Girls just want to have fun. But unfortunately womanhood isn’t always fun. This collection showcases eight short stories that tap into the collective knowledge of trauma that women experience, the societal shackles, the stripping of power and control, the politicisation of our bodies — and tries to find some understanding and meaning in all the suffering and madness.
The Experiment highlights the double standards in parenting and work, following a woman trying out living as a “tradwife” as another attempt to connect with herself and figure out what role she wanted in her life while the town grieve the murder of a young girl. It was a brilliant opener, toeing the line between suspense and reality; showcasing the many routes a woman can do when not stripped of her agency.
In our anthologies namesake, It’s No Fun Anymore, a couple are at a convention with their child and Melanie thinks about how different the world is for women as they age, become mothers and wives and comparing her life with her sisters. From The Waist Down opens in a hospital room, where a woman waits for surgery on her daughter’s 4th birthday, contemplating her own relationship to her body in it’s glory and pain with a powerful punch.
During Estate Sale, a woman’s neighbour becomes ill and his paintings are being sold to fund his care as she examines her feelings about her aging father, in a short but impactful snapshot of living grief and family.
In The New Jenny, she gets a gun - offering a new taste of dangerous freedom and confidence, but still not protecting her from the real things she fears and definitely not from snapping under the pressure. It was tense, frenzied, and the picture of woman scorned and pushed too far.
Moving to a Safe Haven for Writers, we arrive at an isolated house to recharge and write but finds herself absorbed in tales about the people there before her, in a dark history that was too recent for comfort. Thumb Stump introduces a new mother worrying if her child will inherent not only her “deformity” but generational curses too - this one really highlighted the brutal reality of childbirth, and inherited trauma.
Our final tale, Border Crossings finds an MLM sales woman go from one prison to another, from her marriage to being held captive at the Canadian Border - showing the hidden lives behind typical families.
These stories exist on a strange plane, with the beautiful, poetic language and deep haunting suspense of a horror but rooted so deeply in real trauma and real life. They manage to set just enough of a scene without turning into novellas, offering a quick read with no wasted lines.
Setting itself apart from so many collections, this stays consistently strong throughout, each story holding a something of value and invoking a deeply emotional response.
- Content warnings include: child deaths, animal cruelty, post natal depression, mental illness, suicide, alzheimer’s and self harm.
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