Review: “Stuck”
A collection of short stories that touch on mental health issues — each with a twist
This was my fifty-first book I chose via the Reedsy Discovery program, for which I am the single approved reviewer for this new book. This review also appears on Reedsy.
If you’re interested in becoming a Reedsy reviewer (and have the chance to get paid “tips” to review books!) check it out here.
The Premise
This collection of fictional short stories focuses on women, and is centred around the theme of mental health. Issues include post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative identity disorder (or multiple personality disorder), prolonged grief disorder, insecurity, depression, and dementia.
The Pros & Cons
This was a collection of short stories that touch on mental health issues — each with a dark or poignant twist.
In the opening story “For Jesse“, we meet a young woman focused on enacting revenge for the murder of her friend. This was my favourite story, and the reason I chose the book (as it was the preview). I loved the style of writing that sets the reader in the scene with the character, the way her mind rolls back and forth between her friend’s death and her mother’s suffering, and her determination in conquering the monster — which was both literal and figurative.
“The Gift” deals with a young woman’s dissociative personality disorder that leads her to commit heinous acts under the guise — and protection — of her ‘guardian angel’, her alter ego that emerges as a response to abuse she suffered as a child. Though this was well-written with a good balance of coldheartedness and angst, I was hoping for a more original surprise or twist.
In “Delicious“, a teenage girl struggles with insecurity about her self-image and her sexuality after a homeless stranger flirts with her. I loved this story as well, as the dialogue with her aunt was heartwarming and brought the story to life. This one will resonate with many young women who often feel unsettled by the ‘male gaze’, which though thought to be innocuous when a comment is made in passing, it has a much deeper impact on one’s psyche.
In “Things, Remembered”, a young woman swirls into depression due to grief, but her twin sister comes to her rescue. Though I liked the message, as it ends on a somewhat ‘happy’ note, I felt it would have benefitted from being shorter and less detailed and repetitive, so as to retain more power by being succinct.
“Fixing Brandy” was expertly crafted to showcase a mother’s eternal regret that results in a psychotic break on her daughter’s birthday, and I really enjoyed this as well. The style shifts as the mother ricochets between what is real and not real in front of her, and the writer does a great job of reflecting this.
Finally, in “Home”, a bus ride takes a woman on a journey of memories that mesh together the past and present. As she feels strangely out of place with things she notices, as well as the behaviour of others, we soon realise that something is wrong with her perception. I enjoyed this as well, and was glad to see this as the closing bookend of the collection, as its warmth counterbalances the intensity of the opening bookend.
In terms of the collection as a whole, the stories work well together due to the unifying theme of mental health, and there is a distinctive flair in each. Some of them feature characters of colour, and I was excited to see this representation interwoven so effortlessly and beautifully — particularly in the dialogue in “Delicious” and references to historical markers (segregation) in “Home”.
The medium of short stories is constrictive in terms of what you can really do with character development, but the author did quite a lot despite that limitation, as we meet a lot of great characters in this collection that I would love to have kept on reading about! For instance, I felt like “Delicious” could have been a great basis to build a YA novel.
Conclusion
Overall, this was an enjoyable read — short and swift, but packing a powerful punch. I appreciated that each of these stories was engaging on its own merit, as well as forming part of a larger whole that addresses such an important topic: mental health. However with such a great theme to explore, I did wish at times for a bit more shock value or a darker twist in some stories to make it more memorable. Nevertheless, I think the writer has a lot of talent, and I would love to see what she can do with a longer collection — or even better: a novel-length’s worth — to fully bloom. I look forward to reading more of her work.
