Atavists: Stories is a collection of connected (sometimes vaguely) short stories of people who are "ists", set in 2025. The pandemic, global warming, and current events are pretty prevalent in these. I had a hard time relating, therefore caring, about many of the characters, probably due to a generational difference. As an audiobook I appreciated different voice actors but it became difficult to differentiate because none of the POVs repeat, so you may have the same voice for one character as her mom had, and her brothers girlfriend, etc, so this may have been better to physically read. I also got a little bored halfway through because nothing major or exciting really happens.
Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape media for the ARC!

Atavists is a collection of stories detailing the lives of various "-ists"—a cosmetologist, an insurrectionist, etc,—and how their lives intertwine. The themes in this book are relevant, but it felt like a very surface-level exploration of topics like the pandemic and climate change. I think the pandemic is especially hard to write about successfully in fiction, and in this case it falls flat beyond providing context for the time in which the stories take place. It's also hard for a book like this to feel timeless even just a few years out from its publication.

I do think the characters were unique and original. I am wondering if I would have enjoyed this more if I physically read it instead of listening to the audiobook. It helped that the audiobook had three different narrators, but with so many characters to keep track of and the lack of truly distinct voices for each one, I sometimes wasn't sure whose story I was listening to. This was a quick and easy listen, though, and I would be interested in reading more from Millet!

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audio arc!

Lydia Millet never misses. She is a huge climate activist so her stories always have themes of climate fiction but this one definitely focused more on relationships and how the generations have changed it’s funny and thoughtful and I related to so many of these stories. Easy reading, need a copy for my shelves when it’s out April 22!

This was such a unique listen. Atavists: Stories is a fictional book of short stories where each story is loosely connected. I thought each story was so different, some sad, some hilarious, some makes you annoyed at the main character. I was excited to learn that Hilary Huber was one of the narrators. She is one of my favorites. I thought this was so well done and different than anything I've ever read. I laughed out quiet a few times. I would recommend this to anyone that wants a fictional palette cleanser. I also found a lot of the stories timely with what is going on in our world today. Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this audio ARC.