Thoroughly enjoyed reading this collection of stories and interviewing Alix Ohlin for identitytheory.com. It's been a treat to watch her grow as a writer over the years, and this book is her best yet.

Superb short stories. Each story balanced telling an interest experience and really learning about the characters. Really impressed with the writing and the amazing way Ohlin makes these keen observations of simple, everyday experiences. I want to read everything she ever publishes.

This was a great collection of stories - I read them in one sitting! Very compelling social commentary on what it means to want something, and why you want it.

I loved this collection so much.

This year has had a surprising and large quantity of incredible story collections. Ohlin's is right up there next to Objects of Desire by Clare Sestanovich. Absolute stand-outs.

Will read anything Ohlin writes next.

It’s hard to find a good collection of short stories. This is it! Read it all in one afternoon. Def will re read.

We Want What We Want is an interesting collection of short stories. Alix Ohlin is a wonderful author, and I jumped at the chance to read the latest. The stories in this volume are all darkly hilarious, expecially if you have a bit of a twisted sense of humor and a love of irony, such as myself. All centered around the recurring theme of unfufilled desire leadng to pain and ruined lives, with each story featuring one character who wants one thing such as love but failing miserably, meanwhile we hear about a semi-close character whom has actually acheived the original desire, inspiring more pain and jealousy and hatred than what was there before.

This theme is an every day thing for the majority of society, we can't get everything we want so theres always some desire or dream that remains unfulfilled; Meanwhile we are bombarded with social media profiles full of people living our dream. While thats not a great feeling, this collection proves that if you step far enough back there is something funny about how things turned out.

I had very high hopes for this collection and while all the stories were decent, none of them really jumped out or imprinted in my thoughts, making We Want What We Want a decent read, but nothing to write home about either.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for providing a digital copy of this book in exhcange for my honest opinion.

This is a collection of stories mostly told from the point of view of a range of women characters in different stages of life, many coping with loss or abandonment in some way. “Darkly funny” is a good synopsis. Many stories more dark than funny. My absolute favorite was “Service Intelligence” where the main character has recently dropped out of college and now works with her aunt by undercover busting businesses that don’t follow corporate policies. The other stories were fine but not at this high level. The collection reminded me of Curtis Sittenfeld’s You Think It, I’ll Say It; Katherine Heiny’s single, Carefree, Mellow; and Roxane Gay’s Difficult Women. Though I must admit to liking each of those more than this one. Overall, I liked Ohlin’s writing but found this to be a good but not great collection.
Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for an advance electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

I am usually a fan of short story pieces, but for some reason, none of the pieces felt full or vibrant enough to come alive and be an effective short story