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Out There  By  cover art

Out There

By: Kate Folk
Narrated by: Sophie Amoss, Hannah Choi, Michael Crouch, Will Damron, Renata Friedman, Kristen Sieh
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Publisher's summary

A thrilling new voice in fiction injects the absurd into the everyday to present a startling vision of modern life, “[as] if Kafka and Camus and Bradbury were penning episodes of Black Mirror” (Chang-Rae Lee, author of My Year Abroad).

“Stories so sharp and ingenious you may cut yourself on them while reading.”—Kelly Link, author of
Get In Trouble

FINALIST FOR THE CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Chicago Review of Books, Kirkus Reviews

With a focus on the weird and eerie forces that lurk beneath the surface of ordinary experience, Kate Folk’s debut collection is perfectly pitched to the madness of our current moment. A medical ward for a mysterious bone-melting disorder is the setting of a perilous love triangle. A curtain of void obliterates the globe at a steady pace, forcing Earth’s remaining inhabitants to decide with whom they want to spend eternity. A man fleeing personal scandal enters a codependent relationship with a house that requires a particularly demanding level of care. And in the title story, originally published in The New Yorker, a woman in San Francisco uses dating apps to find a partner despite the threat posed by “blots,” preternaturally handsome artificial men dispatched by Russian hackers to steal data. Meanwhile, in a poignant companion piece, a woman and a blot forge a genuine, albeit doomed, connection.

Prescient and wildly imaginative, Out There depicts an uncanny landscape that holds a mirror to our subconscious fears and desires. Each story beats with its own fierce heart, and together they herald an exciting new arrival in the tradition of speculative literary fiction.

©2022 Kate Folk (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

Out There is for readers who consider body horror to be a love language. True romantics will swoon either despite or because of the gore that accompanies these sharp, affable stories . . . Folk’s stories have been compared to Shirley Jackson’s, and this is most apparent in the way Folk balances her horror with humor.”The New York Times Book Review

“[The short story] Out There originally ran in the New Yorker and was something of a viral sensation. Fans of the story won’t be disappointed by the collection, which also explores a gendered territory somewhere in the borderlands of magical realism, weird horror, sci-fi and literary fiction about jaded relationships.”Los Angeles Times

“Folk’s ample imagination ably . . . offer[s] a perfect encapsulation of our modern madnesses, like an Alice’s looking glass for our social media–obsessed age.”Chicago Review of Books

What listeners say about Out There

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Delightfuly strange

I love a good weird story and this is a whole bunch of those. just sci-fi story after story of weird things and man did I enjoy it. give it a read if you're looking for something different

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Tragically beautiful and honest

And funny! Each story made me think more as I did as a child, fewer rules. The stories are so fantastical yet so absolutely human and relatable. Listening just made me relax into my own strangeness a bit more. The last story was my absolute favorite.

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this really weaseled it’s way into my brain

4.5/5

Gonna be thinking about this one for a while. Murakami meets Black Mirror magical realism, set in contemporary every day life. Then one of the stories goes ahead and references Murakami, and I felt both called out and understood lol. Kinda mundane in a relatable way, kinda disturbing in a fantastical way. I don't know how else to describe this collection of stories, but I want to own this book and I'm eager to consume future work that Kate Folk puts out.

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Wonderfully Strange

I absolutely loved each of the stories in this book! They are bizarre and wonderful.

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Unique and fresh.

There were a few in here that I admit didn’t work for me, though the rest were so good that it has me questioning my first listen. There are some great ideas very well executed by a talented writer here. Looking forward to more.

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Just fantastic

A wonderful time throughout. Shorter stories that aren't full arcs are still worthwhile stories with intriguing ideas and fleshed out worlds that leave you thinking about their worlds.

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This was an entertaining book

Some stories better then the other, and some were really hard to get into or were predictable, overall: liked this book and am gonna listen to it again

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NOT BAD!

So these stories are sometimes weird, Creepy or even sexual at times but not bad. if you write another book like this try to make the stories even more creepy but mixed with sexual is fine. Narrators were good I would have the same in another book

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Great Stories Filled with a Big Helping of Weird

Great stories and narration with only one or two that fell flat. Weird stories that feel pulled straight from black mirror, Calls, or SCP. If you like off/odd things like that— definitely worth picking up.

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My favorite book of the year so far

I don't often read short story collections, but boy am I glad I read this one! For fans of Poe, the Twilight Zone and David Cronenberg, this fantastically creative, shocking, hilarious and touching collection is for you. I can't wait for her next book!

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