Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, this one just did not work for me, and I will not be finishing it at this time. I believe, due to the synopsis, I went into this thinking I was going to be getting a very different book from what I got.

Survivable Losses - Selected Short Stories

This is a collection of short stories dealing with protagonists in unhappy relationships.  There was a recurring theme of good people, married to bad people, that did not appreciate them.

The first story, also the longest, introduced a female academic who had not reached the career advancement she had strived for, having endured sexual harassment and fighting against the egos of lesser men.

The writing was interesting, often a third person point of view. The stories could be predictable at times, so the fac that they were short stories made them easier to read. 

Thank you @netgalley @booksgosocialgroup for this kindle edition of Survivable Losses.

I thought this was well written but didn’t particularly enjoy it mainly because of the times were in. Quite unlucky in terms of timings of being published.

I received a free electronic ARC of this collection of dire short stories from Netscape, Francesca Stokes, and BooksGoSocial publishers on December 2, 2020. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this collection of short stories of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. These were all thought-provoking, interesting stories that made me look at my personal whinings on a different scale. I have to admit that several times during my reading of these stories I questioned the timing of the publishers. Perhaps these well-versed tales would be more appreciated in a time of joy, rather than the end of 2020, with 11 months of the pandemic, a faltering economy, and isolation widespread across our land. Or conversely, it may be what it takes for us to accept the necessity of these limits and soldier on. Life is hard. Harder lately. But we can do this.

The short stories here mostly have one of two themes - long-married women discovering a deception by their husbands and triumphing over their circumstances or sexual politics in the world of scientific academia. The tone of voice is unusual - almost a third person stream of consciousness so as the reader you often receive the same information multiple times and this repetition can be off-putting. The first story, In These Hallowed Halls, is much the longest and probably the story that employs this device the most - I’m not sure it was the right choice for the start of the book as it takes some time to get used to. Once I did, I enjoyed this collection but it won’t be for everyone - those who persevere will be rewarded.

A quiet collection of short stories dealing mainly with relationships, specifically marriages, specifically long marriages resulting in disappointments, resulting in cheating, resulting in changes. Although, to be fair, the first and by far the longest story, features a female academic navigating the morasses of sexual politics in her university.
Most of the stories feature women of a certain age navigating aging, fidelity, relationships, etc. Not exceptionally original, but fairly well done fiction, elevated by realism and emotional intelligence. The last story was the darkest and possibly the most interesting of the bunch.
A while back a reader of one of my reviews suggested I employ paragraphs to make them easier to get through. So I did. And it does seem to make a difference. I do wish someone would make that suggestion to the author, she doesn’t believe in paragraphs (unless this is just the Netgalley ARC formatting in which case my apologies) and the entire book is one dense clump of narrative.
But overall, a decent enough of a read. A quality is certainly above the average BooksGoSocial material, which I know doesn’t say much, but still…Since I’m the first to rate, review and create a proper listing for it, it seems good to say some nice things about it. Probably best suited for middle aged women and/or people in long relationships. Because of the no paragraph thing it reads longer than 140 pages ought to. Thanks Netgalley.