Island Rule - by Katie M Flynn

About the Book

An angry mother turns into a literal monster. A company in San Francisco can scrub your entire reputation and create a new one...for a price. A failed actor on a reality show turns into an unlikely world savior. And much more. Through each of these twelve interconnected stories, Katie Flynn blends people, places, and even realities.

Book Synopsis

From the author of the "urgent and heartfelt" (San Francisco Chronicle) novel The Companions, a genre-bending collection of interconnected short stories in the tradition of Jennifer Egan and Karen Russell.

An angry mother turns into a literal monster. A company in San Francisco can scrub your entire reputation and create a new one...for a price. A failed actor on a reality show turns into an unlikely world savior. And much more.

Through each of these twelve interconnected stories, people, places, and even realities are masterfully blended. "Funny, tender, and compulsively readable, Katie Flynn's warmhearted collection is an absolute gem, with an enormous generosity of spirit and keen wit on display in every line" (Maryse Meijer, author of Rag).

Review Quotes

"There is much of Kelly Link and Karen Russell in Flynn's work here--they all share a concern with types of monstrousness--but Flynn's writing, her grasp of the complexities of human character and experience, and her concern with the interconnectedness of existence in the face of change are all very much her own." --Ancillary Review of Books

"Some short story collections are treats to be consumed like little chocolates, with delight and frivolity. Other collections, rich like a multi-course meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant, are meant to be devoured. Island Rule by Katie M. Flynn is the latter . . . Brilliantly, eerily, and soundly, Flynn [contrasts] feelings of isolation and rejection while never staying in the territory of any one genre, but using genre as a tool to tell a grander story of humanity." --Shelf Awareness (starred review)

"This short-story collection mixes the mundane and the bizarre with an authority stemming from its concrete sense of place . . . the overall effect is appealingly weird, as if the uncanny valley took literary form. A compelling exercise in worldbuilding and genre blending that toggles among the recent past, present, and near future." --Kirkus Reviews

"Flynn blends realism and fantasy for a diffuse collection that probes the limits of democracy." --Publishers Weekly

"Bruised and bruising, the stories in Island Rule bring to life a near-future in which loneliness and desire--for connection, visibility, and compassion-- fuel every encounter. Funny, tender, and compulsively readable, Katie Flynn's warm-hearted collection is an absolute gem, with an enormous generosity of spirit and keen wit on display in every line." --Maryse Meijer, author of Rag and Heartbreaker

"In this eerie collection, Flynn challenges our notions of the familiar with 12 resonant interlocking short stories. Island Rule surprised me at every turn." --Chana Porter, author of The Seep and The Thick and the Lean

"A wonderfully eerie collection, Island Rule haunts and delights. Flynn's writing is taught and teeming, making a world of bone mounds and monsters as alarmingly real as teenage angst and midlife crises. The creeping darkness of Island Rule revels in exploring darkness at the edges of our world, and what happens when we invite it in." --Erika Swyler, author of The Light from Other Stars

About the Author

Katie M. Flynn is a writer, editor, and educator based in San Francisco. Her short fiction has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Tin House, and Tor, among other publications. She has been awarded Colorado Review's Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction, a fellowship from the San Francisco Writers Grotto, and the Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing. Katie holds an MFA from the University of San Francisco and an MA in geography from UCLA. Her first novel, The Companions, was published in 2020. Follow her on Instagram @Katie_M_Flynn or visit her website KatieMFlynn.com.