The result is a collection that examines, in all its myriad forms, what a story is, how it can change, and what role it can play in guiding and reflecting the society it belongs to. Khaw doesn’t limit themselves to the grander topics of love, death, gods, and monsters, but also examines human connections, abuse, consent, boundaries, culture, and the underpinnings of our own social relationships. It’s a book that doesn’t lose the lyricism or lush quality innate to older myths and folklore, but that pulls those themes into a more present context.
It’s been said that reviewers shouldn’t mention if a book has a twist (no idea why – but that’s for another time), but when it comes to books by Catriona Ward, readers are best just to assume that the whole story is something they’ll never see coming.Breakable Things, the new short story collection by Cassandra Khaw, is a book of modern myths–not in the sense that it updates older tales for the modern day, but in the way it remixes, changing the viewpoints of stories, and adding new details. There are a few places in the middle where the forward motion seems to stall, but it really doesn’t harm the overall impact of the book. Our inner lives and outer lives don’t always take place linearly, and neither does this book. Some of this is because of the short length of the chapters and some is due to the way the story plays out. Sundial weaves these together rather seamlessly and the reader will find it easy to keep track of exactly what is happening. It can be difficult to follow a story that traverses multiple timelines, let alone one that also has chapters from different points of view. It is here that the bulk of the story takes place and Ward does a great job of having the desert itself become a character in the story. After she notices Callie heading into the darkness she remembers from her own childhood and something terrible happens, Rob decides to take her to Sundial, her family home in the middle of the Mojave Desert. She is flawed and relatable, making her connections to her daughters and hateful husband stronger. Sundial boasts the same addicting storytelling with a completely unique premise. If readers loved The Last House on Needless Street, they don’t need to look far for another page-turner from Catriona Ward.
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