I am a millennial woman from Wellington, New Zealand, and in the future I will point to certain stories in this book and say "do you want to know that living in New Zealand was really like back then? We were always cold because our houses are shit and we were frequently horrible to each other because there was nothing else to do". Like, I love my country and my hometown, but as the rest of the world finds us on the map and thinks we're some socialist utopia because we have a competent female leader, I would like them all to read Bug Week and be made aware that life can actually be pretty grim here sometimes!

Having said all that, Bug Week is actually really good and fully deserving of all the awards - it's incredibly moving. Trigger warning though, there's a fair bit of (devastatingly written) sexual violence, won't be for everyone. ( )

(8.5)This is my first book of this years NZ Ockham Book Awards shortlist. I really do wonder if we shouldn't have a separate category for short stories as we have many good New Zealand short story writers.
I found this collection was mainly focused on relationships, be it a marital affair in 'Bug week', teacher and student in 'The girl who shaved the moose', mother and daughter in 'The turtle'. However as the book progresses, there was also an emphasis on feminism. The kiwi male is not often portrayed in a flattering light. They are mostly a convincing anecdote from contemporary lives but the final story 'A Quiet Death' which I read in the early hours of the morning, concludes on a deeply disturbing scene. i would sincerely hope this was pure fiction. ( )

Excellent collection of short stories; some of the locales I recognised. "The girl who shaved the moose" is based on an actual slightly-shaved trophy moose in the collection of the Whanganui Regional Museum, where I was once a curator and where Arini's mum was an educator. No idea whom the neatly-dressed entomology curator/lust object in "Bug week" is based on. ( )