Staff Pick
The close-up character studies in Kait Heacock’s stories are full of real-life pain, sadness, and desire. Although there are a lot of heartbreaking goodbyes throughout Siblings and Other Disappointments, the encouraging thing is that this book is one hearty "hello" to an impressive new storyteller. Put on some country music, get in that rocking chair, and soak it in. Recommended By Kevin S., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Siblings and Other Disappointments is a collection of twelve stories that focus on families—spouses, parents, children, and siblings—and the many ways they fight, forgive, or fall apart. With a rich sense of place, Heacock offers us snapshots of family dramas set in the Pacific Northwest. Stories follow a long-haul truck driver, a mother waiting for the rapture, newlyweds on a trip to the mountains, and many other characters touched by loneliness and isolation, demanding that we interrogate the ways in which we exist apart and within our own families.
Review
"Twelve stories of wounds and disappointments Kait Heacock's debut story collection, Siblings and Other Disappointments, winds through fractures and futile hopes, broken promises and loneliness, exploring all the ways family however it s defined can simultaneously be comforting and terrible. Each story in the collection is painful in its own way, and yet there's hope to be found, too, and certainly beauty. As a whole, Siblings and Other Disappointments skillfully explores the space between what we want our families to be and what our families actually are." Nicole Wolverton
Review
"Kait Heacock's Pacific Northwest is full of fractured families trying to repair themselves, wayward children making incomplete sense of their parents foibles and grief, a mother waiting patiently for the Rapture, and a father bonding with his daughter over a Mack Attack Stack Challenge. These are closely observed, unsentimental stories about parents, children, husbands, and wives finding their uncertain way after wreckage has laid them low. Yet the heartache at the center of these stories is leavened by Heacock's clear-eyed compassion and humor. This finely crafted debut collection heralds an important new voice in the literary West." K. L. Cook
Review
"Heacock's stories feel like tiny homecomings, like peering in the windows of the real Northwest and glimpsing its shabby, secret heart. These characters poignancy is in the smallness of their desires: to sit down again at the same counter; to be seen; to touch hands across the darkness, even as time makes them and all of us obsolete." Megan Kruse
Review
"The close-up character studies in Kait Heacock's stories are full of real-life pain, sadness, and desire. Although there are a lot of heartbreaking goodbyes throughout Siblings and Other Disappointments, the encouraging thing is that this book is one hearty hello to an impressive new storyteller." Kevin Sampsell
Synopsis
Kait Heacock delves into the vulnerability of relationships and the various ways families fight, forgive, or fall apart. Her debut collection of twelve short stories follows a long-haul truck driver, a mother waiting for the rapture, newlyweds on a trip to the mountains, a father who competes in food-eating competitions, and an array of other characters scattered throughout Central Washington, down to Nevada, and up to Alaska. Each story explores themes of loneliness and isolation and how those exist both apart from our families and within them. Siblings and Other Disappointments unpacks the myriad meanings of the word family and the ways in which the bonds of those units are forged, dissolved, or simply maintained.
About the Author
Kait Heacock grew up in the same small town as her idol Raymond Carver—she hopes this means something. Kait is a feminist writer and book publicist living in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has appeared in literary journals, magazines, and online, with outlets like Bustle, DAME Magazine, Esquire, KGB Bar & Lit Mag,Portland Review, tNY.Press, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and The Washington Post. Kait studied creative writing at Seattle Pacific University and earned her master’s degree from Portland State University, where she worked for Ooligan Press. Siblings: Stories is her first book.