Everything Is Awful and You’re a Terrible Person

Within Zomparelli’s (Davie Street Translations) hit-and-miss debut collection of 32 short and flash fiction stories, readers will find a young gay couple in a ménage with a ghost ex-boyfriend; a shy monster clothed in the loose skin of a human, desperately seeking love; and a fake boyfriend helping a grieving mother uncover deep, heart-wrenching truths about a son she didn’t know was gay. There are also random hookups—a lot of them. The stories vary greatly in quality. For much of the first half of the book, the writing is sparse, pared to a point of disaffection and disengagement; characters make decisions about their lives without external forces propelling them to do so. In the second half, however, Zomparelli’s staccato emotional rhythms find their place in some of the more surreal and strange pieces, including “Craig Has Very Nice Skin” and “Dream Boy.” The book is at its best when it sloughs off the confines of reality and leans into the impossible. It shows its worth in the way themes come together in the final, titular story, in which the narrator, a “terrible person,” tells his friend “I’d be better as a ghost, or a monster, or a memory.” As readers witness throughout, ideas are often easier to love than people. (May)