If We the Animals hooked you with feral hunger and queer combustion, let Afterparties by deliver that voltage through donut shops and Central Valley rage.
Buy on AmazonWhy It's Your Next Read
- Khmer diaspora fury meets donut-shop claustrophobia
- Dark comedy sharpens every family wound
- Queer desire combusts against refugee guilt
- Vignettes pulse w/ generational betrayal & survival
If We the Animals gave you that feral ache—the volatile kitchen-table fury, the queer kid watching everything crack apart—then Anthony Veasna So's Afterparties delivers the same raw voltage through Cambodian-American lives in California's Central Valley. Here are families still bleeding from genocide, still feeding their children through donut-shop marathons and unspoken rage, still producing kids who hunger for escape and selfhood while bound by impossible loyalty.
So writes with Torres's gift for emotional detonation, but swaps lyricism for dark comedy that cuts just as deep. These vignettes pulse with desire, shame, and the specific loneliness of growing up other in a place that wants you flattened.
This is trauma as inheritance, queerness as survival, and storytelling that refuses to look away.
What Readers Are Saying
"An outstanding short story collection...exceptionally crafted, melancholy, disaffected, and very funny in parts." — Roxane, Goodreads
"This book of short stories reflects the voice of a rare talent...the writing is witty, smart, and poetic. His storytelling is radiant, celebratory." — Ming, Goodreads
"An intimate, spirited collection of stories...a skillful and personal debut that holds nothing back." — Emily Coffee and Commentary, Goodreads
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