Out There: Stories by Kate Folk

​Every so often this formulaic, commercial, predictable world we read in serves up a marvel like this. A collection of stories so wild…so perfectly out there. Straight up from some awesome intersection of literature, speculative fiction, magic realism, fantasy, and science fiction.
I’ve read all these comparisons to other authors which is a lame and lazy way to advertise, and the thing is Kate Folk doesn’t need it–she is very comfortably doing her own thing and that thing is great.
Folk’s own blend of irreality, of normal situations and lives infused with the strange. It’s so much fun. And that last story (the one that takes up the final fifth of the book) alone is pure magic and the star of the show. It’s clever, hilarious, and poignant, and (okay, this one comparison really was kind of on the money) it does read like a Black Mirror episode, a good one, one on par with San Junipero.
So I loved these short stories for how original, smart, quirky, interesting, bizarre they were. It probably won’t sing for everyone, but for those who do hear its funhouse tune, it’ll be pure magic. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.