Pretty to Think So
A girl is a whispered thing, floating between walls and minds, finding solidity only in her relationships with men. When girl grows up, will she be her own? But by then even her name, woman, will have a man in it.
Pretty to Think So is for anyone who has ever had bad sex, an unrequited crush, a scandalous affair, or a broken heart. In this prose collection, Samantha Edmonds traces the arc of a woman's life through the men she has loved, lost, and let go. In much the same way that the narrator is constantly shaped and reshaped by her relationships, these linked stories shift and change form, manifesting as a recipe, a movie script, a dictionary definition, and more. Deftly exploring the tension between the said and the unsaid, Edmonds moves into the space created between love's expectations and realities and makes a home there. Her stories are love letters passed in high school cafeterias, lies told to boyfriends, last calls at the bar, kisses with shiny strangers. Hers is a narrator desperate and earnest, full of determination to reclaim a sense of one's self, even if she doesn't quite know who that is.
Published by Selcouth Station Press, 2019. Buy the book here.
Read excerpts from the collection below:
Peatsmoke:
“High School Sweet Non-Hearts”
“The Parisian Co-Star”
“Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Noun”
The Wardrobe's Best Dressed:
“A 100% True Totally Not Fictional Ghost Story” and others.
Pretty to Think So is for anyone who has ever had bad sex, an unrequited crush, a scandalous affair, or a broken heart. In this prose collection, Samantha Edmonds traces the arc of a woman's life through the men she has loved, lost, and let go. In much the same way that the narrator is constantly shaped and reshaped by her relationships, these linked stories shift and change form, manifesting as a recipe, a movie script, a dictionary definition, and more. Deftly exploring the tension between the said and the unsaid, Edmonds moves into the space created between love's expectations and realities and makes a home there. Her stories are love letters passed in high school cafeterias, lies told to boyfriends, last calls at the bar, kisses with shiny strangers. Hers is a narrator desperate and earnest, full of determination to reclaim a sense of one's self, even if she doesn't quite know who that is.Published by Selcouth Station Press, 2019. Buy the book here.
Read excerpts from the collection below:
Peatsmoke:
“High School Sweet Non-Hearts”
“The Parisian Co-Star”
“Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Noun”
The Wardrobe's Best Dressed:
“A 100% True Totally Not Fictional Ghost Story” and others.