea Stickle's Everything's Changing, was one I first read in Fractured Lit and my first exposure to her fabulous prose. This book contains eighteen surreal gemstones, each glittering with light and magic. Embracing one's weirdness has never been more accepted than within these pages. From Rabid Nutcrackers "Second Life" to raucous trash pandas "Party Animals", every encounter is a joy to read and a welcome feast that only a witch could devise "Belly Full of Witch's Stew". So much to enjoy, and looking forward to reading even more of her work in the future.

[Jan Stinchcomb · Rating 4 out of 5]

"When you die, something is severed. The people you love become stories that you left unfinished."
A collection of flash/micro that is weird, disconcerting, and somehow not too far from reality.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a chapbook of flash fiction varying between the fantastic and the realistic. The tone wavers from serious, to sad, to spooky, to funny, but each story is heartfelt with a touch whimsy. Some of my favorites include a story in the style of an AITA post in which the poster falls apart, literally. Other stories include “A Plague of Peacocks” (which is exactly as it sounds), the feminist “I Told You I Would Take Your Hand”, and the creepy “Worship That Keeps You Alive”.

Get this one if you like finishing a book in a day, the fantastical, and feminist fiction.

If you like this review you can find more here: https://itgodp.libsyn.com/

[PJ Guippone · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed these flash fiction pieces for their brushes with the supernatural, but more so with their staunch criticism of the ohsovery everyday. I found it really incredible how such extraordinary elements were weaved into such short, powerful pieces. Having the power as a writer to make sentences stand out even after I read 18 short stories in one sitting and making it seem effortless is a real wonder.

[Glassworks Magazine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed by Qwayonna Josephs on www.rowanglassworks.org.

“Change is the only constant,” Chelsea Stickle writes in “Worship What Keeps You Alive,” the first flash fiction piece of her chapbook. This quote perfectly encapsulates Everything’s Changing, where nothing’s as it seems. The world has changed and the possibilities are endless in Stickle’s book, but one thing is as prevalent in this book as it is in society, and that’s the struggles of women and girls. Stickle uses absurdities throughout the book to tell stories, depicting women attempting to navigate a world that doesn’t like nor respect them. The problems women face are often overlooked, but Stickle reimagines these problems and tells them in a way that’ll have readers begging for more.

Chelsea Stickle covers a broad range of obstacles women face. Everything’s Changing begins with more grounded stories revolving around a lack of communication in relationships and judgmental friends. She brilliantly shows that there’s no one person to whom all the issues can be traced back to; the problem may be someone on the outside, or it might be someone we care about, or both. A great example is from her story “Animal Party,” where raccoons take advantage of a woman simply because they can. The raccoons proceed to get intoxicated and throw a party in the narrator’s trashcan the night before trash day. Despite the raccoons interrupting her show with their noise and making a mess that she ends up cleaning, the narrator does nothing to stop their fun.

Stickle uses the absurdity of partying raccoons to show how women often put the comfort of others over their own, especially concerning someone they perceive as a threat. The narrator comments, “They know I won’t take a baseball bat to them. I won’t lock them out. I won’t poison the garbage. I just want them to be happy” (21), insinuating that she is aware of the relationship, however she is cautious of the raccoons and that stops her from standing up to them. Stickle’s use of anthropomorphic animals is similar to the technique implored by George Orwell in Animal Farm. She uses a method commonly used in children’s stories to convey a lesson, using something that will keep kids interested and tailoring it for an adult audience. “Animal Party,” like the stories that precede it, creates a smooth transition, easing the audience into the fantastical shift that follows.

As the stories continue to grow more intense, Stickle treads farther away from the reality we know and more into the fantastical world she’s created. The stranger the story, the deeper the meaning behind it, as if trying to lure the reader to get to the lessons by presenting absurdities up front like the cute white rabbit that lured Alice down into Wonderland. Stickle writes of the extreme changes needed for girls to protect themselves in “I Told You I Would Take Your Hand.” She creates a world where girls grow sharp objects from their bodies during puberty as a way to defend themselves against unwanted advances from boys and men. In this story, a bit of power is given to the powerless, but despite being weapons, the girls in the town are still tested.

The tragic revelation is that it isn’t enough and men still try to touch the girls’ bodies, and they lose their hand as a result. The more hands that get chopped off, the sadder it gets because those represent the men “who thought they didn’t need permission” (28). When the first woman from that generation gives birth to a daughter who starts to grow blades while she’s teething instead of at puberty like the others, the mother is relieved because “it was never too early to start” (28). Stickle uses that last line to portray the cycle of assault that affects even infants. She uses this fantastical element to raise awareness of issues that are prevalent, but often overlooked.

Introducing a town of women with knives growing from their bodies is a great method to draw the readers in before hitting them with a lasting lesson. The impossible transformations the women go through to protect themselves and change their role in the world function as an escape and create the perfect illusion to keep the reader hooked. As Stickle takes us with her down the rabbit hole, dragging us into her world of oddities, it begins to feel like we belong. The strange elements in the stories aren’t out of place anymore because we’re able to feel the raw emotion on the page.

Chelsea Stickle doesn’t introduce new ideas in Everything’s Changing, she takes the stories we’ve heard, stories that a lot of women and girls can relate to, and uses ghost stories, magical realism, and a whole lot of weirdness to reintroduce them in unique ways. In doing so, she crafted a masterpiece that will leave readers hanging onto every word until the last page. Although women are at the forefront of each story, this chapbook appeals beyond that audience because at the core of these stories are people simply trying to survive, something to which we all can relate.

[Meg Tuite · Rating 5 out of 5]

the absurdity of existence is beautifully rendered in this wildass ride of a chapbook by Chelsea Stickle! The macro is a sheen of how we are beaten down as humans by family (belittled, told to shut up, disappear, etc.), existence, violence!
Here are some quotes:
"I'd been holding myself together with paperclips and a prayer for the last eight months."
"The rest of us know the rules: keep active and avoid the living you know."
"Stole and raised the chicks in cages where their songs were smothered for safety."
"I can't step out of my crevice without first smelling the lay of the land."

No where is safe! Especially our towns, homes.. GET A COPY! LOVE!

[Marina Pacheco · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous collection of flash fiction from an author with a strong and unique voice. Some of the stories are painful to read, some make you angry, all of them have a strong river of dark humour running underneath. I loved them all.

[Melissa Brownlee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous and surreal! Love this chapbook!