In RICKY & OTHER LOVE STORIES, Whitney Collins applies her sharp eye, dark humor, and generous heart to love stories (and the stories we tell ourselves about love).
Among the wacky, tacky, lovesick, and lovelorn characters are: Ilona, the misanthropic mother and unhappy fiancé who is increasingly transfixed by a rash of local shark attacks; Imogen, the sperm bank client who cultivates the love she madly desires inside herself; and Aurora Flood, the coma survivor on a mission to plant a sacred seed from the Olive Garden.
Blending elements of southern gothic, speculative fiction, and horror, RICKY & OTHER LOVE STORIES is political and personal, bitter and sweet, and—ultimately—a lot like love.
“RICKY is tender, brilliant, and true. In these stories, Collins achieves an ecstatic portrait of the human heart.”
—Dana Vachon co-author with Jim Carrey of Memoirs and Misinformation
“Rippling with lusty eccentrics and village witches and any number of go-for-broke schemers, RICKY is the kind of wickedly funny book that, whenever you throw your head back in laughter, drops a fierce capsule of truth into the pink of your throat.”
—Karen Tucker author of Bewilderness
“If you prefer your love stories shaken, stirred, or dashed upon the rocks, RICKY is for you. With her trademark brevity, insight, and wit, Collins beautifully blurs the line between love and obsession. These stories yank aside the curtain, exposing the raw, and often rusty, inner workings of human affection.”
—Jen Fawkes author of Tales the Devil Told Me
“In her latest collection, Collins doubles down on her reputation as a fiercely imaginative and devastatingly astute writer.”
—Hannah Pittard author of We Are Too Many
“In RICKY, Collins reveals and revels in the lives of the odd, the grotesque, the lonely, and unloved. She has a voice so funny, so unsparing—yet so humane and tender—it’s hard to think of any other writer doing anything quite like her.”
—Andrew Bertaina author of One Person Away From You