"Bomer’s second short-fiction collection differs from the
first in virtuosity and subject matter. The girls and women featured in these
narratives encounter cringe-worthy humiliation and/or appalling abuse. Several
of the stories, set in the 1980s (complete with playlists), depict the lives of
older teens and young women whose experiences with sex are physically or
emotionally brutal. In the horrifying “Down the Alley,” two teens out on the
town are given pot and taken for a ride by a group of older boys. “Outsiders,” set
in an eastern boarding school, provides an honest picture of the divide between
the middle-class newcomer and the rich girls whom she gravitates toward.
“Inside Madeleine” is the heartbreaking—and erotic—description of the
destruction caused when the only man who sees her realistically leaves a vulnerable
woman. Fans of Baby and Other Stories (2010) and even more so of Bomer’s novel,
Nine Months (2012), are the obvious audience for this new book. These stories
appeal, however, to a broader audience of literary-fiction readers."
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