upcarta
  • Sign In
  • Sign Up
  • Explore
  • Search

Out There: Stories

  • Book
  • Mar 29, 2022
  • #ShortStory #ScienceFiction
Kate Folk
@katefolk
(Author)
www.goodreads.com
See on Goodreads
4.18/5 1.3k ratings
1 Recommender
1 Mention
1 Collection
With a focus on the weird and eerie forces that lurk beneath the surface of ordinary experience, Kate Folk’s debut short story collection is perfectly pitched to the madness of our... Show More

With a focus on the weird and eerie forces that lurk beneath the surface of ordinary experience, Kate Folk’s debut short story collection is perfectly pitched to the madness of our current moment. A medical ward for a mysterious bone-melting disorder is the setting of a perilous love triangle. A curtain of void obliterates the globe at a steady pace, forcing Earth’s remaining inhabitants to decide with whom they want to spend eternity. A man fleeing personal scandal enters a codependent relationship with a house that requires a particularly demanding level of care. And in the title story, originally published in "The New Yorker," a woman in San Francisco uses dating apps to find a partner despite the threat posed by “blots,” preternaturally handsome artificial men dispatched by Russian hackers to steal data. Meanwhile, in a poignant companion piece, a woman and a blot forge a genuine, albeit doomed, connection.

Prescient and wildly imaginative, Out There depicts an uncanny landscape that holds a mirror to our subconscious fears and desires. Each story beats with its own fierce heart, and together they herald an exciting new arrival in the tradition of speculative literary fiction.

(From Goodreads)

Show Less

Number of Pages: 256

ISBN: 0593231465

ISBN-13: 9780593231463

Recommend
Post
Save
Complete
Collect
Mentions
See All
Nora Biette-Timmons @biettetimmons · Dec 16, 2022
  • Curated in The 10 Best Books We Read That Came Out This Year
I’ve never had a short story—let alone a collection of short stories—stick with me like this book. A bone-melting disease, a void slowly swallowing the Earth, a world where we’re attracted to people’s organs: These stories are futuristic, fucked-up fairytales that are darkly funny and deeply disturbing. A few reviews compared the tales to Dark Mirror, which feels like the most succinct comparison. One story, in particular, has continued to haunt me in my most vulnerable moments: When I can’t fall asleep at 2 a.m., when I’m trapped in a days-long hangover, when I’m in the throes of an existential crisis on a Sunday night and my brain is thinking of all the different ways I could die. Are these stories devastating? Yes. Are they also somehow delightful? Yes! Honestly, I can’t recommend it enough. –Lauren Tousignant
Collections
See All
  • Nora Biette-Timmons
    • Collection
    The 10 Best Books We Read That Came Out This Year
    10 curations
  • upcarta ©2025
  • Home
  • About
  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • @upcarta