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Baby is a Thing Best Whispered by Keely O’Shaughnessy [BOOK REVIEW]

Book Review of Baby is a Thing Best Whispered by Keely O’Shaughnessy

I’ve started to get more attention to do some of these free book reviews online, mostly getting traction from Twitter.  That’s where Keely found me and asked if I would be interested in reviewing her ARC for Baby is a Thing Best Whispered.  She was forward that it was not necessarily horror, but that it had dark elements and would probably fit the bill.

Keely, it’s got some darkkkkkk dark elements.  It works!

And it’s good.

After a few more nice exchanges with this very professional up-and-coming author, I agreed to review her ARC for a fair and unbiased rating.  I was not paid for my review and I am not getting anything in return for this review from either the author nor the publisher.  It is completely of my own review, although I make an Amazon affiliate commission if you purchase this book through my website–so please help support me and the author!  There are no spoilers below!

Who is Keely O’Shaughnessy?

When I review a book from someone up-and-coming, I like to offer the opportunity to learn a little more about that author and share it.  Keely is a professional and very polite, and I have a nice time communicating back-and-forth with her.  I learned some great things and she shared some information about herself that you should all know about.

Keely is a fiction writer with Cerebral Palsy, who lives in Gloucestershire, U.K. with her husband and two cats.  Right here you know that this is one tough cookie.  She is an inspiration already to everyone with her writing, and her ability to snap a reader’s attention with her many other attributes should be a beacon of success and hope for anyone encumbered by any condition like CP.  Good on ya, Keely!  Keep inspiring us all!

She has been shortlisted for the Bath Flash Fiction Award and won Retreat West’s Monthly Micro contest. Her micro-chapbook, The Swell of Seafoam, was published as part of Ghost City Press’ Summer Series 2022. Her writing has been published by Ellipsis Zine, Complete Sentence, Reflex Fiction and Emerge Literary Journal and (mac)ro(mic), and more.

Her short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions and selected for the Wigleaf Top 50. She is Managing Editor at Flash Fiction Magazine.

Keely’s debut collection is this, Baby is a Thing Best Whispered, which is being publish by Alien Buddha Press.

Make sure to follow Keely and learn more about her and her works on her website keelyoshaughnessy.com or on Twitter @KeelyO_writer. 

Now that we know a little more about Keely, let’s dive into our review!

About the Book from the Publisher/Author

“Baby is a Thing Best Whispered” is a collection of flash fiction stories that involve births and deaths. The dying, lost children and those looking to be reborn.

Here is a little about the book from its publisher listing and Amazon blurb:

“In Baby is a Thing Best Whispered, Keely O’Shaughnessy brilliantly charts adolescence, trauma, the causal links between actions and generations, motherhood, and mending parental wounds, all with sublime wordcraft and control. Reframing adverse experiences with fabulism, the ethereal and painfully true, this book finds nostalgia without the rose tint, and its thematic arc builds to a masterful crescendo. This is a book I will never forget.”

– Liza Olson, author of Here’s Waldo, The Brother We Share, and Afterglow, EIC of (mac)ro(mic) (affiliate links)

 

“There’s something circular and satisfying about Keely O’Shaughnessy’s debut collection Baby is a Thing Best Whispered – a body of literary work about the body, a body, bodies. In twenty-two tiny stories, O’Shaughnessy whispers and shouts and muses about spider crabs, flotation therapy, the cinema, cookies, biology, teeth, sinners, manicures, mazes, plants and – babies. The language and descriptions are rich and lyrical in these memorable flashes as her writer’s voice draws the reader in close with whispers and truths about linked lives, from baby to adulthood.”

-Amy Cipolla Barnes, author of Mother Figures, and Ambrotypes (affiliate links)

 

“The words in Keely O’Shaughnessy’s debut flash fiction collection, Baby is a Thing Best Whisperedshoot off the page, sharp and painful, like a poisoned cupid’s arrow, aimed straight at the heart, where they cut short, but deep, and linger like an open wound. This collection, in its startling beauty and shimmering precision, explores loss and leaving, love and lust, all within the remit of complicated and intimate relationships. An absolute must-read.”

-Laura Besley, author of The Almost Mothers, 100neHundred and (Un)Natural Elements

First Impressions

I always bring up the adage about not judging a book by a cover, but sometimes you should and can.  It can mean that an author or press really don’t care for their book, or that they aren’t well-connected in the same vision.  Looking at Keely’s upcoming book, the cover is perfect for her collection.  It is whimsical-like which fits the flow of the stories.  Yet, this simple line sketch cover is deep in what it depicts, and ties right in with her first story which shares the name of the book.

The table of contents itself contains a wide-range of story titles and topics, and the collection is truly diversified with stories not feeling duplicative of the next.  The back cover is riddled with high praise, which is well-earned and accurate.

Diving into the first story, it’s clear why Keely lead with this one.  In terms of depth, character development, gripping emotion, and raw power, Keely has carefully curated that in the opening piece.

The Good

Keely’s prose has a very fast flow to it.  That’s a product of writing flash fiction, but it is also her style.  She is very story driven which is refreshing for the topics that she has chosen to write about.  Her first story is probably the slowest paced, as she builds up tension before hammering us away at the end.  This style results in a very clean type of writing that is conducive to binge-reading.  And this ARC definitely was.

All of the stories are engaging.  But my absolute favorite was the little terror of “Adult Teeth.”  The concept of this one could be the seed for many, many stories. What a creative idea and a way of twisting it about, hooking the reader and wringing us out all at the same time.

Other favorites were the following:

  • Baby is a Thing Best Whispered
  • Adult Teeth
  • Practising Tricks, Spells and Other Incantations
  • What if We Breathed Through Our Skin?
  • The Depth at Which Spider Crabs are Found

What is most exciting about the way that Keely writes is that her stories generally grasp into you right away — there’s no boring tale here!  I like a fast and gripping tale, rather than a slow burn.  And while she has some slower burning tales, you’ll find yourself engaged in her writing right from the start.

Something else that Keely does expertly is describe just enough of a scene, a character, or of a situation to allow you to fill the rest in.  When you do that, she has a habit of twisting her perceptions into her own woven wordsmith world — often with a dark, grief-provoked, or outright fantastical ending.  And the way Keely does it, I assume it is how fish feel when we go fishing; there’s a wonderful meal of exactly what we want, we gobble it down to only learn there was a hook hidden in there, and now we are going for a ride.  That’s a Keely story — she lulls our defenses with a perfectly normal and relatable story, then rips us somewhere else with a grim and dark turn of perhaps too much relatively.  That’s why her stories are considered dark and grief-ridden.  Keely has the magic to make these stories powerful and relatable to all of us, stroking our inner-most fears and bringing them to the surface in her writing.  Keely does this because she has a strong sense of identity with her writing, confidently taking her stories to the next level where we only keep these concepts in our psyche — she’s a snake-charmer of fear, exquisitely laying out what we suppress in her writing to invoke shock, grief, fear, and uncertainty.  That’s a trademark of a great writer.

To this extent, some stories are particularly heavy.  I found “How to Bake Cookies When Your Child is Dying” extremely heavy — for the obvious reasons bestowed in the title.  I’m not going to say anything more, and I’ll let you buy this great book to read it for yourself.

The So-So

I always add a so-so critique to every single book review.  Because that is how life is — the good and the bad.  Nothing is perfect, and even the 5-star books i’ve reviewed and read will earn (and have earned) themselves something minor.  Heck, there’s even a Stephen King story i’d give a 1 star rating to.  We are all not immune, and it will only help us to improve.

With Keely’s work, I think my so-so remark would be I would like more of these stories (is that really a so-so remark?).  Yes, they are flash fiction.  But she has such fantastic ideas with each of these stories, developing them into something longer could really create a monster (in a good way!).  She probably has 4, 5, 6, or more great story plots here with some of her flash fiction.  I’d love to see her write a novella or novel on each of them — she has the creativity and writing style to become a household name if she does that.

Another minor critique would be on descriptions.  She could ratchet up the intensity by increasing some of her descriptions.  Maybe that was part of the flash fiction, maybe it was strategy to keep pacing proper.  Now, there are many stories that have great descriptions already like the namesake story and “Adult Teeth.”  Just a little thought how she could really channel her writing ability to stricken us with more fear and grief.

Otherwise, there’s not much else I can really pick at.  Her work is phenomenal and I binged this collection.  I have not written a collection myself yet — or any novella or novel — but I hope my first collection is half as good as Keely’s.

Verdict on Baby is a Thing Best Whispered by Keely O’Shaughnessy [BOOK REVIEW]

For those looking at getting hit with reality in some dark and engaging stories, Keely O’Shaughnessy’s “Baby is a Thing Best Whispered” is a must.  It comes out soon and there may be a new link once it does, but here is the Amazon link (affiliate link I may earn a commission on) of first collection “Baby is a Thing Best Whispered” by Alien Buddha Press.  I mark this as a SHOULD BUY collection to add to her TBR pile!  It officially releases in a little less than two weeks on August 15, 2022!  You can preorder it (UK only) from Keely’s website.

UPDATE: Here is the release information and links 🙂 – Amazon UK Link and the Amazon US Link (affiliate links).

When I review books, I have three categories of ratings with Ghosts being for new authors and Indie/new publishers, with Werewolves being for mid-level authors and publishers, and Demons being for established authors and big-name publishers.  That changes the level of scrutiny to make ratings a little more fair, because you cannot compare a King novel to a new author’s novella.  Nor can you compare the support systems of a massive publisher to an Indie publisher (although the stories of many Indie publishers usurp that of some big-name authors at big publishers… but I digress).  Thus, my rating system reflects that reality.

AGAIN, this was an unsolicited review, I was not paid for same, and I only make money if you purchase the book through my links as an Amazon affiliate.

Therefore, after due deliberation, I rate Baby is a Thing Best Whispered by Keely O’Shaughnessy as having a rating of 4.5 Ghosts out of 5!

WANT YOUR BOOK REVIEWED?  Right now I am selectively taking horror books for AT NO CHARGE.  I will eventually be charging for this service, but I am trying to build a portfolio.  To learn more about how N. A. Battaglia reviews books, take a look here and contact me for more information on Twitter (DMs okay!) or through our contact us box here.  PLEASE NOTE: You can buy a book review from me, but you cannot buy my rating.  Ever.  If I truly don’t like a book that I am reviewing, I will contact you FIRST to let you decide whether you want the review posted or not.  I try to always give position and “quotable” sections that will help you–even in a 1 rating.  But just know that you cannot buy a good review from me, and you never will.

When I review, I do like to give half points because I feel some stories will fit in-between.  If I decide to/am paid an additional fee to post to Goodreads, Amazon, or another website, all half points are rounded DOWN, except in rare exceptions upon my discretion.  Please also note that I sometimes rate books without being asked as I am reading and enjoying my own horror journey, therefore, not all reviews on my website are reviews from people who have sought my opinion–which is my own.