Shit Cassandra Saw

Praise

“Kirby has mastered the art of short fiction…A stunning collection from a writer whose talent and creativity seem boundless.”
—NPR

“When I reached the end of every single one of Gwen E. Kirby’s wildly unique stories, I felt like she had altered the universe a little, created a new element, opened up some fault lines in the earth. Kirby writes with boundless humor, a confidence and ease with strange premises, and yet there is always that flash of a fang or a blade or a Sharpie, reminding you to pay closer attention.”
—Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here

“Gwen E. Kirby’s debut collection of short stories dares to ask: what if we just let women be their messiest selves? Through this lens, she imagines scenarios women (and men!) may have encountered since the Hellenic times, up until today, playing with different structures including a “How To” essay and a scathing Yelp review that has a lot more bubbling under the surface. These hilarious stories use satire to examine real struggles and criticisms of the world and patriarchal standards. If you want to laugh and think, pick this one up.” –Buzzfeed

“Excellent…The prose is sharp and calibrated to suit each of Kirby’s temporally and geographically diverse settings…[with] risk-taking and assured, well-developed craft. This is remarkable.”
—Publishers Weekly *Starred Review*

“With zany plots, unconventional forms, and playful, poetic language, these stories delight at every turn.”
—Kirkus Reviews *Starred Review*

“In dazzling story after story…Kirby meditates on the fears, joys and pains of being a woman throughout the centuries. Every story feels unique, yet they’re tied together by Kirby’s mind-bendingly confident writing and her clear fascination with strong yet vulnerable women…Shit Cassandra Saw is pure pleasure.”
—Bookpage *Starred Review*

“Remarkable…Wielding humor and shock, Kirby audaciously unmasks gender disparity with delightful, disturbing aplomb.”
–Shelf Awareness

“[An] explosive, original, fearless, funny, on-the-money feminist story collection that delivers.”
—Publishers Weekly, Open Book

“As fun as it is furious, Shit Cassandra Saw rewrites womanhood with a cast of complex, contradictory, brave and bonkers heroines as likely to skewer you with a cutlass as they are to poorly re-tile your bathroom. I want to be friends with all of the women in this collection who refuse to be anything other than exactly who they are. A barnburner of a book that will set you ablaze with its clear-eyed brilliance.”
—Rachel Yoder, author of Nightbitch
 
“Shit Cassandra Saw is a readable and unflinching book about womanhood in the modern world. The stories in this collection are fierce yet playful, like the characters themselves, and I read along in a fugue state of gleeful panic. Gwen E. Kirby takes readers into a funhouse of the mundane, revealing the excitement, possibility, and pure fun that lives just behind the predictable man’s world we already know.”
—Liv Stratman, author of Cheat Day

“Radiant truths are arrived at raucously in Shit Cassandra Saw, Gwen E. Kirby’s spirited debut story collection. Kirby writes with deadpan humor about louts and witches and cross-dressing pirates, gods and ghosts and whores in wildly entertaining stories that swerve into wisdom and deeply satisfy.”
—Christine Schutt, author of Pure Hollywood
 
“The stories in Shit Cassandra Saw strike fast and leave you humming in their mysteries. Gwen E. Kirby has written a book that boldly defies categorization, much like the women at its center. Here is a writer who is too good to tell a story just one way. I’ll follow Kirby’s mind anywhere.”
—Simon Han, author of Nights When Nothing Happened