The Road to Woop Woop, Eugene Bacon

★★★

Truly one of the most original short story collections I’ve ever read, each short story so different from the others in the collection. A few stories pull you in and weave an interesting tale, while others feel so ethereal, it’s like we’re getting the ghost of a story or a fragment of a memory. Fans of Carmen Maria Machado’s surrealist horror would appreciate the literary risks taken with this collection. 

I appreciated the author exploring the boundaries of relationships, parenthood, gender, indignity and more. The collection also broke the rules of so many genre tropes, leaning from one genre to the other with the wind. Some featured magical realism with shapeshifting wise men, some were science fiction love stories, others featured singing sirens, intelligence gathering androids, a mysterious child, a time-traveling button, and more. Some were eerie, some were melancholy, others were downright confusing. 

Overall, this collection, though intriguing and truly one-of-a-kind, was not my favorite anthology collection to read.