Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my free digital ARC of A Small Apocalypse! Laura Chow Reeve is an author to watch if you like your fiction heavy on the queer with a tinge of surreal, and brimming with found family and unease. It’s a lovely mishmash of unnerving and heartwarming, melancholic and hopeful. Honestly probably more melancholic and dark, but those moments of togetherness with the queers just hit you right in the chest!

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A lot of the stories are interlinked, so characters weave in and out of them. That was where my main caveat came in - for some reason I had trouble keeping all of the names straight. Though no doubt the glorious messiness of queer love lives in a tight knit group didn’t help, with relationships forming and changing with every story 👀 I just need to reiterate how amazingly Reeve depicts queer community, like the dynamics and heartbreak and togetherness is wonderful!

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Beyond the interlinked stories, which is more rooted in reality and following the ups and downs of our lovely big group of queers, we delve into sci-fi, dystopian, horror - a little bit of everything, but all of it feeling very much in the realm of possibility! I loved Real Bodies, where dating is now under the government’s control and mandated for everyone; Three Card Spread, where a man is haunted by a twin who died in the womb; and Happiest, where a family’s idyllic trip to Disneyland is shattered by a tragic accident.

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Reeve leans heavily into themes of identity and belonging. Of power imbalances in interracial relationships. Of transformation and transition. Of prejudice and the way those prejudices get projected onto marginalised bodies. Of erasing parts of yourself to fit in, but standing out regardless, feeling less than whole with those missing parts. Loved it and can’t wait to see what she comes out with next!