3/5 stars

What's it about? Urbanski ruminates on parenthood, asexuality, marital rape, and transformations in these nine speculative stories in which—you guessed it—gateways abound.

How’d I find it? I spied this incredible cover on the new and recommended shelf at Powell’s and had to give it a read.

Who will enjoy this book? Fans of Marie-Helene Bertino’s Exit Zero might appreciate these stories.

What stood out? I loved the recurrence of portals as a through line for these tales, along with their rules: a portal appears to the person meant to find it, one can see the world on the other side, and their smell and texture vary greatly. The themes of asexuality and marital rape are the most prominent here, and, while the author acknowledges as much, the stories tend to be different shades of the same idea, diluting the power of Urbanski’s message.

Which line made me feel something? From “The Dirty Golden Yellow House:” “She is in menopause, in case that isn’t obvious, has been for decades, a state of being caused, in her case, by a ceremony of her own doing, her power based not on fertility or mothering or lactating but on the opposites: aridity, conclusions, and destruction.”