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Gunflower
The startling and highly anticipated new short story collection from Arthur C. Clarke Award–winning author of The Animals in That Country . A family of cat farmers gets the chance to set the felines free. A group of chickens tells it like it is. A female-crewed ship plows through the patriarchy. A support group finds solace in a world without men. With her trademark humor, energy, and flair, McKay offers glimpses of places where dreams subsume reality, where childhood restarts, where humans embrace their animal selves and animals talk like humans. The stories in Gunflower explode and bloom in mesmerizing ways, showing the world both as it is and as it could be.
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 12, 2023
27 people are currently reading
625 people want to read
About the author
Laura Jean McKay
13 books168 followersLaura Jean McKay is the author of THE ANIMALS IN THAT COUNTRY (Scribe 2020), winner of The Arthur C Clarke Award, The Victorian Prize for Literature 2021, The Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction, the ABIA Small Publishers Adult Book of the Year and co-winner of an Aurealis Award 2021. The Animals in That Country was also shortlisted for The Stella Prize, The ASL Gold Medal, The Readings Prize and longlisted for The Miles Franklin. She is the author of HOLIDAY IN CAMBODIA (Black Inc 2013) and an adjunct lecturer in Creative Writing at Massey University. Laura's next collection GUNFLOWER will be released in 2023.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
July 14, 2024
“Real” is surely the most perfect short story ever written.
February 12, 2024
3.5 stars.Very original. A few of these stories were excellent. My favourite was Twenty Twenty.
October 5, 2023
Gunflower is a short story collection by Australian author Laura Jean McKay. Her previous book The Animals in That Country was shortlisted for the Stella Prize. Her writing in that book was something I enjoyed but the storyline of her novel didn’t quite gel with me. With this collection I felt much the same.
The collection is split into three parts – Birth, Life and Death. The stories were visceral and at times very confronting. Some of the stories had a real animal focus which I didn’t always vibe with. And there were some stories that I felt were just so weird and out there that I couldn’t work out what message was being conveyed. Others I enjoyed much more and in particular the titular story Gunflower which is about an all-female crewed ship which provides abortions in the safety of international waters. Another called Twenty Twenty (a very interesting take on the pandemic) made me suck in my breath with shock. I definitely felt like I enjoyed the stories that were more true to life than those that were fantastical and involved animals!
I can completely appreciate the quality of the author’s writing but I’m thinking that her books are just not 100% for me.
Thank you to @scribepub for my #gifted copy.
The collection is split into three parts – Birth, Life and Death. The stories were visceral and at times very confronting. Some of the stories had a real animal focus which I didn’t always vibe with. And there were some stories that I felt were just so weird and out there that I couldn’t work out what message was being conveyed. Others I enjoyed much more and in particular the titular story Gunflower which is about an all-female crewed ship which provides abortions in the safety of international waters. Another called Twenty Twenty (a very interesting take on the pandemic) made me suck in my breath with shock. I definitely felt like I enjoyed the stories that were more true to life than those that were fantastical and involved animals!
I can completely appreciate the quality of the author’s writing but I’m thinking that her books are just not 100% for me.
Thank you to @scribepub for my #gifted copy.
July 2, 2025
Wonderful collection of short stories - some only a handful of sentences, but still evocative in their own way. Agree with general consensus - Gunflower and Twenty Twenty the standouts that are still in the mind days later. Really enjoyed this.
December 27, 2023
Not all of these stories worked for me. But the ones that did. Wow.
February 17, 2024
Whoa.
That was sometimes powerful, often uncomfortable and always thought-provoking. I'll be thinking about some of these stories for a very long time ...
That was sometimes powerful, often uncomfortable and always thought-provoking. I'll be thinking about some of these stories for a very long time ...
September 26, 2023
“…it’s irrelevant. You don’t fight for something just because it’s personal.”
Gunflower features some of the most breathtakingly, visual prose I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. It is raw, visceral and extremely thought provoking. An experience that can be summed up in one word: ‘breathtaking’.
Each story cuts deep, right where it needs to. Every story made me THINK, and think hard. Some of the standouts for me were: Those Last Days of Summer, Nine Days, Smoko, Gunflower & King (though I loved them all). Each story works on its own, but together? It is a mind-melding experience that creates empathy, challenges your thinking and gives voices to the most unlikely.
I can’t recommend this one enough. Thank you so much to Scribe for the early copy, it was a privilege.
Gunflower features some of the most breathtakingly, visual prose I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. It is raw, visceral and extremely thought provoking. An experience that can be summed up in one word: ‘breathtaking’.
Each story cuts deep, right where it needs to. Every story made me THINK, and think hard. Some of the standouts for me were: Those Last Days of Summer, Nine Days, Smoko, Gunflower & King (though I loved them all). Each story works on its own, but together? It is a mind-melding experience that creates empathy, challenges your thinking and gives voices to the most unlikely.
I can’t recommend this one enough. Thank you so much to Scribe for the early copy, it was a privilege.
May 29, 2024
The titular story, Gunflower was excellent and by far my favourite.
The rest of the stories for me ranged from good but forgettable to absolute drivel.
I previously read the animals in that country by the same author, and felt so-so about it, but I think this confirms that I don't really get along with McKay's writing.
The rest of the stories for me ranged from good but forgettable to absolute drivel.
I previously read the animals in that country by the same author, and felt so-so about it, but I think this confirms that I don't really get along with McKay's writing.
November 13, 2023
I loved her writing style, but I couldn’t understand the point of half of these stories. The highest rated one was 3.5/5 while the others just left me completely unsatisfied.
April 25, 2024
A bit too abstract and vague for me, this book felt like a dark, muddled up fever dream - I could t connect to any of the stories and some I simply had no idea what was going on..
November 8, 2023
Talented author Laura Jean McKay stunned and polarised readers with her award-winning debut novel The Animals in that Country, so there has been great anticipation for her debut short story collection, Gunflower (Scribe 2023).
These stories will bemuse, confuse, and ignite the reader with possibility but never disappoint. In most, McKay writes in the real world but then suddenly tears into that actuality to expose a wormhole into a parallel universe – it is realism, but with something obviously ‘off’. Some stories are set in a time or space quite different to our own, where (perhaps in homage to her previous novel), animals and humans merge or speak the same language. Some of the stories are so short (a page) and obscure that the reader is encouraged to re-read many times to parse McKay’s meaning. The tales are often not linear or traditional storytelling but each is exquisitely rendered with not a single word wasted.
Each story has a subtle message that may not be obvious upon a first reading … some will leave readers wondering or questioning McKay’s intention. In this way, this is skilled literary work that is not straightforward; the stories are easy to read but harder to decipher. McKay respects the reader’s intelligence and asks them to do some heavy lifting if they are to get out of each story what she has cunningly and cleverly hidden or put in place. Gunflower tiptoes through normality, exposing rents in the space/time continuum.
The title story is the name of an abortion ship, a vessel that sails through international waters in dangerous times, assisting women to achieve what is illegal on land. In another story, McKay writes of cat farmers. Her themes include medical issues/illnesses, loneliness, the dark of night, anthropomorphism, existentialism, being in the spotlight, work, relationships, climate change, social issues, politics and activism. One of my favourites is Less; I adore the first line: ‘Shannon had completely forgotten to have children, and it was so embarrassing.’ Another favourite is Getaways, a brief, darkly comic portrayal of a woman’s inner life. I also love the chilling finality of A Sensation of Whirling and a Loss of Balance. Territory is a bleak, gritty and visceral take on wild pig-hunting. I admire the poignancy of Twenty Twenty, and some of the other stories with a slightly dystopian feel. The fine line between dementia and weird realism is explored in The Two O’Clock. Some of the stories seem to be prompted by a random sign or sight or incident that McKay has closely but casually observed and then written into a wholly imagined situation, complete with characters and backstory.
The stories are loosely grouped into three sections: Birth, Life and Death, with each containing subject matter tangentially (or sometimes directly) related to that particular lifecycle stage. McKay is unafraid to tackle matters that are ugly, uncomfortable, shocking; subjects that ask the reader to question their own morality. She also writes ephemeral, gentle and tender stories that beg to be read again just for their beauty.
But whatever the varied content, each story is a complete and fully formed tale, executed with skill and care. Some leave the reader satisfied but most remain unresolved, a story that encourages the reader to wonder what came before the first line, and what happened after the last line. The very best kind of stories, that keep us thinking and are merely a springboard from which we jump into an endless pool of infinite possibility.
These stories will bemuse, confuse, and ignite the reader with possibility but never disappoint. In most, McKay writes in the real world but then suddenly tears into that actuality to expose a wormhole into a parallel universe – it is realism, but with something obviously ‘off’. Some stories are set in a time or space quite different to our own, where (perhaps in homage to her previous novel), animals and humans merge or speak the same language. Some of the stories are so short (a page) and obscure that the reader is encouraged to re-read many times to parse McKay’s meaning. The tales are often not linear or traditional storytelling but each is exquisitely rendered with not a single word wasted.
Each story has a subtle message that may not be obvious upon a first reading … some will leave readers wondering or questioning McKay’s intention. In this way, this is skilled literary work that is not straightforward; the stories are easy to read but harder to decipher. McKay respects the reader’s intelligence and asks them to do some heavy lifting if they are to get out of each story what she has cunningly and cleverly hidden or put in place. Gunflower tiptoes through normality, exposing rents in the space/time continuum.
The title story is the name of an abortion ship, a vessel that sails through international waters in dangerous times, assisting women to achieve what is illegal on land. In another story, McKay writes of cat farmers. Her themes include medical issues/illnesses, loneliness, the dark of night, anthropomorphism, existentialism, being in the spotlight, work, relationships, climate change, social issues, politics and activism. One of my favourites is Less; I adore the first line: ‘Shannon had completely forgotten to have children, and it was so embarrassing.’ Another favourite is Getaways, a brief, darkly comic portrayal of a woman’s inner life. I also love the chilling finality of A Sensation of Whirling and a Loss of Balance. Territory is a bleak, gritty and visceral take on wild pig-hunting. I admire the poignancy of Twenty Twenty, and some of the other stories with a slightly dystopian feel. The fine line between dementia and weird realism is explored in The Two O’Clock. Some of the stories seem to be prompted by a random sign or sight or incident that McKay has closely but casually observed and then written into a wholly imagined situation, complete with characters and backstory.
The stories are loosely grouped into three sections: Birth, Life and Death, with each containing subject matter tangentially (or sometimes directly) related to that particular lifecycle stage. McKay is unafraid to tackle matters that are ugly, uncomfortable, shocking; subjects that ask the reader to question their own morality. She also writes ephemeral, gentle and tender stories that beg to be read again just for their beauty.
But whatever the varied content, each story is a complete and fully formed tale, executed with skill and care. Some leave the reader satisfied but most remain unresolved, a story that encourages the reader to wonder what came before the first line, and what happened after the last line. The very best kind of stories, that keep us thinking and are merely a springboard from which we jump into an endless pool of infinite possibility.
July 14, 2024
There is something highly experimental and worthwhile about the depths McKay is willing to trawl for her work. Would give my left leg to write like her!
Even the concepts she explores that have been so well-trodden by others are approached in incredibly fresh, skewed visions. Flying Rods is a perfect example, drawing both on the classic Metamorphosis while also allowing the narrator to physically inhabit the insect she's turning into. (also reminded me of the short story "Mantis" by Julia Armfield).
The vignette stories were the biggest delight of the collection, and can't wait to use them in a classroom in the future, to show how much can be packed into half a page of writing. Real packed a punch with me particularly. Take down the real estate men!
Nine Days feels like it's going to find a place amongst my favourite short stories of all time. Hope is completely sucked out of you quickly after the beautiful opener, and for a gothic fan like myself, it's ripe with blood and isolation.
Territory I was surprised to like this one so much. Pig hunting is a world I genuinely do not understand despite the need for hunting wild boar. It's such a violent, hairy world that I only know of tangentially because of my ex-family in law, hyper-gendered, and leaves with an also-gothic ending of implied violence. Crackingly accurate capture of dialogue. Achingly wonderful reference to Bacon Babes magazine.
I loved returning to the contents page once I'd finished, puzzling how to fit the stories into their defined sections: birth, life and death. Every piece in itself is a puzzler, posing more questions than the stories answer, no didactic narratives, fragments caught of entirely-realised mythical and allegorical worlds. Animals in literature is one of my favourite things to explore, and McKay is the reigning monarch in the Antipodes of how to do that with complexity.
"Now feathers stick to the bird blood and my blood and to the milk - a new white blood. They gave me am ice pack for the stitches that I forget to change."
"A few dry times ago there was a fire and you could hear the screaming... Then I smelled the fear, and I heard the fear, and I saw the fear coming down like hot orange rain. Over the ridge the sky was filled with screaming, and then the sky was filled with a silence I never want to hear again."
Even the concepts she explores that have been so well-trodden by others are approached in incredibly fresh, skewed visions. Flying Rods is a perfect example, drawing both on the classic Metamorphosis while also allowing the narrator to physically inhabit the insect she's turning into. (also reminded me of the short story "Mantis" by Julia Armfield).
The vignette stories were the biggest delight of the collection, and can't wait to use them in a classroom in the future, to show how much can be packed into half a page of writing. Real packed a punch with me particularly. Take down the real estate men!
Nine Days feels like it's going to find a place amongst my favourite short stories of all time. Hope is completely sucked out of you quickly after the beautiful opener, and for a gothic fan like myself, it's ripe with blood and isolation.
Territory I was surprised to like this one so much. Pig hunting is a world I genuinely do not understand despite the need for hunting wild boar. It's such a violent, hairy world that I only know of tangentially because of my ex-family in law, hyper-gendered, and leaves with an also-gothic ending of implied violence. Crackingly accurate capture of dialogue. Achingly wonderful reference to Bacon Babes magazine.
I loved returning to the contents page once I'd finished, puzzling how to fit the stories into their defined sections: birth, life and death. Every piece in itself is a puzzler, posing more questions than the stories answer, no didactic narratives, fragments caught of entirely-realised mythical and allegorical worlds. Animals in literature is one of my favourite things to explore, and McKay is the reigning monarch in the Antipodes of how to do that with complexity.
"Now feathers stick to the bird blood and my blood and to the milk - a new white blood. They gave me am ice pack for the stitches that I forget to change."
"A few dry times ago there was a fire and you could hear the screaming... Then I smelled the fear, and I heard the fear, and I saw the fear coming down like hot orange rain. Over the ridge the sky was filled with screaming, and then the sky was filled with a silence I never want to hear again."
January 12, 2024
Clever, jolting and altogether quite unique. Laura Jean McKay writes on another level of unusual. A certain maturity is needed to feel the strength and hypnotic power of the ‘Gunflower’ short stories. It’s not what’s written which holds the key. It’s the subtext and intertextuality which means there is more than meets the reader’s eye. These short stories transcend the written words so that my own reminiscences began to colour the pages. I squirmed, I laughed, I cried and most of all I realised where the author was coming from with each character or creature, for better or worse. As I read I remembered a person I knew just like one of the deli characters Joni in ‘Smoko’ but then grasped that I didn’t know the real person at all until the character showed me their inner strength. Grouped under three headings Birth Life Death, don’t let the idyllic pastoral cover fool you.
Written with a keen eye, read ‘Last Days of Summer’ or ‘Getaways’ and try not to shiver with guilt. Some tales are one page length, memorably short and punchy. One revolves around grandpa snoring. Perhaps the longest story is ‘Gunflower’, a powerful premise on abortion. This book may not appeal to the mass market and I bet readers will have different opinions on what ‘Site’ is all about. Also, booklovers often have a conservative bent when it comes to communicating with pets and animals, we tend to shy away like skittish horses but I think it has its place in this book. Brace yourself, McKay’s novel ‘The Animals In That Country’ seems restrained in comparison. I do wonder if short story collections are the ones which never flourish into fully fledged books. But hey, these are gems, many authors never get this far. Keep it different, Laura, keep shaking it up.
Written with a keen eye, read ‘Last Days of Summer’ or ‘Getaways’ and try not to shiver with guilt. Some tales are one page length, memorably short and punchy. One revolves around grandpa snoring. Perhaps the longest story is ‘Gunflower’, a powerful premise on abortion. This book may not appeal to the mass market and I bet readers will have different opinions on what ‘Site’ is all about. Also, booklovers often have a conservative bent when it comes to communicating with pets and animals, we tend to shy away like skittish horses but I think it has its place in this book. Brace yourself, McKay’s novel ‘The Animals In That Country’ seems restrained in comparison. I do wonder if short story collections are the ones which never flourish into fully fledged books. But hey, these are gems, many authors never get this far. Keep it different, Laura, keep shaking it up.
July 31, 2023
An eclectic and engaging book of short stories from an award-winning Australian author.
This was a fantastic collection where each new tale varied wildly in tone, length, and subject while still feeling cohesive together. Each story is a fragmented moment in time, centred on relationships – relationships with ourselves and with each other, and the relationship between humans and animals. This later theme is a particular focus – many of the stories are from the point of view of an animal or are a subversion of our real-world connection to different animals, as in one story where sheep are kept as pets while cats are caged and bred for their fur.
The tales range from surrealist horror – telekinetic rocks, or a woman undergoing a Kafkaesque metamorphosis while her boyfriend jealously whinges about her ex – to dramedy slices of life, as in one tale where a woman attempts to rally her colleagues against management’s banning of “smoko”. There are also stories whose satirical edge hits very close to home. In one, a woman tries desperately to remain positive after moving her family to the seaside during the Victorian state Covid lockdowns. In another, a couple search out a boat floating in international waters off the US coast in order to procure an abortion, a five-minutes-in-the-future horror story that feels like it could be ripped straight from the headlines.
This is an incredibly moving, thoughtful, disturbing, and occasionally hilarious collection that will be a perfect atmospheric addition to spooky season reading when it is released in October. Thank you to Scribe for the advanced review copy.
This was a fantastic collection where each new tale varied wildly in tone, length, and subject while still feeling cohesive together. Each story is a fragmented moment in time, centred on relationships – relationships with ourselves and with each other, and the relationship between humans and animals. This later theme is a particular focus – many of the stories are from the point of view of an animal or are a subversion of our real-world connection to different animals, as in one story where sheep are kept as pets while cats are caged and bred for their fur.
The tales range from surrealist horror – telekinetic rocks, or a woman undergoing a Kafkaesque metamorphosis while her boyfriend jealously whinges about her ex – to dramedy slices of life, as in one tale where a woman attempts to rally her colleagues against management’s banning of “smoko”. There are also stories whose satirical edge hits very close to home. In one, a woman tries desperately to remain positive after moving her family to the seaside during the Victorian state Covid lockdowns. In another, a couple search out a boat floating in international waters off the US coast in order to procure an abortion, a five-minutes-in-the-future horror story that feels like it could be ripped straight from the headlines.
This is an incredibly moving, thoughtful, disturbing, and occasionally hilarious collection that will be a perfect atmospheric addition to spooky season reading when it is released in October. Thank you to Scribe for the advanced review copy.
October 16, 2023
‘Gunflower’ is the much anticipated follow up to the Arthur C. Clarke award winning novel ‘The Animals in that Country’. A fast paced collection of short stories, mostly of the speculative fiction variety. By turns dark, challenging, brutal, surreal, disturbing, and funny.
Several of these stories are particularly tough going. Occasionally it forays into almost stomach turning grotesque, creating a horrifyingly unique and tough experience (I’m looking at you ‘Porthole’). Readers who have emotional triggers should definitely seek out warnings before reading this, as some of the subject matter can only be described as heart wrenching.
Broken down into three sections - ‘Birth’, ‘Life’, and ‘Death’ - each section consists of 8 or 9 short stories. I’m not sure that having the stories broken into these sections added much. If anything, it was detrimental. It gave me pre-conceived expectations in each section. Also, this book has 25 stories in less than 250 pages. This rapid fire approach meant that many of the stories blended together in my head, blunting their impact.
‘Cats at the Fire Front’ is a bold opener to this collection, a tale set on a cat farm that really sets the tone for what to expect. However, the real standout story here is the one that shares its name with the book, ‘Gunflower’. It is a powerful and thoughtful concept about access to abortion health care. That perfect type of speculative fiction that is just over the border from present day, and all the more alarming for it. It contains shades of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ in it’s subject matter and style. However, ‘Gunflower’ is also its own story and it is unforgettable. This is where McKay is best, using her stories to challenge societal norms by upending our expectations.
Overall, this is an unbalanced collection that could probably do with less stories. However, McKay’s voice is sharp and bold, and there are stories within it that will haunt you in their wake.
Several of these stories are particularly tough going. Occasionally it forays into almost stomach turning grotesque, creating a horrifyingly unique and tough experience (I’m looking at you ‘Porthole’). Readers who have emotional triggers should definitely seek out warnings before reading this, as some of the subject matter can only be described as heart wrenching.
Broken down into three sections - ‘Birth’, ‘Life’, and ‘Death’ - each section consists of 8 or 9 short stories. I’m not sure that having the stories broken into these sections added much. If anything, it was detrimental. It gave me pre-conceived expectations in each section. Also, this book has 25 stories in less than 250 pages. This rapid fire approach meant that many of the stories blended together in my head, blunting their impact.
‘Cats at the Fire Front’ is a bold opener to this collection, a tale set on a cat farm that really sets the tone for what to expect. However, the real standout story here is the one that shares its name with the book, ‘Gunflower’. It is a powerful and thoughtful concept about access to abortion health care. That perfect type of speculative fiction that is just over the border from present day, and all the more alarming for it. It contains shades of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ in it’s subject matter and style. However, ‘Gunflower’ is also its own story and it is unforgettable. This is where McKay is best, using her stories to challenge societal norms by upending our expectations.
Overall, this is an unbalanced collection that could probably do with less stories. However, McKay’s voice is sharp and bold, and there are stories within it that will haunt you in their wake.
November 21, 2023
I absolutely loved McKay's earlier novel, The Animals in that Country, so when I heard from her that she had a short story collection coming out soon, I knew I had to read it. So glad I did! Not all of the stories here are speculative, and one of my favourite general pieces revolves around organising smoko break in a supermarket, but they're all this uneasy, often bleak contemporary view of mostly-Australia. Some of them, like the cat farm story, make me flinch a little to read, but like Animals these stories aren't meant to be comfortable reading.
On balance, without the title story, I might have given this four stars. "Gunflower," however. Let me tell you about "Gunflower." It's freaking outstanding, and all I could think when I read it was "I wish I'd written this!" It's a not-Australia story, as sometime off the coast of near-future America, an abortion ship waits, in international waters, to provide services to women after their awful government fails them yet again. Joan, newly pregnant and not at all happy about it, has other options available to her but chooses what's essentially the "abortion without borders" ship, hoping to be able to share her experiences with other women afterwards. Everything seems to be going well, until the story takes a weird turn into the speculative, and it's so ambiguous, and so absent of conclusion, that the whole thing is just fascinating. I love it.
It's one of those stories I'm going to end up reading over and over again, I know it.
On balance, without the title story, I might have given this four stars. "Gunflower," however. Let me tell you about "Gunflower." It's freaking outstanding, and all I could think when I read it was "I wish I'd written this!" It's a not-Australia story, as sometime off the coast of near-future America, an abortion ship waits, in international waters, to provide services to women after their awful government fails them yet again. Joan, newly pregnant and not at all happy about it, has other options available to her but chooses what's essentially the "abortion without borders" ship, hoping to be able to share her experiences with other women afterwards. Everything seems to be going well, until the story takes a weird turn into the speculative, and it's so ambiguous, and so absent of conclusion, that the whole thing is just fascinating. I love it.
It's one of those stories I'm going to end up reading over and over again, I know it.
March 23, 2024
How do you even rate short story collections??
I was pleasantly surprised by Laura Jean McKay's collection after struggling with her debut (which I would like to revisit after a much more academic friend broke down the thesis behind the book) specifically due to the writing style. In this collection you get to see more variety as the author experiments with different styles, genres and perspectives. Some stories were grounded in reality (Twenty Twenty, Smoko) while some were set in a speculative future (Gunflower, Cats At The Firefront) and some were wildly outlandish and unspeakably bizarre (including Flying Rods, my favourite of the bunch; it reminded me of Our Wives Under the Sea in it's exploration of metamorphosis and body horror, and felt like it went the brutal place I wanted The Animals In That Country to go).
While not every story stuck with me, the ones mentioned above definitely left their mark, especially the titular Gunflower, which reflected on the (abominable) decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in the US with a unique perspective and setting. The audiobook was a great way of experiencing these stories with a solid narrator who understood the assignment with every shift in genre and tone.
I was pleasantly surprised by Laura Jean McKay's collection after struggling with her debut (which I would like to revisit after a much more academic friend broke down the thesis behind the book) specifically due to the writing style. In this collection you get to see more variety as the author experiments with different styles, genres and perspectives. Some stories were grounded in reality (Twenty Twenty, Smoko) while some were set in a speculative future (Gunflower, Cats At The Firefront) and some were wildly outlandish and unspeakably bizarre (including Flying Rods, my favourite of the bunch; it reminded me of Our Wives Under the Sea in it's exploration of metamorphosis and body horror, and felt like it went the brutal place I wanted The Animals In That Country to go).
While not every story stuck with me, the ones mentioned above definitely left their mark, especially the titular Gunflower, which reflected on the (abominable) decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in the US with a unique perspective and setting. The audiobook was a great way of experiencing these stories with a solid narrator who understood the assignment with every shift in genre and tone.
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November 21, 2024A strange collection of stories with sharp characters, “Gunflower” by Laura Jean McKay is divided into three sections - Birth, Life and Death. The stories transport you right in the middle of peculiar settings, lives of people or landscapes in which it’s hard to find your north. Some of the more memorable stories are, for me:
Cats at the Fire Front - for how it’s set in an alternate world in which cats are farmed for fur
Come and See it all the Way from Town - without spoiling it too much, it’s about nonhuman, non-alive, indigenous knowledges
Those Last Days of Summer - for the way it transports the reader into a life completely unfamiliar, yet somehow, subconsciously, known, and for its first sentence “That summer stretched yearlong, and we were always giving birth.”
Gunflower - for how it deals with the politicized subject of abortion through an eerie setting on the sea
Raging - for putting one big complex emotion into a few pages story
Territory - for how it reveals the gendered dynamics of hunting animals
McKay’s unique voice shimmers through the dark cracks of these stories which are not always easy to read or understand, but always leave you with a shadow of a question in the back of your mind.
Cats at the Fire Front - for how it’s set in an alternate world in which cats are farmed for fur
Come and See it all the Way from Town - without spoiling it too much, it’s about nonhuman, non-alive, indigenous knowledges
Those Last Days of Summer - for the way it transports the reader into a life completely unfamiliar, yet somehow, subconsciously, known, and for its first sentence “That summer stretched yearlong, and we were always giving birth.”
Gunflower - for how it deals with the politicized subject of abortion through an eerie setting on the sea
Raging - for putting one big complex emotion into a few pages story
Territory - for how it reveals the gendered dynamics of hunting animals
McKay’s unique voice shimmers through the dark cracks of these stories which are not always easy to read or understand, but always leave you with a shadow of a question in the back of your mind.
April 29, 2024
I put this one on reserve at the local library based on the glowing review in 'The Age'. I found it a little underwhelming, with the obscure outnumbering the startling.
It is a indeed a varied collection of short stories, grouped into the themes of Birth, Life and Death. Some of the stories are very short and sharp and done in a page or two. Others spool out in a more leisurely manner. The titular 'Gunflower' tells of a ship providing abortion services to the women of an increasingly dystopian USA. There is the rather jejune inversion of our choice in pets is exlpored in 'Cats on the Fire Front'. Similarly unsubtle is 'The Last Days of Summer', told by a battery hen.
My favourite was 'Smoko' about the protagonists ill-fated industrial campaign in favour of the right to kil yourself on the job with cigarettes! Also worth the time is the chilling 'Twenty Twenty' which comes to you right from the heart of the right-wing nutjob Antovaxxer ecosystem.
It is a indeed a varied collection of short stories, grouped into the themes of Birth, Life and Death. Some of the stories are very short and sharp and done in a page or two. Others spool out in a more leisurely manner. The titular 'Gunflower' tells of a ship providing abortion services to the women of an increasingly dystopian USA. There is the rather jejune inversion of our choice in pets is exlpored in 'Cats on the Fire Front'. Similarly unsubtle is 'The Last Days of Summer', told by a battery hen.
My favourite was 'Smoko' about the protagonists ill-fated industrial campaign in favour of the right to kil yourself on the job with cigarettes! Also worth the time is the chilling 'Twenty Twenty' which comes to you right from the heart of the right-wing nutjob Antovaxxer ecosystem.
July 2, 2024
I love immersing myself in Laura's world view, even when I don't gel with the story she's putting forward. There are stories full of narrative brilliance here, Gunflower and Twenty Twenty are as great as anything Laura has written, but - as with most short story collections - there's a fair few stories that struggle to leave a mark.
This is in part due to Laura's writing style, a form that occasionally slips into the realm of fever dream or amplified and layered metaphors. Things carry multiple meanings, and in doing so, the reality of the narrative can sometimes become muddled, making it difficult to conceptualise what you're reading.
Still, this is a powerful journey through the fractured world we live in, and Laura manages to examine the residue of covid, climate change, the death of Roe v Wade, colonisation, brutal masculinity, and the dissolution of family, among other narrative threads, in a unique and frequently invigorating manner.
This is in part due to Laura's writing style, a form that occasionally slips into the realm of fever dream or amplified and layered metaphors. Things carry multiple meanings, and in doing so, the reality of the narrative can sometimes become muddled, making it difficult to conceptualise what you're reading.
Still, this is a powerful journey through the fractured world we live in, and Laura manages to examine the residue of covid, climate change, the death of Roe v Wade, colonisation, brutal masculinity, and the dissolution of family, among other narrative threads, in a unique and frequently invigorating manner.
July 8, 2025
I only read “Gunflower” and “Twenty Twenty” before giving up. Those were the most popular stories from this collection here on Goodreads—the most recommended in reviews. I truly hated them. I tried to get through some other stories and couldn’t. I’m so disappointed with what passes as literature anymore. Everyone trying so hard to be clever while the art of storytelling is dead. I 100% blame English degrees for this.
As the song goes… “And the people in the houses
All went to the university
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same”
People need to decide: am I an artist, or an editor? You can’t be an artist who studies how to critique and how to edit. Your brain won’t remember what it means to be creative once it’s trained to analyze texts. We are living in a time where I hate most published books, and books used to bring me more joy than anything else, so I hate this timeline.
As the song goes… “And the people in the houses
All went to the university
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same”
People need to decide: am I an artist, or an editor? You can’t be an artist who studies how to critique and how to edit. Your brain won’t remember what it means to be creative once it’s trained to analyze texts. We are living in a time where I hate most published books, and books used to bring me more joy than anything else, so I hate this timeline.
March 2, 2024
There is discordance in McKay's writing which unsettles. Eerie things happen. People, continents disappear. Rocks mutter. Cats are farmed and chickens cuddled. She draws meaning out of the everyday, but it is not quite *our* everyday, but a world slightly off kilter from the familiar. In a book of short stories, this discordance starts to feel repetitious, weakening some of the power of McKay's prose. I found myself drawn to some of the more *straight* pieces, especially Smoko and Lightning Man which both deal with working life and the anxieties of insecure workers. The titular Gunflower is also excellent, as is the delightfully askew Cats at the Firefront - these longer pieces allow McKay to flex her considerable characterisation muscles. I'm not sure McKay will ever be a writer I love or a writer I am content not to read. There is something compelling in the unsettling
October 13, 2023
This is a heavy book. This is a book with some heavy subjects in it. This is a book that really makes you think. I really like short story compilations and overall I did enjoy this one, however this is definitely not a book for those of a delicate constitution because it has stories about animals, politics and human nature that could be upsetting to some. I can’t say that me and the author would agree on certain things but it did bring up points of view that made me take pause. I can’t say I was expecting the weight that this book put upon me but it did take me on a journey! While some stories within really did get my brain working, sadly some of them made no sense and went nowhere for me so it was a little hit and miss!
December 1, 2023
I'm growing to love having a short story collection on the go at the same time as other books. It's a great way to dip in and out of an author's work, and to get something snappy and short in if you don't have time to sit and read for the whole evening.
This is an eclectic mix of pure literature fiction, science fiction, science related fiction and just general human interest stories. I really enjoyed taking my time over it, as well as an opportunity to meet the author at an event at my local bookshop!
This is an eclectic mix of pure literature fiction, science fiction, science related fiction and just general human interest stories. I really enjoyed taking my time over it, as well as an opportunity to meet the author at an event at my local bookshop!
September 20, 2025
A collection of stories of dystopian moments, strangeness, and overall, longing.
The title story is the highlight, as a ship crewed by women sails in International waters to provide medical abortions to women who live in states where they cannot access such safe healthcare. An examination of a world too real for many, especially the so called "land of the free".
Many stories I was completely lost by. Some so short, it's over before I knew what was happening. Only a few I was completely engaged with, sadly.
The title story is the highlight, as a ship crewed by women sails in International waters to provide medical abortions to women who live in states where they cannot access such safe healthcare. An examination of a world too real for many, especially the so called "land of the free".
Many stories I was completely lost by. Some so short, it's over before I knew what was happening. Only a few I was completely engaged with, sadly.
January 18, 2024
Disclaimer: Laura is a friend of mine.
This is a fantastic, at times confronting, but always exceptional collection of short stories from Laura Jean McKay. Laura is well known for the way she writes about the more than human, but I adore the way she writes people. She creates imperfect characters with compassion, giving them dignity in a world that is so tremendously flawed. Take your time to read this. It can’t be rushed.
This is a fantastic, at times confronting, but always exceptional collection of short stories from Laura Jean McKay. Laura is well known for the way she writes about the more than human, but I adore the way she writes people. She creates imperfect characters with compassion, giving them dignity in a world that is so tremendously flawed. Take your time to read this. It can’t be rushed.
April 1, 2025
An imbalanced yet intriguing collection of stories. The Australian author continues to explore the world of animals and in particular their motivations and how we coexist alongside them. She utilises a range of narrative styles and various lengths to keep the reader ponderous. The shorter stories are flummoxing while the much longer tales are brilliant.
September 12, 2023
Each piece in this collection had something to say, whether through the eyes of humans or animals it spoke to something more using varying tones and length. Stand out pieces for me were ‘Nine Days’, ‘Site’ and ‘The Two O’Clock’.
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