Give me all the Varela! I loved his debut, Town of Babylon so much that I couldn’t wait to go and read his short story collection. It did not disappoint. Brilliant insight into life as a lover, son, and just a human being over all. I feel that Varela has a distinctive voice which can be rare to find nowadays. You could probably post something of his anonymously and you’d still know it’s his.

I loved Town of Babylon last year, so I was happy to receive the ARC for this one. This short story collection is good but inconsistent; I guess I like Varela's longer fiction more. Excited to see what he releases next!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

A marvellous and meticulously crafted collection of short stories. Each are enjoyable in their own right and come together fantastically.

The Town of Babylon knocked my socks off, but this follow-up came so quickly it felt like the author just signed off a bunch of short stories that were lying around after the success of the novel. That's totally valid, but they did feel a bit repetitive and the narratives weren't as compelling as the longer form work.

This does not reach Town of Babylon potential, but it is a compelling story collection told by an important voice in the literary landscape.

"The People Who Report More Stress: Stories" by Varela offers glimpses into varied lives. The stories touch on stress and its impact, presenting a range of perspectives. Varela's writing is candid, but some narratives lack depth and cohesion. The book provides a mosaic of experiences, yet it may struggle to fully resonate due to uneven storytelling.

I tried very hard to like this short story collection but it just didn’t work for me. It could be the fact that the first story was written with a second person pov which then made me unexcited for the rest of the collection but all in all this was a not the book but me problem.

Thank you to Netgalley and Astra Publishing House for sending me an advanced copy

The People Who Report More Stress is a brilliant and engaging collection of interconnected short stories mostly told from the perspective of Latine/Latinx Queer men that examine race, classism, sex, parenthood, marriage, hookup culture, and the anxieties of trying to find one's place in the world. Fans of Varela's first book, The Town Of Babylon, will instantly recognize similarities between the characters in this book and his first title. Varela appears to craft his characters from personal experience and, in doing so, is able to create multi-dimensional characters whose inner thoughts and feelings jump from the pages. This book is a quick read that will leave its readers asking themselves questions about how they view the world.

Disclosure: I received a free Netgalley ARC of this book in exchange for my review. My review is my honest opinion.

I really enjoyed the People Who Report More Stress and the interconnected short stories. I liked Varela's writing and approach to discussing topics like family, identity, racism, and being queer. I certainly will read more from him!

An Other Man - 3
She And Her Kid And Me and Mine - 3
Mid-Town West Side Story - 3.5
All The Bullets Were Made In My Country - 4
Carlitos In Charge - 4.5
The Great Potato Famine - 4
The Man In 512 - 4
A Litany Of My Fears - 4
The Six Times Of Alan (And The First Two Hundred Of Eduardo) - 4
Comrades - 4
Grand Openings - 4.5
The People Who Report More Stress - 3

Well written but some of the stories felt as though they cut off in the middle of the plot, but that's just an issue I often have with short stories. I loved Carlitos In Charge, The Great Potato Famine and Grand Openings, the first was a fascinating look at the guts of the UN, I really liked the speaker in the second and the third was a really enjoyable evocation of Atwood. The focus on race, sexuality, domesticity and class was interesting, very fresh. What I liked most of all is the way in which the vast majority of these stories are connected, it makes me want to reread the collection while looking for connections.

A very cerebral collection of short stories centering queered up families, facing work-life problems, public health issues, family life, dating and love. Smartly told, inventive with form, these stories transcend "queer/gay literature" by removing compulsive heternormativity. I deeply enjoyed this collection, the wry humor, the pain, the annoyances, the mundanities, the big ideas.

4.5*

A gorgeous arrangement of interlinked stories that really worked well for me. There was some beautiful writing that captured the characters and themes, and I really loved the thoughtfulness about different types of love, family, belonging and identity. I have returned to reread several parts of it already.

Highly recommended!

*I received a free ARC and I have chosen to leave a review*

The People Who Report More Stress, is a collection of loosely connected short stories. They mostly follow the same character through different aspects of his life. He is a person of color, an activist, an intellectual, a gay man, and a parent. From the start this collection hits hard with stress. The first story is written from a second person point of view, making you, the reader, the person directly experiencing the events as they unfold. Compellingly written, the stories make the reader sweat, cringe, and feel the discomfort of being in the shoes of the main character. It pulls one through story after story, stressful situation after situation wondering if it ever ends, and that is one of the points, for some people, it doesn’t end. It is one stress after another, always on guard, always at the ready, always trying to think and be one step ahead of life.

A smart, funny, sexy, and uncomfortably real collection of "public health fiction" short stories that are accessible to anyone, but made especially for tired, brown, queer second-gens who've had panic attacks on public transportation.

This book is like nothing I've ever read before - not because its style is weird and experimental, but because of its intimacy and precision. I loved Alejandro Varela's use of language as a tether. There were so many new-to-me words and unexpected uses (a bland character is described as underwhelming like unmarinated tofu) and experiences outside my own identity, but I felt a gut-level understanding throughout every story.

PEOPLE WHO REPORT of course can't help but discuss how marginalized people face discrimination and oppression, but I enjoyed that there was a grounding, quotidian peace in these stories that allowed the characters to live their lives without a constant reminder of cis whiteness.

Clever and well-written short story collections are my shit, and this is no exception. Thank you to @astrahousebooks and NetGalley for the e-ARC! I’ll be thinking about this one for a while. (The rating is a high 3, near 4!)

I loved this book. As someone who deals with a lot of stress and anxiety, it was a perfect portrayal of the various stories of that life. I really loved all the different aspects to stress and anxiety this book managed to reflect. I’m also a sucker for any short story collection and this wasn’t an exception.

I enjoyed all the stories in The People Who. I typically struggle with short story collections because of the seemingly inevitable lull that occurs when a story isn't as strong as the others. I have read Varela's prior work, The Town of Babylon, so I knew coming in the voice that would be used. I appreciate the public health undercurrent in all his stories about trying to just live your life as a POC in NYC. His stories are so relatable and spot on and the message he is trying to send is clear.

As I've mentioned in my other book reviews, I absolutely love a short story collection, especially one that plays/experiments with form, that has stories that are connected, and one that makes me strongly resonate with the overall book. Alejandro Varela does such a great job doing all of that in <i>The People Who Report More Stress<i>. I love Varela's clever writing that discusses important social issues while being able to weave in humor, tenderness, and seriousness. I also liked how it followed a general trajectory of the main characters' lives and relationship throughout these short stories. There's something intriguing to me when there are main characters that show up in and out of a short story collection. It reminds me how in real life we (and others) exist and can fade as life progresses. This was my first exposure to Varela's writing, so I can't wait to read Varela's other works.

Thanks to Astra House and NetGalley for the ARC!

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories - most of which are centred around a queer couple living in New York. The writing was precise and effective, and seeing these characters in different times and circumstances was quite a refreshing take on the now-typical sophomore short story collection.
The majority of these stories focus on discussions of particular social or political issues, and I wish it had gone a bit deeper with some of them - we have lots of characters in conversation discussing these things but not much about how these issues actually affect them. That being said, race is a major tentpole in these stories and is discussed and portrayed with so much nuance and detail, especially as it relates to our protagonists.
The stories that stood out to me are the ones that played with form - there's one written in second person, one following alternate timelines of these characters' lives, and my personal favourite: one that follows a string of bad dates, written as a call-and-response between the candidates' dating profiles and the conversations they have in person. I wish there were more of these, especially since they're mostly towards the end, leaving the bulk of the book a blur of similar narratives.
I'm very excited to see what Varela writes next, especially when not restrained by the short story format.

There was something so familiar about each of the short stories written in this collection, and I attribute that to the author’s writing style: it is distinct and engaging and I was easily enraptured in each story. There is a subtle tension between the narrator and each of the characters they interact with I really enjoyed and so much of the subject matter was meaningfully discussed.