Slug and Other Stories

September 13, 2021
Milks (Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body) delivers a thought-provoking and sometimes fantastical collection about identity and desire, often employing the conventions of computer games, popular teen magazines, and choose-your-own-adventure tales. “The Strands” recounts trans person Tegan’s devastating breakup with their ex-girlfriend Sarah, whose quickly growing strands of leftover hair threaten to take over Tegan’s apartment nearly a year after Sarah’s departure. Similar surrealisms abound in the title story, in which a sexually adventurous writer metamorphizes into a slug after having sex with one. The best stories, however, are those that explore the notion of the body as a site of both connection and confinement, as is the case in the labyrinthine “Twins,” in which twin sisters Allison and Stephanie Starling contemplate switching places as part of a plot to rescue their English teacher, whom they suspect has been abducted and replaced by an extraterrestrial impostor—or when nonmonogamous lovers Fred and Warren’s long-distance relationship becomes threatened by their use of a mysterious “remote sexual stimulation device” in the ill-boding “Take Us to Your LDR.” Unapologetically bold and insightful, this will delight Milks’s fans. Agent: Rachel Crawford, Wolf Literary Services.

Starred review from October 15, 2021
A revised, expanded edition of Milks' transgressive debut collection, Kill Marguerite and Other Stories, originally published in 2014. Twinship, sexual relationships, parent-child relationships, and friendships are the subjects of this hypersexual and hyperconfrontational short story collection. The author pushes every boundary and taboo, exploring how a pairing can result in one person's dominating another or changing for another. The opening story, "Slug," establishes the themes of free discovery and creative sexuality. A woman has sex with--and is transformed by--a giant slug following a date with a disappointing man. Human-animal erotic pairings are explored further in "Wild Animals," in which a VHS bestiality porno "infects" a character's mind and sexual behaviors: "There, in that other realm, was a rhythm so fixed that bodies don't need to be." Human-tech connections and imaginative pairings of body parts abound in daring tales that challenge certainties about gender, fantasy, and identity. Trans characters and transitions of all kinds are frequent subjects; characters' genders and identities are malleable: "He and she can mean anything." The author asks questions about queer communities and how they define themselves. These tales often allude to touchstones like Seventeen magazine, The Babysitter's Club, My Little Pony, video games, and the Choose Your Own Adventure series. Milks uses the framework or style of the source as a scaffold, but their insights about relationships are fresh and original; these are stories about deep pain, shame, lust, and love. Speculative elements are frequent, as in "The Strands," in which a woman's former lover's hair grows to cover an entire apartment. One of the most arresting tales is "Patrick Gets Inspired," an autofictional examination of an author's attempt to write Covid pornography. It deals with infection, consummation, and release: "Spit. Droplets. Breath. Vehicles of contagion. Objects of fear." Tender little stories that will make you gasp and squirm.

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October 15, 2021
In these unforgettable stories, Milks' gift for specificity and poignant body horror are on full display. The tales highlight the weird and wonderful dysphoria and dysmorphia that can accompany youth. In "Kill Marguerite," a preteen lives in a simulation video game of her own life, trying to survive and beat the skinny bullies. Milks bends genre and gender, weaves woes of sexuality and identity into stories about the mundane, and delivers a satisfying arc every time. There's a choose-your-own-adventure story about alien abduction, some Tegan and Sara fanfic, and, of course, as the titular story suggests, a person who turns into a slug. Milks is a powerhouse, churning out multiple titles in 2021. This collection (an expanded and evolved variation on their out-of-print debut, Kill Marguerite and Other Stories, 2014) follows Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body and an editing credit for We Are the Baby-Sitters Club. The gore and guts and unbelievable antics are perfect reading for this dystopian era, and Milks is an exquisite writer for this time.

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