Saba Sams

I tend to save short story collections to read during the week when I can dip in and out of them, but I read Send Nudes in its entirety over 24 hours. The stories of girls and young women going through a range of issues from abortion, to liking the same boy and friendships were slightly detached but still had a heart and soul to them. I could easily believe in these characters as people, not just constructs on the page.

Some of the stories are told in first person, others in third person. The first story, Tinderloin, easily grabs at the heart strings as Grace falls for her boyfriend’s dog (more than him), but has an unconventional twist in that she’s learning to be a butcher, giving the story a strong hint of brutality too. Today’s Square, the closing story, is melancholier but also tender too. It’s a story of lockdown, lost holidays, financial ruin and the darker days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Other stories are perhaps lighter, but make no less of an impact – the two girls who spend time at a festival with their mothers and fall for the same boy is sweet but the ending is quite eerie… Flying Kite is both sad yet uplifting in a way as it is told through a child’s eyes. Snakebite was an impactful story of friendships that are not always good for the protagonist, combined with the university coming of age story. I’d love to see this as a novel. Blue 4eva had memorable characters (Blue deserves her own novel, I guarantee it would never be boring) as well as a great take on blended family dynamics. Overall, the collection sneaks the characters into your mind and heart and then puts them in a variety of awkward situations, some fixable, others not. The style makes them easy to read, and difficult to put down. Short, but impactful.

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