Quite interesting. Well written, and engaging. However, I didn’t find it as engaging as I’d hoped. Definitely liked it enough to read more from the author, though.

I loved these short stories! The weirdness of them, the themes explored, the queerness, and the exploration of Sarahs in different contexts and different periods of time.

I definitely have some stories I enjoyed better, but I was always compelled to pick the book back up.

Thanks for the ARC of this title, but I could not finish. I knew it sounded a little out there, and I should have trusted my instincts that this was too experimental for my tastes.

The stories in Srahland feel both connected and diverse. Most of them are striking and memorable, especially Becoming Trees. Overall, I recommend the collection and look forward to anything else Cohen publishes.

This book is absolutely full of Sarahs, some queer, some straight, some in college, some becoming trees. I loved the variety of experiences the various Sarahs go through, from writing Buffy/Faith fan fiction at the encouragement of a girlfriend, to living in a Jewish dorm where many many students were named Sarah, to the very original (biblical) Sarah.
I liked how queer and playful this collection was and especially loved how "All the Teenaged Sarahs" and "The Purple Epoch" seemed to thematically tie the disparate stories together in a neater (but also weirder) way than I though was possible.
I really enjoyed this collection.

This is such a perfectly strange collection of stories. I loved the concept of a "Sarah" existing in every story; some of the Sarahs felt similar and connected while some were entirely different beings. Every story in the collection was dark and queer and fascinating with ideas that are so pervasive in queer and lesbian culture. I loved seeing these reflections and how they played into the fantastical landscape of Sarahland. This is a collection that I'd love to revisit one day.

This book had me alternating between:
1. Laughing out loud,
2. Thinking “I might not be smart enough to understand this,” and
3. Howling, "OMG THAT IS EXACTLY HOW THAT IS!"

Brief summary:
Sarahland (by Sam Cohen) is a twisty (and in places, surreal) collection of stories that each contain a Sarah. Queerness, gender, religion, (the acceptance/rejection of) culture norms, and identity are all themes touched on throughout.

I had a really good time reading this collection, but I think my two favorite stories were “Naked Furniture” and “The First Sarah”. I also really loved “Gossip” and “Becoming Trees”. And “Dream Palace”. And “The Purple Epoch”. I mean- there wasn’t a dud.

Any time I felt myself wondering if this was going to be a collection that would stick with me (or if I could handle another Buffy reference that would float right on over my head), Cohen would drop a line that had me in stitches. The writing is truly funny.

Like this, from “Becoming Trees”:

“I heard you. It’s a fucked-up story. Two dudes fighting over their shooting skills aka cock size and this poor river bitch Daphne just happens to be there.” “I know,” I said. “It’s like everything.”

And from “Gossip”:

“Are you okay?” Ada asked. It was weird, for a person with her ass in the air to ask this, but also appropriate. It’s appropriate to ask a dead-eyed lover if they’re okay.”

Many stories have an element of a character (or characters) attempting to figure out what’s at their core. From “Naked Furniture”:

“There had been a store in Sarah’s hometown called the Naked Furniture Store and this is how Sarah felt, like naked furniture, like something embarrassingly unfinished, something that could be anything.”

and:

“It wasn’t that Sarah didn’t want to be her own person, it was just that she couldn’t figure out how other people became specific like they were.”

There was also so much to relate to. I mean who hasn’t done this (from the title story, “Sarahland”):

“Sarah B. gets margherita, which she daubs with napkins until there’s a pile of see-through napkins on the table and the cheese looks putty-dry.”

Or maybe felt like this, from “”Exorcism, or Eating My Twin”:

“How I felt was, my heart shrunk to walnut size, like a scared snail, like a cold testicle, like I don’t know, something that shrinks very fast in response to a frightening stimulus.”

And here, from “Becoming Trees”:

“I realized my heart had been scrunched up tight in my chest, because right then it expanded. It made me think of those plastic capsules, the ones you’d put into water and they’d turn into dinosaur sponges. So that was how it started. My heart turned into a dinosaur sponge.”

And, finally, because THIS IS EXACTLY HOW IT IS, also from “Becoming Trees”:

“We believed in a future in which women used soft power to stop men from using their phallic drills to siphon the earth’s blood, to plumb nonconsensually into it and steal its powerful black energy-juice in order to make their penisy Lamborghinis go faster.”

Highly recommend this collection.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the review copy!

***Thank you Grand Central Publishing and Negalley for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.***

A 10 story collection that follows different women named Sarah. The only thing that the stories have in common is that there is a Sarah in each story.

The writing is amazing. The way the author takes you on a right was so good and I overall really enjoyed each story. I liked the way she talked about feminism, womanhood, and being a lesbian. (They are expressed as lesbians on the page.) In addition to the big things I listed, she also discussed familial relationships and finding who you are. Almost all of the stories have a speculative element to them. The speculative element moves from mild to the absolute bizarre (Dream Palace and Becoming a Tree, I'm looking at you.) What I can say is that I got a nugget out of all of them. Not gonna lie though some of them were super weird and I didn't really know what was going on.

Overall, if you enjoy speculative short stories, I absolutely suggest you pick up this collection.

This was an interesting collection of short stories that, for the most part, really captured my attention. It's hard to describe this book, it's unlike anything I have read before. Each short story features a Sarah in their own setting with their own world and problems. It's easy to get lost in each Sarah's world and just enjoy the story. The stories are really dark and unsettling. It's a book that makes you uncomfortable and requires you to really think about each situation.

This collection was HIGHLY relatable! I found myself laughing, crying, and cringing throughout. I would definitely recommend Sarahland to others!

This was a wild, unnerving, hilarious hodgepodge of sex, gender, dichotomies, continuums, culture, fantasy, magical thinking, self, and other, blurring and overlapping and progressing and regressing. It is everything you might imagine when you consider how many people are named Sarah and how different all those people are and what might happen if you tried to combine them all into one. I went with three stars (internally converted to 6/10, a good score) because sometimes it felt like too much, but 6 = read this because you'll probably love it. If you find gender fascinating then you will probably really, really love it. I am kind of obsessed with the Sarah Machine, Sam Cohen should maybe patent and create a prototype ASAP, soon to be seen in malls the world over.

Sarahland by Sam Cohen 👁

Thank you @grandcentralpub for the #gifted ARC! Sarahland is on sale 3/9!

TW: sexual violence

Sarahland is a collection of wacky and bizarre, but simultaneously thought-provoking and moving short stories, all featuring personal, queer narratives and a lot of Sarah’s. I quickly tore through this work as I tried to wrap my brain around what was happening in these stories. I’m honestly still processing and my brain is working overtime, so I’ll share the blurb on the back cover to help shed some light on the themes - “The ever-evolving Sarah gets recast: as a Bible-era trans woman, an aging lesbian literally growing roots, a being who transcends the earth as we know it. With each Sarah’s refusal and inability to adhere to a single narrative, these stories potentially build a better home for us all, a place to live that demands no fixity of self, no plague of consumerism, no bodily compromise, a place called SARAHLAND.”

If you’re looking for something totally different than you’ve ever read before: get Sarahland. If you’re looking for a unique exploration of the self: get Sarahland. If you want to question everything as you’ve known it: get Sarahland.

The sex. Wow.

This one started and ended much differently than expected! From a college girl's dorm life to a brothel, bunny ranch type setting I was blown away by the lack of self worth shown by the women in the stories and truthfully it broke my heart to read.

This collection of short stories was unlike anything I’ve ever read. At the core, all stories had 2 things in common: characters names Sarah and a search for identity. The stories covered a variety of topics from history to culture to sexuality and gender. The writing is phenomenal and this complicated book will leave you thinking for a while. I have a feeling I’ll have even more to say the more I sit with it.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Sarahland will be released on March 9th.

I often hesitate to pick up short story collections because they are often so hit and miss that I rarely find one that I jump up and down to recommend. Well, y’all, I’m jumping over this one. I love the premise of this collection (there is a Sarah in every story). The collection had a wide, weird variety but also shared a sensibility. My favorite story was The First Sarah, which was a reimagining of the Bible/Torah tale of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar.

I'd like to thank Netgalley for the ARC of this book. Here is my honest review.

I'm very torn with how to rate this book. I picked it because of the title. Being a Sarah, I felt that it was my duty to read it. However, the content is not the kind that generally appeals to me. It dwells in the danker hallways of brothels and the disquieting corners of the character's subconscious. I also felt like despite the stories different tales, they all kind of read the same in a way that felt repetitive.

I did like the writing style itself. Sam Cohen's words have a surreal quality that made me feel like I was only partially submerged, the world I was viewing was one seen through a distorted lens.

I had a hard time relating to the content, so I don't think this book was for me. It might very well be the perfect book for someone else, so I wouldn't brush it off based on my review entirely.

Okay, I was really hoping to love this book. But, people, I LOVED this book. I laughed, I cringed, and I related to SO, so much. This is a book for anyone who has experienced an awkward phase/decade/existence. I really can not recommend it highly enough. I would give five stars to every story minus one that, truth be told, actually really bothered me. Next to all the other, wonderfully progressive tales, I was very disappointed and disturbed by that one. Like, REALLY disturbed. THAT BEING SAID, the rest of the book was marvelous. So much so that I didn't dock any stars for the one bothersome one and would still, wholeheartedly recommend it.

Phenomenal writing and the imagery was truly top notch.

An Amazing eclectic collection of short stories. I would highly recommend this: The stories range and topic but all are interesting.