Books like Use Me

Billed as a novel in 10 stories, Elissa Schappell’s Use Me is a collection of linked short stories that follow Evie Wakefield from her adolescent sexual awakening through friendships, marriage, motherhood and the end of her father’s long fight with cancer. The reader witnesses life unfolding in these beautifully written snapshots that are both intimate and raw. Even though the stories are firmly rooted in time and place (beginning in the suburbs in the 1970s), there is a feeling of timelessness in this unfolding. Some of the stories resonate more than others, but they are all solid and move the narrative (Evie’s life) forward even if all the action after her father's death seems suffocating. Poignant and engaging! Picture with Elissa Schappell at Sheridan College, September 19, 2019. Wonderful to have Elissa do a reading in Wyoming!