Stories That Made Me Laugh, When I Probably Should've Cried

Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans
This is collection of 8 short stories is Evans fictional debut. Now if you are thinking to yourself "I don't like short stories" this book isn't for me. Trust me when I say, you're wrong. I haven't always liked short stories. A few years back I finally read a collection that made me appreciate them. Before that I was reading incomplete short stories, with endings that left me far from satisfied.

These stories are short, though very far from incomplete. With most collections there is always one story that is not up to the standard of the others. That was not the case here, I loved every single story. Evans manages to make what could easily be sad stories very funny. Between the laughter, I was moved by these quietly complex and beautifully layered stories.

The dialogue and language are perfect. The characters fully developed. Like all good short stories, there is no excess, every word count. I loved each story from beginning to end.

Evans pretty much crushed this collection. Her transitions to move the stories along were clinic good. I always try to keep my vernacular proper. So when I start straying from the true Webster definition that means I loved a book hard.

Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self is definitely hard cover worthy. Its one of my favorite debuts of 2010. The first story "Virgins" was published in the Paris Review in 2007. I carefully (for fear of viruses) searched for it.

An excerpt of "Virgins" from Paris Review
check out a few professional reviews via the author site.