Rag

"Maryse Meijer’s stories reside in that place where psychological realism begins to transform into something that resembles horror. She has a fantastic sense for the visceral and the disquieting, and for unexpected literary juxtapositions. This latest collection offers readers another opportunity to be memorably disoriented."—Vol. 1 Brooklyn

"Reading Maryse Meijer's short fiction is transformative. Stunning and evocative, Rag's 14 stories dazzle with brilliance while taking the reader's heart and wringing it dry—but not before delivering a solid literary punch. It is feeling perhaps shared by Meijer's deeply flawed characters during their quests for often elusive connection with others . . . Deliciously manipulative and psychologically haunting, Rag signifies Maryse Meijer as a master of the short form who consistently shocks and connects by delivering the unexpected."—Melissa Firman, Shelf Awareness

"With terse, dark prose, Meijer has created a cohesive set of stories which seem to delight in exploring taboos and destroying expectations . . . In deconstructing the many forms of the male gaze, she grants insight into the roots of each character’s neuroses and fixations, skewering the most extreme manifestations of toxic masculinity. The haunting, beautifully horrific stories in Rag linger long after finishing the collection, and subtly answer almost as many questions as they raise about what it means to interact with and be a man in the modern world."—Katie O'Neill, ZYZZYVA

"[Maryse Meijer] has a gift for writing sharp, vivid stories that are strange and horrifying in the most delightful way . . . Meijer tells stories that haven’t been told before."—Rachel León, Chicago Review of Books

"In Meijer’s outstanding and disturbing second collection, her fragmented writing style produces an intense and distilled view of isolated moments—or, conversely, makes the outrageous or aberrant seem ordinary . . . Though reminiscent of Mary Gaitskill, Jean Rhys, and Muriel Spark, these 14 stories bear a powerful style that is Meijer’s own."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"An unsettling glimpse into the seething underworld of toxic masculinity . . . Like Samantha Hunt and Carmen Maria Machado, Meijer wields strangeness to amplify the emotional realities of her narrators . . . Meijer's stories are an indictment of the indignities women—and other men—face every day as they dodge or appease the dangerous impulses and appetites of misogyny. A rich, beautiful, and utterly terrifying book."—Kirkus Review (starred review)

"The male characters Meijer conjures face each unfolding horror with enigmatic stoicism, as though toxic masculinity is a new, unheard-of experience . . . Meijer’s collection is definitely affecting and timely."—Booklist

These stories are extremely good. I could reference masters of the particular as far flung as Thomas Bernhard or Lucia Berlin, but the resonance of Maryse Meijer’s ultra-precise prose is too unique. Rag is truly something else."—Dennis Cooper, author of The Marbled Swarm

"Maryse Meijer is a fearless writer. In these wild and inventive stories, Meijer brilliantly channels the most unsettled corners of the human heart. Rag is a glittering nightmare, a wilderness aflame with violence and desire, a harrowing and profound collection."—Laura van den Berg, author of The Third Hotel

“Maryse Meijer is a master of the dark arts, transforming moments of everyday dysphoria into evocative sculptures of loss, aching and oozing with life. In her hands, existence becomes a thing to be felt anew: visceral, fleshly, and almost unbearably human. These stories will shake you.”—Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine