A Brief Reading discussion

Leave all your thoughts, feelings, and questions here!

Got the book yesterday (Thurs 5th) so immediately had to read the 1st story.
It's too early to have thoughts, feelings, questions, or opinions.
But it was good, and I'm now prepared for whatever Amelia throw's at me! :)

Hey everyone! We officially start discussing Gutshot this Sunday so I hope everyone participating has gotten a copy of the book. I think Amelia Gray's stories are all really short so that's something to think about as we go along.

What does short-form storytelling do that long-form storytelling doesn't?

Instead of focusing on wanting more, why did the stories end when they did and what did they accomplish in their short lives?

Did you care about the characters?

What ideas were focused on?

How do you feel about Gray's writing style?

Did you notice any connecting ideas or themes between the stories in the collection?

Favorite passages or stories?

What didn't work for you? What did work for you?

What were your expectations? Were they met?

Just some things to think about as you read along.

I'm up late - can't sleep. I just read the second story, 'House Heart', and now I'm just sitting here sort of flummoxed. I can already see that Gray very much likes exploring reality versus fantasy while grounding her stories in the physicality of being human.

I've just read the first three stories and yeah, flummoxed is a good word. There's an almost delerious edge to the stories, to me it feels like you're sorta held at a distance from the writing so they feel like fever dreams. I do read some pretty weird things at times but I am getting that "Am I missing something?" feeling at the moment!

Okay, I read about half of this book yesterday. I am finding that today, most of the stories have blurred into one for me. Maybe because I read them one after the other? I don't know. I feel the stories are not that distinct. They all seem to have a similar tone and voice. I am going to slow down with the remaining stories to see if that helps.

Meredith wrote: "Okay, I read about half of this book yesterday. I am finding that today, most of the stories have blurred into one for me. Maybe because I read them one after the other? I don't know. I feel the st..."

Slowing down is a good idea when that happens. We have plenty of time. I read the whole thing yesterday and sometimes felt the same way. But then sometimes a story would really standout - particularly in the middle. I do plan to reread some parts over the next couple of weeks. Re-reading stories out of order might be helpful as well since the stories are so, so short.

Thanks for the suggestion Brooke. Like I mentioned in the Welcome thread, I am new to short story collections. I am learning that I might need to approach these stories differently than I would a novel. Also, these stories are pretty weird. Not at all like what I typically read.

Meredith wrote: "Thanks for the suggestion Brooke. Like I mentioned in the Welcome thread, I am new to short story collections. I am learning that I might need to approach these stories differently than I would a n..."

They are very, very weird Meredith. Even for me!! I always tell people who are knew to the format that you can't try to make short stories into novels. That's not what they are and should be judged and read differently. It can be so hard though. Same with plays and comics and anything really.

I'm not sure I've ever read a collection quite like this one so we'll all get through it together. I know I'm going to have specific stories that I need everyone's help figuring out.

Hey all, so I've just read part 1. I'm thinking I'm going to read a part a day :)

They're very different to short stories I usually read for two reasons. 1. quite a lot of the stories are super short. 2. I tend to go for more descriptive, lyrical writing in short stories and Amelia Gray's writing style feels very blunt. In that respect they remind me a tad of Aimee Bender's short stories, but without the fantastical elements.

So far my fav story has been House Heart. It creeped me out and left me feeling all icky - which I think was the point. I think all the shorter stories have been pretty forgettable so far unfortunately though. So fingers crossed I like some more in part 2 :)

I read what I guess is part one of the book yesterday. I have to say that I'm confused. These stories are a bit out there and definitely weird. I'm trying to make sense of them, but I wonder how much real sense I'm supposed to actually get out of them. I mean I understand there is something to get out of each story, but I'm having trouble doing that. The story "House Heart" was particularly confusing for me. If anyone has suggestions on how to read these particular stories, please help me out.

Mercedes wrote: "So far my fav story has been House Heart. It creeped me out and left me feeling all icky - which I think was the point"

This story did creep me out, but I'm not sure I understood what Gray was saying. I'm just not sure what it was trying to convey.

To Mercedes - I think the beginning and end sections are the weakest. The middle had some excellent stories where she really embraced the idea of writing fables.

To Dawn - House Heart is definitely something we need to discuss. Mercedes talked about her blunt writing and how it's not lyrical in any real way. Her writing is so straight forward but her stories are so metaphorical which is an interesting combination. For me, House Heart worked as this weird nesting dolls story blurring the lines of reality and fantasy. So the man could leave the house (his box was the world), the woman partner was confined to the house, and then this new woman was confined to the air ducts. The man could go between all three spaces. Maybe there's something gender/sex related being commented on?

I found this idea from the HuffPost review particularly true of this collection:

'With these stories, Gray subverts the concept of a punch line.'

I've read the first two parts and I'm definitely on the confused bandwagon. I thought Monument was excellent. But most of the stories meanings are just totally lost on me, I think. I love fables though, so hopefully I'll get along better with part 3!

This maybe wasn't the best collection to start everyone off with - haha.

The more I think about House Heart, the more I like it. It made me feel uncomfortable but it was supposed to. I'm at the end of section three and I agree that so far section two and three have been better than one. I haven't been particularly drawn by too many of the shorter ones (I actually can't remember many) but I particularly liked 'A contest' amd 'Labyrinth'

Kelly wrote: "The more I think about House Heart, the more I like it. It made me feel uncomfortable but it was supposed to. I'm at the end of section three and I agree that so far section two and three have been..."

Labyrinth is one of my favorites, for sure.

Hey all, I haven't read much this week so only just finished part 2. I much much preferred this section :)

I will say I'm not good with blood/gore and so some of the stories left me feeling pretty queasy. But I still enjoyed the messages. I feel like lots of the characters are sociopaths - lots of abductions/murders seem to be going on, but in a really non obvious way. I feel like you could really simply describe a story like 'western passage' or 'away from', but the way the story itself is told and the way the characters act adds this sense of confusion and absurdity.

I really appreciate the sense of unease and uncomfortableness the stories give me as a reader :)

I found 'fifty ways to eat your lover' particularly gruesome but loved the way it came together at the end :)

Well. I've only read the first two stories so far and I'm really not sure what to make of them, so came here to see what you all were thinking. I see we're all kind of in the same boat! I like weirdness, but these two just left me thinking "wtf"! Maybe the more I reflect on them the more I'll get out of them. I'm intrigued to read more :)

Some of the stories gross me out as well. I LOVED 'fifty ways to eat your lover' so much. One of my favorites for sure - that ending is so great! Similarly, I loved the ending to 'labyrinth'. I need to revisit some of my other favorite stories since it's been a week or so since I finished.

Although I don't think this short story collection was for me, I did enjoy several of the stories. "Thank You" and "Legacy" were the two stories I liked the most. I have to admit many of the stories creeped/grossed me out. It's good that they brought out these feelings, but I just couldn't make much of them. I look forward to reading the next short story collection.

I just finished this collection and I feel similar to everyone else in that I felt like I didn't get everything out of the stories as I could have and I was very creeped out and grossed out throughout the whole book. However, I felt like this really challenged me as a reader and I was always curious to get to the next story. I would probably never recommend this to anyone but I'm glad I read it and I know I won't stop thinking about it for a very long time. A few of my favorites were Monument, Year of the Snake, and The Lives of Ghosts.

I've only read part 1 as my copy took ages to arrive. The only one I can distinctly remember was 'House Heart', it reminded me some of the Japanese fiction I've read in its strange, distanced depiction of this situation. I certainly thought it had to do with gender and not just the power that men have but the way that women subvert power over other women to satisfy the needs of the man. I also wondered whether it was about our acceptance of situations, each women is fairly compliant, yes the one in the duct shows some rebellion but she never attempts to escape. I'll get to the rest this week.

Well I'm finished, what a strange collection. I did like 'Labyrinth' and 'Year of the Snake' but the rest were just bizarre.

I finished this collection a few days ago and have been left with somewhat mixed feelings. Some of the stories were great but a lot of them just seemed like filler and were entirely forgettable. I think of this was reduced to half the length it would have been a much stronger collection.

My fav stories were:

House Heart
Western Passage
Fifty Ways to Eat Your Lover
Thank You
Legacy