I had no idea Chinelo Okparanta had another book other than Under the Udala Trees until I stumbled across this collection on my library website! I'm a huge fan of short story collections, but given that this was published three years before Under the Udala Trees, I thought a debut collection might be a bit shaky... I was INCORRECT. This is without a doubt one of the strongest short story collections I've read this year so far, and let me tell you, I've read some bloody good ones in 2020.

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Okparanta moves from theme to theme within this collection, from infertility and harmful beauty standards to LGBTQ+ relationships and domestic violence, and shifting between the US and Nigeria. Although each story only has 15-30 pages, they feel as developed as full-blown novels. The characters are fleshed out, and somehow we get to know them within the few pages we have together. I was blown away by how connected I felt to the characters in Grace, which was probably my favourite story in the whole collection. I've read 300 page novels where I haven't felt the way I did then towards the characters.

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Happiness is obviously a key theme in this collection, but, and spoiler alert, none of the characters manage to hold onto it for very long. To be honest, I'm not really one for thinking too hard about the titles of books, but I definitely had a lightbulb moment halfway through this collection about just how perfect the title is! Many of these stories broke my heart, especially Wahala! which addresses similar themes to Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, and Runs Girl, where a young girl is determined to help her sick mother whatever the cost, and ends up driving a wedge between them.

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I highly recommend this collection, especially if you're interested in LGBTQ+ themes and women-centred stories. But just be aware that there is quite a lot of trauma in these pages, so tread carefully if you're sensitive to issues such as sexual abuse and domestic violence.