A review by readundancies
Out There by Kate Folk

dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Snippets from my brain as I was reading this short story collection, in the order I read them (which was not chronological because I'm a chaotic mood reader):

The Last Woman on Earth: 4.25/5
  • Intentionally enraging and infuriating, this succeeds so well at what it sets out to do.
  • For 5 pages, it really is the perfect length. It accomplishes what it wants to do with a set number of words. No more, no less.
  • Would love a companion piece with the inverse to see if anything would change with women outlasting men. 

The Void Wife: 3.5/5
  • It feels a lot like the void exists because a woman gives pieces of herself away to every person in her life until there’s nothing but a void left in the vessel that is her body.
  • I didn’t love this, mostly because the ending was a bit disillusioning in that Elise doesn’t obtain the solitude with which she’s craving.
  • And fuck Robert.

Shelter: 4.5/5 
  • I really loved how fucked up this ended, and how oblique it was intentionally constructed. 
  • The trope subversion had me gasping aloud in delight and disbelief which is a winner in my book.
  • There’s a bit of a theme I’m getting out of these stories so far and how the men are portrayed, and I gotta say, I’m digging it. Not in a misanthropic manner, but in awe of how cohesive and fluid it is. 

The Bone Ward: 4.5/5
  •  The overarching theme of disparity between man and woman in these stories is strong and it’s handled in a very effective way. Because both men and women are unlikable in these stories more often than not, but I truly dislike or rather loathe the portrayals of men over the women.
  • This is my brand of fucked up kinda story - from the premise, to the envy, to the unfulfilling ending - the only thing that could’ve made it better was if there was a vengeance plot-line tacked on that ends with Olivia and Gumdrop alive and tethered in some sort of emotional bond.
  • Full circle vibes that end up in abandonment, I really wish this story was extended into a short novella where female rage and revenge were at the forefront. 

The House’s Beating Heart: 3/5 
  • There is something awfully cannibal-adjacent to this.
  • The plot is not much of a plot, which makes the story less of a story and more of an exploration of setting if anything.
  • I still liked it and the sort of self-imposed destruction of humanity theme that’s going on, but there’s not really a lot happening to judge. 

A Scale Model of Gull Point: 3.25/5
  • A really interesting premise that devolves into a tale of obsession. 
  • Not really sure about messaging; it’s more introspective than punchy and I don’t particularly resonate with Shel, the narrator.
  • It’s merely fine.

The Head in the Floor: 4/5
  • It's wild how so much absurdity can come out of 5 pages
  • I really liked this - it was weird, sharp with jagged edges in its self-loathing and left me eeling exhausted at the notion of two people coexisting without an actual relationship, just going through the motions
  • I did want the head to rise up to mouth level so we could have it speak, but also understand how that might've changed the essence of the story, and I have no idea what the head would even say

 
Heart Seeks Brain: 5/5
  • Oh I loved this is in all of its morbidly twisted horror show starring the anatomy of the human body.
  • It was a genuinely fantastic satire of the dating scene and the commodification of women's beauty with a beautiful subversion.
  • Definitely one of my favourites of the collection so far, this one packs a punch for how brief it is.
 
The Turkey Rumble: 4.25/5
  • Definitely feels like it’s Get Out-adjacent, but without the racial implications.
  • The subversion at the end came as a bit of a surprise, but I didn’t hate it.
  • I had this sense of mounting dread until the end which was I was not anticipating but was fully into because it was sudden and well cultivated over such a small page count.

 
Tahoe: 3.25/5
  • Easily the most confusing story I’ve read in a while; to say the narrator is unreliable would be a massive understatement. 
  • I have so many questions, but all of them stem from the matter of our narrator being the one who flips his ATV over on top of himself? Like, that is a question upon which many other questions shall be based upon.
  • I think the brevity works in that it was easy enough to read length-wise despite channeling a lot of challenging nonsense that felt repetitively more annoying the further I got into the tale. And it’s not even that it’s bad, it’s just that it makes absolutely no sense.

Doe Eyes: 4.5/5
  • This one was so good. The title in conjunction with the last couple lines of the story just hits so damn good.
  • Really interesting premise that cycles through predator to prey to hunter and then hunted in such an effective manner.
  • But my word is the narrator problematic and messy in the best kinda way - it’s giving the madwoman trope which is one of my favourites alongside a twisted sort of vendetta that’s not exactly validating with respect to appropriate grievances with which one could and should retaliate.
 
The Moist House: 3.25/5
  • This was a kinda strange haunted house sort of trope subversion, and was weird in a creepy sexually charged way.
  • We knew that Karl was never going to leave the house pretty early on once he assumed the role of tenant and caretaker, and he pretty much Hotel California’d his way to death, but it was still interesting tale.
  • Not sure what to make of the 3 Ghosts of Karl’s Past visiting but they pretty much verified to me that not a single character in the story was likeable.
 
Big Sur: 4.75/5
  • I’m at a bit of a loss for words with this story. I went on such a journey emotionally - from hating Roger with a passion to the point where I was nauseated by him, to slowly becoming attuned to him and what he was doing for Meg to even get a bit upset at his inevitable end.
  • This is somewhere along the intersection of Her meets Don’t Worry Darling with a slew of other little idiosyncratic AI stories, but it does really put things into perspective with the current state of AI in todays society and I’m left both humbled and terrified by the concept.
  • The tie-in to the first story though? Perfection. It was a prequel and sequel and companion piece all at the same time, and I think it’s gonna sit with me for entirely too long. 

Dating a Somnambulist: 3.75/5
  • I don't want to compare the sleepwalking boyfriend to a cat, BUT... we can all see the similarities, right?
  • Really liked the multi-universe aspect and how it paints the relationship for more than just settling, it's about acceptance.
  • Not the punchiest way to end the collection, but I still quite enjoyed this one.

All in all, a fantastic short story collection. I thought it was brilliant in all of it's morbid strangeness, it reads kind of like what would happen if one extrapolates their intrusive thoughts, and I'm totally here for it.