I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Rainbow Rainbow by Lydia Conklin Published by Catapult on May 31, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Coming of Age, Fiction / LGBTQ+ / General, Fiction / Short Stories (single author)
Pages: 256
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: Netgalley
A fearless collection of stories that celebrate the humor, darkness, and depth of emotion of the queer and trans experience that's not typically represented: liminal or uncertain identities, queer conception, and queer joy
In this exuberant, prize-winning collection, queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming characters seek love and connection in hilarious and heartrending stories that reflect the complexity of our current moment.
A nonbinary writer on the eve of top surgery enters into a risky affair during the height of COVID. A lesbian couple enlists a close friend as a sperm donor, plying him with a potent rainbow-colored cocktail. A lonely office worker struggling with their gender identity chaperones their nephew to a trans YouTube convention. And in the depths of a Midwestern winter, a sex-addicted librarian relies on her pet ferrets to help resist a relapse at a wild college fair.
Capturing both the dark and lovable sides of the human experience, Rainbow Rainbow establishes debut author Lydia Conklin as a fearless new voice for their generation.
This is a book of queer short stories; some of them I really enjoyed, some of them I felt kind of weird about. Conklin uses proses like a knife, but the sharpness of the knife depends on the short story. These aren’t like a lot of the queer lit on the marketplace now (which is a good thing!), and some of them are uncomfortable to read. I recommend them, and also I am giving this book 3.25 stars, possibly to be revisited later.
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