Marni Appleton’s bittersweet debut collection of short stories focuses on the experiences of millennial women – their obsessions, friendships, betrayals and crushes. Appleton is good on mother-daughter relationships. In the title story, Ana is alienated by the realisation that everyone around her is pregnant. As she obsesses about the breakdown of her friendship with Chloe, tormented by her upbeat social media posts, we realise there is more going on: Ana is projecting her pain about her bipolar mother and conflicted emotions about having children.
In Road Trip, 17-year-old Allie hangs out with older friends. Her mother’s coldness is palpable when she picks up her hungover daughter. Driving home, they have to stop so Allie can vomit. Left there by her mother, Allie recalls other incidents of maternal cruelty: “How bad do you have to be to be rejected by the person whose body was your first home?”
