Come the end of the year I know that this book will be heading up my 'best reads of 2021' because it is absolutely exquisite. I devoured this gem of a book in one sitting, and now I want to return and re-read it slowly, savouring every single word. Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock presents us with brief events, conversations or meetings, with such immediacy and intimacy in so few pages that I am in awe. In mere paragraphs she captures the adolescent thrall to an exotic outsider, the yearning for escape from a small town, the coming of age and realising that you can have different views to your parents.

She carefully deconstructs the mythology of living in a small town; community and traditional values and the nostalgia that the concept presents is so neatly turned on its head and she looks at the cost of what it costs to try and maintain the myth. Most heartbreakingly she challenges the way that tradition and shared values are assumed and how key figures in a small town are put on a pedestal so that they are free to commit crimes with impunity.

I was absolutely enamoured of this little book and I would like to thank the publishers and NetGalley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

In this collection of interwoven short stories, Hitchcock explores themes of connection between friends, family and couples through the lens of small town life in the mid-1990s US, from Colorado to Alaska to Montana. Characters from previous stories are revisited in later stories in a way that you are always surprised to see who the protagonist of the next story will be. Hitchcock's style is raw and personal; she focuses on the details and dramas of life which are often overlooked, challenging the idea of small towns as boring and lifeless.
My personal favourite stories were Pigeon Creek, Sea-Shaken Houses, The Stranger in the Woods, and There's Gas in the Tank, Louise. Special mention to Parking-lot Flowers and The Right Kind of people for absolutely breaking my heart as well.

"In a small town, you are forever defined by the worst thing that ever happened to you."
Considering my track record with short stories I was very surprised that I didn't just like this book but I adored it. The narrative was so effortlessly entwined between each of the many characters we follow and despite there being so many of them was so well balanced and, not confusing at all.
I was well and truly absorbed from the first page and was enthralled throughout, I devoured the whole thing in less than a day.
I loved how the stories linked together in seemingly small ways and came full circle by the end and conversed at various points for larger issues.
I personally think this would be a great choice as a holiday read and will definitely be recommending it to people.

Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock's beautifully written short story collection is a revelation, set in American small towns and communities of Alaska and the American west, focusing on young people, with characters and events that connect, and reverberate across the stories. Gina is still grieving the loss of her mother, and enraged at how easily her father seems to have forgotten her with his new girlfriend, Libby and her young daughter, Poppy, with her invisible friend, Elizabeth, a mermaid. Two girls who grow up together, are 'home schooled', in the Sea-Shaken Houses on a remote coast, wonder about the identity of their fathers, with a Jane dedicated to learning about molluscs, knowledge that helps diagnose the amnesiac Conrad making his way to a Canadian uncle living with a man, to seek advice, to ask whether it is possible to love whoever you want to in this world.

These are stories of secrets, memories, betrayal, sexuality, sexual abuse by Catholic priests who never face justice, who just keep being moved, only to perpetrate their crimes on other young people, of families that are more concerned about mixing with the right people rather than addressing a daughter being abused, blaming her instead, a daughter for whom making a chain from gum wrappers becomes a obsessive meditation. Her broken brother becomes a rodeo star, a route to disguising his inner despair. There is rage, retribution, abduction and murder of a 6 year old girl, and wildfires that mean evacuation, small communities that trust their own above any experts, particularly if they are well qualified, a backbone trust that is to unravel in a nightmarish way. Lared in Montana is a town drunk on basketball, with only Lilian as the exception. And sisters should never leave their sisters.

Hitchcock's short vibrant stories are impressive and unforgettable, generating a rollercoaster of emotions, with their wide cast of characters, portraying the universal commonalities of young peoples' experiences, the best and the very worst, their families, and the small town American communities in which they live. I found the stories utterly engaging, compulsive and riveting reading, and I cannot recommend them highly enough. Many thanks to Faber and Faber for an ARC.

Incredible writing, complex interlinked short stories of people growing up all over small-town America.

The book has a kind of understated, quiet power which builds and builds as you read.

Everyone Die Famous in a Small Town is such a complex and intricate woven story that I marvel at the skill it took to pull it off as well as Hitchcock does.

At the heart of this book are realistic, human and very different reactions to grief. This is a deeply sad and touching story that you gradually piece together as you glimpse into different peoples’ narratives. The connections between characters and stories make this such a three-dimensional, layered and complex story. It really examines the butterfly and ripple effects of actions, be they big or little and how their implications ricochet across so many other lives.

This is a nuanced and rich tapestry of human life, greatly defined by trauma and fire. There’s a range of portrayals of reactions to trauma and different traumatic events that occur. For me, the overarching narrative that is slowly revealed was moving and really hit home. These stories are shocking, saddening and enraging but others are full of love and hope.

Most characters you meet are deeply flawed and battling dark memories and events within themselves. They are nowhere near perfect, but they are incredibly human and realistic. Each of their voices rings clear and stands out from one another. Collectively, they echo human experiences of love and loss, often marked by the hallmarks of traumatic events and with the smoke of fire hanging over each of them. Thematically, fire looms large over this book. It grows from a small flame into a raging inferno by the book’s end. It symbolises those growing ripple effects and a total exposure of the truth that gradually leaks through.

Everyone Die Famous in a Small Town is a quietly beautiful, multi-layered and incredibly thought-provoking story.

Thank you NetGalley and Faber and Faber publishing for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book was beautifully woven together, truly a quilt of quirky, interesting, and just everyday people trying to make it in Small Town America.

I went into this book expecting to be charmed, and don’t get me wrong I was! I loved learning about amnesia caused by molluscs and sweet imaginary mermaids.

But this book slowly and then all of a sudden absolutely ripped my heart out. I’ve ugly cried, snot has come out of my nose. Sisters don’t leave sisters, and I’m broken.

I loved this book, it was fantastic, I’m going to go buy a copy. But I also recommend you buy a box of tissues too.

Five stars, if I could give it more, I would

I don't have very many thoughts about this book other that it's one of the best ones I read this year.

Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town is a collection of vignettes from multiple POVs of various teenagers, which connect through characters and situations, creating an overarching story of what life in a small town is like. They're very short and talk about many different subjects, and you slowly discover connections between every single one of them, and it's honestly fascinating seeing how it comes full circle.

This book left me with a heavy feeling in my chest. Not many books can manage that. It's one I think you need to go into somewhat blind and discover things for yourself. I really really enjoyed it and now I wanna read everything by Bonnie Sue Hitchcock.

I quite enjoyed this anthology but was expecting just a bit more, considering how much I really enjoyed Hitchcock's The Smell of Other People's Houses.

The stories are all inter-connected, and I enjoyed seeing a cameo here and there from characters from other stories. Made the book feel a bit more intimate.

The stories themselves feel very quiet, like the small town they're based in. And each story focuses on intense themes, from grief, trauma, car crash, sexual abuse, pedophilia, and death. It's an intense collection but I think it's worth it too. My favourite from the collection was The Right Kind of People. It's a devastating story but one I really appreciated.

A series of nine short stories all set in small communities in the west of America and Alaska. Each gives a perfect snapshot of a young person trying to cope with their feelings – an unwanted new family member, a two-timing boyfriend, a changing friendship. Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock gives us a wide range of people and emotions all drawn with her ability to get straight to the heart of a character and a feeling with lines that linger in the memory, a style of writing that feels whittled down and sanded to a perfect shape.

It’s like a camera pulling back slowly. In the second story you spot a link to the first and soon there is a whole web of connections, of lives crossing and touching other lives, briefly or deeply, because no one is an island. Through them all roars the heat of a wild fire, what is behind it and what it reveals. In the introduction the author says that ‘when the world is on fire, we need each other more than ever’ and that need to be seen, not to be stranded alone, is at the heart of this remarkable book.

I didn’t think I was going to like this originally but after the first two chapters it sneakily grew on me until I’d gone from a 2 star to a 5 star without even realising it. I feel like I glanced away for a second and this story had bloomed from a weed into a rose bush.

We definitely got off on the wrong foot with the second chapter because it was just girls hating on girls over a guy & I feel like we don’t need to bring that energy into 2021 BUT as the story developed we got some really incredible complex female characters. So I take it back – hands in the air – I’m sorry for judging too early.

The concept of this book is just 👌 I mean this is short stories done RIGHT. An overarching story narrative with small POVs along the way, each with their own story to tell.
It was paced perfectly, each chapter long enough to get a whole new person’s story but not too long that you lost track of the main plot. Plus it was always fun seeing tiny parts of the puzzle slot into place when you least expected it.

The crowning achievement of this book though is the absolute R A N G E the author leaps from one end of the spectrum to the next and she SMASHES it. The different settings. The different characters. The different stories. IT👏IS👏ALL👏THERE👏

I have got to say a firm favourite of mine was the third chapter – the setting is just like no other, and the mundane mysteries that swirl in the air in that chapter – it is honestly a work of art. A very very close second though is the fifth chapter which made me absolutely bawl my eyes out.

Contrasting to that, there are some absolute belter lines in here. The most random, weird, and hilarious analogies and things that just completely come out of left field and make you die from laughter (not sure if all of them were intended but *I* found them funny). More seriously though, the writing is honestly really good, much better quality than a lot of YA out there.

Check the trigger warnings – the book actually has a note inside which is great but I don’t think it quite does the severity level justice (although I appreciate that TW vs spoiler is a hard balance to strike) AND READ THIS BOOK! Ignore the second chapter but savour every single word in the rest 😉

This was a book that I Really enjoyed this read and I would recommend to others easily, I will be looking out for other titles by this author.

If someone had described the concept of this book, I'd have been skeptical. But I truly loved each and every chapter. In fact, and I am aware that it is only mid-February, I would dare to go as far as saying that this could well be my best read of 2021 - it truly was that remarkable.

If you're ever in need of reference for how to write fantastic characters, this is it. Hitchcock crafts such an excellent and diverse array of characters with distinct personalities and memorable features that I wanted each and every chapter to be a book in itself. The interconnected nature was fabulous, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to see some characters multiple times from many different perspectives. For once, there's a collection of short stories from which I cannot pick a single favourite. I would wholly recommend to everyone who has any interest in any aspect of YA fiction (although, heads up, there are lots of complex themes that Hitchcock dives into, and doesn't shy away from. Self-care is thoroughly important so be sure to check out the trigger warnings first.)

I was expecting a bit more from this anthology, in the end it was just an okay read for me.
I enjoyed how the stories were all connected one way or another, not only because of their setting, but also thanks to some recurring characters that made an appearance in two stories or more. It was definitely a nice touch.
Overall the stories were okay, my favourites out of the nine short stories included in this anthology were probably Parking-lot Flowers and The Right Kind of People. I really appreciated the fact that the author decided to focus on a variety of different themes, when starting a story I never knew what I was going into, which is something that definitely made the reading experience more interesting. I must say that some of the stories were a bit boring and I didn't really enjoy them.

If you're looking for an anthology with a variety of themes, this might be the read for you!

I really enjoyed this book. The concept was fantastic, and for me, it made it a lot easier to read as it was broken up into smaller sections. Would definitely recommend!

I loved about half of the stories, but struggled to be enticed by the other half of the stories and struggled with the underlying connections between them. The overall tone and poeticism of it all encouraged me to finish.

Everyone Dies Famous In A Small Town is collection of short stories that all tie in together through characters, locations and themes with each story being set in a small rural town in America.
Even though each story is unique to itself, it feels like reading one big story through multiple POV! Each one flows so flawlessly into the next and having something to tie them together stops the book from feeling disjointed. It is so well done and I loved the idea behind it. It’s something I’ve not seen in any other book and that is awesome.
The stories themselves are really interesting, focusing on one main character each. This way we get plenty of time to connect with our narrator, rather than trying to cram to many things into a short time. Some of the stories have quite sensitive topics, so just to warn you if you, there is sections about child abduction, neglect, religious sexual abuse and PTSD.
I really appreciated how well these topics were written about and I applaud the author for tackling subjects that many still consider taboo.
Definitely recommend!

Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock has a certain (and well liked) poetic way with her use of details.

I had class all weekend and it was so hard to put this book down. I ended up reading at every break and while eating and brushing my teeth.

Though they are stories that stand alone very well, they are also all connected making this an irresistible read.

Thank you NetGalley and Faber and Faber Ltd for this ARC.

I love this book. It takes a little to see the connection in all the stories, but once you see it - the whole book changes.

These rich, character driven and interconnected stories were hard to put down.

Set amongst small rural American west towns, the connections between each story are easy to make, particularly with the reminders of place and character traits (if you aren’t good with names). There are some difficult topics that are explored including sexual assault and murder. Other elements of the stories felt comforting to read.

I absolutely loved this book and want to read her other book The Smell of Other People’s Houses. Highly recommend!


Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book.