Reviews

Is that all there is? by Marcelle Heath

shiloniz's review

5.0

Everything in Marcelle Heaths world of short stories, Is That All There Is? feels slightly off from center. Mothers might obsess over a child, deeming one god-like and having his portraits painted again and again while all the children starve, subsisting on blackberry brambles out back. A well-to-do couple might find themselves dead at a wellness retreat, while another group of couples is surprisingly undisturbed when all 3 of their partners go miss during a cabin vacation. In another world, people hired to apologize are the norm, and the fire smoke in the air has more presence and feeling than a man who returns to you after 20 years. This collection is unsettling in its off-kilter moments, but the real unnerving parts come from the everyday people who fill its pages, all of whom see to be walking precariously on the edge of an invisible cliff.