Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town: 1

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Whether they are brought together by the spread of wildfire, by the priest who's moved from state to state or by the hunt for a missing child, these incredible tales blaze with secrets, rage and love. The best thing that this book does is weave all of the stories together. I enjoyed getting to the end of the chapter and seeing how it was connected to the overarching story, as well as the resonant themes of family and teenage emotion. The writing in this superb story is simply outstanding. The isolated, sparsely populated community is captured with an economy of style that reminded me of Hemmingway at his best:

Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town' is a series of short stories about how different small towns are connected in ways that you would never imagine, told through the perspectives of different characters, each dealing with their own issues and lives, and unknowingly affecting many others'.Everyone Dies Famous In a Small Town is a short but powerful and important read and I think adults and older children would both really enjoy it.

That being said, I think that the reason this book is rather dull is because of the sheer amount of stories that were being presented. Each of the characters were individual and almost completely different from the others, living in different circumstances and experiencing different things. As a result, not one of the stories or characters was extremely developed, making the book and its individual characters rather forgettable. It also made the book feel like it was dragging on, despite how short it is. In this collection of interconnected short stories, a varied group of teen characters each face the challenges and rewards of small-town life. Through ordinary events, showing brief moments in the characters’ lives, we see their inner struggles, how they deal with pain or boredom or being left behind, and how they find new paths and moments of healing.As I read I encountered characters who were dealing with death, being cheated on, moving towns, hitchhiking, dealing with abuse, having second thoughts about life after school and so much more. Set in the mid-1990s, the stories are set in Alaska and in small towns scattered across the American west. We meet hitchhikers, kids with reputations, girls who grew up wild and free, siblings who’ve suffered loss. Some common threads are apparent across multiple stories — the early warnings of a wildfire in one story turn into an out-of-control inferno in another; the aftermath of certain events are sprinkled throughout several characters’ lives, but we only get the full picture in a seemingly unrelated story later on. The reality of being a teenager living in a small town is explored in these brief moments and it is quite powerful.

Priests are not to be trusted. Father Lazaria’s serial abuse causes immense damage and is a narrative that runs through several of the stories. Delia’s parents “still expected her to go to church and receive Communion from Father Monster’s shrivelled, stinky hand” but at the age of sixteen, Delia wreaks her revenge which leads to devastating consequences. This children’s book is ideal for: Book clubs and a short story collection text study in years 10 & 11. This is a short, dark and heartbreaking read but beautifully written. There are many characters - even if you do not notice every connection instantly, each story acts as an important lesson for the reader. Highly recommended.I have amazing reading time and proudly grading this book with five creative, impressive, addictive, original stars! I like that it doesn’t shy away from controversial issues, making each story strand intriguing and a little challenging at times. In ‘ Sea – Shaken Houses‘ we meet Jane and Martha. The girls have been best friends all their lives and are homeschooled but their “badass” mothers have a “strange dislike” for each other but at least they agree “that little girls should not be made to conform to anything that did not ebb and flow like the tide: their minds, at the very least, should run rampant along the beach”. Could the mothers’ dislike for each other be because the girls share the same father? This is the line, towards the end of ‘ The Stranger in the Woods‘, the penultimate story of this brilliant collection, that finally convinced me I was reading something very special indeed. This is not actually a book of short stories, instead it is an elegant collection of story strands that allow the whole picture to be revealed from multiple perspectives.