Breathing Is How Some People Stay Alive
Book •
Alison Gadsby's Breathing Is How Some People Stay Alive is a 2026 collection of connected short stories that blends elements of horror, catastrophic speculative fiction, and psychological realism.
The stories—often described as weird fiction—follow characters grappling with loneliness, trauma, and fraught familial bonds, including sisters, brothers, and mothers.
Recurring motifs include water and swimming, humanoid companions, and morally ambiguous actions that place readers in uncomfortable ethical territory.
Gadsby's spare, incisive prose foregrounds intrusive thoughts and reversals of power, especially in depictions of women refusing to sanitize themselves for patriarchal comfort.
The collection interrogates empathy and culpability while inviting varied reader reactions and discussion.
The stories—often described as weird fiction—follow characters grappling with loneliness, trauma, and fraught familial bonds, including sisters, brothers, and mothers.
Recurring motifs include water and swimming, humanoid companions, and morally ambiguous actions that place readers in uncomfortable ethical territory.
Gadsby's spare, incisive prose foregrounds intrusive thoughts and reversals of power, especially in depictions of women refusing to sanitize themselves for patriarchal comfort.
The collection interrogates empathy and culpability while inviting varied reader reactions and discussion.
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Hollay Ghadery
Alison Gadsby, "Breathing Is How Some People Stay Alive" (Guernica Editions, 2026)
