This was a good collection of stories, but the first one felt weak and uninteresting. I wish it came later. The narrator was a great choice and really brought the stories to life.

Here are my top observations and notes about SAVE ME, STRANGER:
-short story collection
-lovely narration
-atmospheric place descriptions
-I enjoyed some stories, and didn't love some others
-variety of settings and POVs — I worry a bit about the portrayal of other countries in some stories
-I wish the writing had been a bit tighter in the longer stories — I started to drift a bit and lose interest at times due to pacing issues
-Standout stories: The Pole of Cold, The Piano, North of Dodge, Eat My Moose
-PLEASE heed the content warnings for this one!

I wasn’t bored. Some of the stories were actually pretty interesting. The stories kept me entertained and the narration was good throughout.

I really wanted to like this one! Unfortunately, I found nearly every character to be unlikeable. Which is okay, but not exactly what I was expecting. I felt very strongly about stories that led to heterosexual romance - also did not fit the thesis of the book for me, and also felt forced. I found the last story to be the most memorable and most reflective of the description of the book.

The people in the Save Me, Stranger stories are often isolated - whether by remote location, mental alienation, or other circumstances. This leads to the deep introspection and high-stakes choices they confront. This includes a pair of veterans whose cancers go in remission while the assist others in ending their lives, the mayor of a remote Siberian town being offered escape to New York by the man whose parents' research plane crashed on top of her father, and several other scenarios. The situations and resolutions are intriguing and thought-provoking in how they test humanity. This is a very imaginative and vividly written collection.

4.5 ⭐

I don't usually read short stories but I am so glad I picked these up. I love character driven books and each short story had me completely immersed in the characters and fully committed to their stories before it switched to the next one.

Full of emotion and turmoil, each short story launches you into the life of a character. Someone on the run from their abusive husband. Someone living in the coldest place on earth, each day surviving and nothing more, after losing her father in a plane crash. Someone running a ramen shop,.observing a man sleeping standing up each day outside the station.

If you enjoy books like A Man Called Ove, Remarkably Bright Creatures, and Shark Heart you will enjoy these bite sized chunks of life.

Highly recommend. I enjoyed this on audio, well done. Thank you to MacMillan Audio for a copy to enjoy.

I don’t usually love short story collections but this collection was flawless. Each story was so very different but they spanned so many aspects of humanity, and they were all complex in their own way. I found them to each be just the right length.

save me, stranger by erika krouse 🚶🏻‍♂️ a short story collection that explores the borderlands between humor and hurt, community and self, and hope and despair, redefining what it means to survive.

an assemblage of twelve short stories that showcase the beautiful and ugly parts of humanity. my favorites were:
❄️ the pole of cold
🍦 north of dodge
✍🏻 save me, stranger
🍜 the standing man
👻 fear me as you fear god (my fav!)

despite the obsure settings, (think driving an ice cream truck in gang territory, the literal coldest town in the world, a haunted bed and breakfast in the rocky mountains and a sex shop in bangkok- just to name a few) don’t be fooled as these stories contain heavy topics!

all twelve stories ended pretty abruptly so expect that before diving in & be sure to check the content warnings!

how far are you willing to go to save another person… or yourself? thank you macmillan audio for the early copy 🎧 3 stars!

In this collection is short stories, Erika Krouse explores characters across the globes that are in the borderlands between humor and hurt, community and self, hope and despair. Each defining what it means to survive.

I am not typically drawn to short stories due to the short length to develop the story and characters. But in each of these stories the characters were well developed with a complete story line, from the coldest town in the world, a sex shop in Bangkok to a Bed and Breakfast in the Rockies. While I still wanted just a little bit more, there were fantastic stories in and of themselves.

Enjoyed these stories! Very real characters, with tangible worlds. Enjoyed! I did feel like a lot of the stories ended too quickly, for me. I often was like: "Oh, is it over?" And had to relisten. I think I personally prefer a story with more of a whollop at the end. But, overall, recommended if you enjoy story collections.

This was so interesting! I have not read/listened to anything like this before. Most of the stories were completely captivating, but there were a couple I could have done without. However, the captivating ones will stick with me. Thank you so much to MacMillan Audio for the ALC! I honestly would probably not have heard of this book otherwise.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a collection of short stories by an author rather than a full-length novel, but I really enjoy this format. It showcases the literary talent of the author to be able to come up with a wide range of creative concepts that all have a common feel.

This is a well-rounded conglomeration that captures raw humanity with the characters contemplating mortality. Each story has a unique protagonist of various ages, socioeconomic status, and backgrounds set in totally different immersive locations. They are a quick, but deep, glimpse into the intrinsic thoughts of the lead characters at a particular major occurrence in their lives. My favorite chapter was the story that shared the same name as the book title that was about a young single mother whose in the wrong place at the wrong time, but in that crucial moment the kindness of a stranger impacts her significantly.

The audiobook narrators (male and female) were both fantastic and bonus points for lovely cover art.

From sex shops in Bangkok to a diving site in Texas, these stories told from across the globe are connected by a thread of raw honesty. They share a subtle portrayal of the best of us and the worst of us and how our interconnected humanity can lead to us saving one another.

This is not a series of uplifting tales with happy endings but rather spare prose that had me hanging on each sentence, each story, each flawed and complicated character. With distilled and sharp writing spanning so many emotions, Krouse has created a collage of introspection, textured and multi layered.

The 7 1/2 hour audiobook expertly narrated by Blair Baker and Adam Ewer will stay with me for some time, in the same way The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck has. In this busy season, I hope you can treat yourself to quiet, uninterrupted time to digest the messaging. Readers may recognize Krouse’s name as the author of the true crime 2022 book Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation. This new work is very different and just as compelling.

Many thanks to Net Galley, Macmillan Audio and Flatiron Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #MacmillanAudio for this incredible collection of short stories. Notably, the narration was stellar -- Adam Ewer and Blair Baker brought the already rich, funny, and heartbreaking stories to life. I am often moved by great writing but not frequently to actual tears, Erika Krouse did just that (specifically on two separate stories). I've been reading a lot of speculative fiction lately (esp. short stories) and the twelve contained in this collection felt more rooted in "the believable" (as life can far out-weird fiction - especially these days). A haunted inn, settings so frigid i had chills just reading about them, questionable "miracles" in the lives of the terminally ill--all of these had elements of the fantastic though they did not feel that way.

These first person tales centered on characters in chaotic situations and/or tremendous life transitions -- many of them literally included life and death situations (for the character and/or for someone else). And not just chaotic transitions: issues such as assisted suicide, dark family secrets, abuse, poverty, addiction, and many other raw facets of human relationships (from the beautiful to the devastating). All of this content was effectively conjured via characters I really cared about (or, at times, despised).

Erika Krouse is such a talented writer and I'm now looking forward to reading her debut memoir. One of the greatest aspects of reading and reviewing ARCs is discovering talented, diverse voices I may have not been aware of. These are thrilling discoveries for me. The audiobook download did not provide the names of the 12 stories, so I went back, chapter by chapter, and noted them after finishing the book. What I found was how vividly and viscerally I remembered each one of those stories (and then listened again to four of them prior to writing this review).

I really loved this collection. I have three quotes bookmarked to tweet upon the book's release on 1.21.2025 but one so perfectly encapsulates the collection that I have to add it now: 'Pain is easy to understand until it's yours."

**Review of *Save Me, Stranger* by Erika Krouse**
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

*Save Me, Stranger* is an exceptional collection of short stories, each exploring the theme of salvation—whether it's saving oneself, helping another, or escaping the grip of abuse. Far from the typical "Happily Ever After," these stories are a powerful testament to human resilience, highlighting the strength it takes to survive and the transformative impact of small acts of change.

The collection spans diverse settings: from the cold expanses of northern Siberia to the fast-paced streets of Tokyo, from a small-town American hotel to the heartbreaking tourist traps in Thailand. These stories are not just about survival but also the deep, lasting influence of kindness and intervention that alters lives in unexpected ways.

Erika Krouse’s writing is compelling, and the audiobook narrators do a fantastic job of bringing the stories to life, making the emotions feel raw and real. This is a book that will resonate long after the final page. I highly recommend it, both for its gripping storytelling and its insightful look at the complexity of human relationships and resilience.

It would be an excellent choice for book clubs, offering plenty of material for discussion. I’m grateful to NetGalley for the ARC and happy to provide this honest review. *Save Me, Stranger* is a collection I will revisit again.

Review
All you need to know about the premise of this collection of short stories is in the title. Each story is quite literally about strangers saving each other from a variety of perilous and/or strange situations. I found these stories unsettling as I listened to them, a testimony to the storytelling and narrators, and really satisfying to pick apart and think through later.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for this audiobook for review purposes.