Readers with limited moments to enjoy their favorite pastime undoubtedly appreciate what short stories have to offer. Although challenges rest on the author to tell a full-fledged, engaging story in 20 pages or less, the results are rewarding for everyone. Sex Romp Gone Wrong by Julia Ridley Smith explores the struggles and psyches of women across different generations and socioeconomic classes. Whether it’s infertility, motherhood, friendship, grief/loss, or fidelity, there’s a story for readers to relate to.
In one story, a young woman is in a questionable relationship. She lacks a solid work ethic, imagining different scenarios that might play out on a day in her life. In another story, a woman is forced to reconnect with her ex-best friend when their children develop a friendship and cannot be contacted after a night out. Another story features a young girl questioning her own innate perceptions after a violent encounter with a mentally unstable black man.
The stories in Sex Romp Gone Wrong show off Smith’s talent for exploration, diversity, and introspection. And they are all connected through themes of desire, regret, loss, infatuation, spirituality, and more that women and children endure.
Here are my favorites among the collection:
- Don’t Breathe, Breathe
- Flown
- Delta Foxtrot
- Tooth
- The Woman Who Did Things Wrong
- Damn It, Damn It, Damn It
Julia Ridley Smith joins the Cantina Book Club podcast to talk about how her collection came to be and what she hopes readers get out of it. Keep an ear out for the interview and preorder Sex Romp Gone Wrong, available February 6.
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