Games and Rituals - Katherine Heiny - ★★★★

AUTHOR: Katherine Heiny

GENRE: Contemporary Anthology, Literary Fiction.

RATING: 3.9 stars.

In a Nutshell: Enjoyed this anthology that peppers various human emotions into one tidy package. Slice-of-life–styled writing. Humour and seriousness blended perfectly in each story. Atypical endings, so that will be the decider for your experience.

This collection of eleven stories comes with a very interesting introductory note in the blurb:

Eleven glittering stories of love—friendships formed at the airport bar, ex-husbands with benefits, mothers of suspiciously sweet teenagers, ill-advised trysts—in all its forms, both ridiculous and sublime.

And for a change, the book lives up to the tall claim! Hallelujah!

Each of the eleven stories features characters ranging from quirky to despicable. The stories are all in slice-of-life format, which means you don’t necessarily have a start-middle-end progression, the tales jump around in their timelines, and the ending is not perfectly sealed. If you are highly particular about the endings of short stories being a traditional curtain-down, this may not work for you. To be honest, it doesn’t always work for me too. But in this anthology, the writing is so impeccable that I was able to let go of my need for the typical climax. (Also, the endings work excellently for most of the stories; that helps.)

All the stories focus on dysfunctional relationships, with one central character leading you on a merry journey of discovery. Many of the tales have a subtle undertone of humour—the snarky kind, which I enjoy best!

The only thing that would have made the anthology even better for me would have been an author’s note, explaining the motivation behind the stories or some insight into how this collection was put together. Even that wonderful line about the tales being glittering stories of love ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime is found only in the blurb. Knowing the central theme through an introductory note always makes an anthology more enjoyable.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Of the eleven tales, six reached/crossed the four star mark, and the remaining five hovered between 3-3.5 stars. In other words, no bad story at all – I either liked them or loved them! These were my top favourites with 4.5 stars and above:

🌹 Turn Back, Turn Back – A striking story of a couple who have always synced their lives around each other’s requirements, until now. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

🌹 Games and Rituals – Deservedly the title story. Written in an unusual format, highlighting the various ‘games and rituals’ that are a part of friendships and romantic relationships. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

🌹 CobRa – The funniest story in the book, and yet so poignant! You will never guess what CobRa stands for. I sure am glad it wasn’t the snake! 😁 - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

🌹 Bridesmaid, Revisited – A woman decides to wear an old bridesmaid dress to work. This sets off varied memories from the past and that affects the moments in the present. Quite in-depth character sketching in this one. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

Definitely recommended to every short story lover who wishes to encounter some truly interesting characters and how the quandaries they face make them what they are. I can see myself rereading this collection some day. Katherine Heiny was a new name to me, but now, I want to explore more works by this talented author.

3.9 stars, based on the average of my ratings for the eleven stories.

My thanks to 4th Estate and NetGalley for the DRC of “Games and Rituals”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.