It’s been a while since I’ve read short stories, but I really felt like reading them again and Abby Geni was an obvious choice.

The Body Farm is her second short story collection, and like with her previous collection, The Last Animal, I did go into it with slightly false expectations. I always consider Geni as a nature writer and forget how she focuses specifically on human nature. The characters often work in natural sciences or just enjoy the outdoors, but it’s more like a backdrop instead of the actual topic.

The Body Farm, to my mind, has three main themes: our bodies and our families and how changes in our bodies affect our family members. Changes that might come with age or self-discovery for example. The title story really stood out for me (it’s about a woman who studies how bodies decompose while her wife’s stalker ex comes into the picture), but all of them are good - no huge disappointments here.