I have a real passion for sociological fiction, and the short form stories here lend themselves to the exploration of important issues. Not a light read, but the themes of trauma, materialism and relationships are treated well.

A must read. Reading this was a true visceral experience for me - I physically found myself holding my breath during certain stories, cringing, smiling, nodding my head…the works—continually stunned by the breadth and depth of these short stories.

O’Brien writes with an attention not only to the typical details of a character but also the subtle ones that made even the unlikeable characters redeeming and understood. These are short stores that are about relationships with others and self - sounds like a routine summary of any book but this one is different. It’s a masterful collection of nuanced characters that will stick with me for a long time. There’s one about a wealthy mom and her adult son studying for the LSAT that was so complex and beautiful in the limits and expanses of a mother-son relationship that it made me wistful.
Don’t skip this one - read and take your time doing so. It’ll make it longer to finish - I regret reading it in a day - the writing is that good. Buying a copy when it publishes. Heartfelt thanks to Northwestern Press for the advanced copy. I’m so grateful.

A good set of literary stories. Some readers won't connect with a lot of these stories, nor did I. But the author writes well and there are lots of good moments and stories. Recommended

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

I was very excited to start reading All Roads: Stories by Colleen O’Brien. These short stories could be moments grasped from daily lives. Things people in real life go through or live with.

The writing style was something I had to get used to, but after the first story, I had gotten quite into it. Some stories, like Charlie, for instance, I loved, others, like #, were not my cup of tea. Honestly, I didn’t like the majority of the stories. It was not that I hated the other stories, but I did not love them either. They were not spectacular, they were not boring. I just felt very indifferent about them.

Those stories I felt indifferent about, were pointless to me. It was like there was nothing the author was working towards. After reading those stories I often asked myself: Why did I read this? Why was it written? Often they felt unfinished. This made it difficult for me to move on to the next story.

The stories I did like hit me on quite a deep level. They were often quite emotional or consisted of moments of friendship that I liked and felt familiar with. I loved reading Diretora and Shopping. These two stories just felt so real to me. Like I was watching someone else’s life.

The short stories in Colleen O'Brien's All Roads can best be described as visceral. On more than one occasion, I physically cringed away from the page, and I mean that as a compliment: it's incredible that she brought to life these vivid characters and moments in such brief glimpses - some contained in just five pages. As a collection, it reminded me of Curtis Sittenfeld's 'You Think It, I'll Say It'' - both piercingly observant and more than a little unsettling, or at least unsettled.

My favorites were 'Charlie,' 'Valentine's Day,' 'The Deal', 'The Cheesecake Factory,' and 'Here For,' but truly, I appreciated nearly all. I found 'All Roads' unpleasant, but in a provocative and compellingly hate-readable way. Similarly, I'll be going back to 'The Fathers' because I have a sense there's something powerful there, but I'll admit that on first read I struggled to follow all the Michaels and their relationships to one another.

I'm thrilled to have gotten to know O'Brien as an author; hers is a collection that invites revisiting and warrants space on my increasingly crowded bookshelf. I'll be purchasing (and underlining, and rereading) a hard copy.