Listening In and Other Stories

by Shauna Kelley

A sick girl lives her life by listening in to her family beneath her. An alcoholic is haunted by music as she mourns the death of her child. A newly dead woman speaks of her demise, and shares a glimpse of what heaven must be like.

Shauna Kelley, author of Max and Menna, a Foreword Book of the Year Award finalist, brings these and more stories to life in her first collection of short fiction. From the mentally ill to the destitute to a sort-of prostitute, these stories shed light into the lives and minds of an unusual batch of characters, battling the situations life has thrust them into.

With her usual candor and eloquence, Kelley offers you seven tales of seven people trying to find a home, a life, and a place.

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 27, 2011

About the author

Shauna Kelley was born in Silver Spring, Maryland to two very young, encouraging, and idealistic parents. She has been writing stories and poems since the third grade, and wrote the initial draft of a shorter version of Max and Menna while in high school. She attended Goucher College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English with a Creative Writing concentration.

Kelley currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland, with a mangy, 10-year-old Jack Russell that will always be known as her puppy. Her favorite pastimes include exploring Baltimore, watching Paranormal State or True Blood, and cooking decedent desserts. She reads voraciously, is an avid lover of action and horror films, and can’t live without Joe’s Squared pizza or Chiyo Sushi.

Kelley welcomes comments, feedback, and questions from her readers. Find her online:
Email: mmshaunakelley@yahoo.com
Twitter: shaunak101
Blog: http://mmshaunakelley.blogspot.com/

Reviews

[Keep Calm Novel On · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author via Booktasters provided a copy of the PDF in exchange for an honest review.

Listening In and Other Short Stories by Shauna Kelly is an intimate look at individuals in pain. The characters share their struggles in this powerful look behind closed doors. This emotional collection is written with compassion. The title is perfect as the reader really is listening in on the privacy of individual journeys.

[CinderBelle615 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Via booktasters, the author kindly provided me with a digi copy of this book for me to read and review.

Review for Listening in and Other Stories:
This author really has a knack for writing about life’s tragedies in such an artistic and beautiful way. I’m glad that there were short stories throughout the book. I don’t know if I could have been able to read an entire story of each of these and come out of it emotionally sane. These stories, (like Max and Mennna) were raw and difficult to read through. If the author often left a glimmer of hope and light in each of them, well, I couldn’t see it. I only saw heartbreak and despair. I guess the glimmer of light is found in the fact that you’re not the only one suffering and going through terrible circumstances in life. There are others, and those warriors, know how you feel.
Even though I have never gone through some of the situations described in the book, my heart responded to each and every single one of these situations, mostly because I had read Max and Menna in the same days so I was already in that type of reading mood where I knew that in order for the stories in the book to have their full effect on me, I had to open myself up emotionally and empathize, even with the characters that you didn’t feel like empathizing with.
She really covered it all in this book. Disability, alcoholism, miscarriage, prostitution. Each story was written with so much force and detail and imagery. I would definitely love to use this book in an EFL class in the future. These are great stories to get people (especially teenagers) talking about and practicing their conversational skills and to help stir compassion in a classroom.

[Nadine · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad I got the chance to discover this little masterpiece through booktasters.
Definitely not a collection of happy go lucky stories, which made me very happy though.
Every story makes you suffer a bit while you feel with its main character(s).
Shauna has a beautiful writing style, which is powerful and somehow fragile at the same time.
I have not been so captivated by a book for a long time.
Looking forward to explore more of this fantastic author’s work.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories, these stories are about different individuals and the struggles they are faced with.
The stories do not have a happy go lucky theme at all and often the reader will feel the suffering, anguish and anxiety the characters are going through. Very literary in the sense these are the type of stories that can give the reader insight on many different levels. Great reads

[Divya Mahajan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would recommend this book as a must read for 2 short stories that if not read would be a loss for short story lovers.
I received this copy for an honest review through @BookTasters. Short stories are always my favourite genre, hence I was interested in reading this book.
The stories are all about dark emotions like guilt, love, depression, alcoholism, illness, agoraphobia etc. But I felt some of the stories lacked connect, empathy and were too hazy but the last story is the one for which the book must be read "Angelfish" The best story of the collection with a great end. This story lifts the writing of the author to a very scale and makes he book a very great read. This story deserves the highest rating, The second story worth mention is the title story about a girl for whom leaving her room in itself is a huge task.
Despite the shortcomings, other stories are also good , the characters are human prone to mistakes and illnesses and not superhumans. They go through all the emotions good and bad, like feeling disgusted at a scarred face and then feel guilty about it or have suicidal thoughts but are still just human.

[Eric McDowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shauna Kelley’s Listening In and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction that deserves attention. The author weaves a palpable compassion throughout these tales of the marginalized, which include an agoraphobic teen, a mentally challenged 30-year-old man who lives with his mother, and a lonely, passive/aggressive paraplegic. Kelley takes the role of observer as she narrates each tale. Her lack of judgement draws readers into each character’s plight as we see them as the people next door whose stories are rarely told, and the characters are all the more fascinating for their unassuming nature. In the story “Collecting Faces,” the main character remarks, “Man has it all wrong. Men spend time trying to answer the hard questions—the meaning of life, world peace, can we save the planet? To me that stuff is meaningless next to ordinary questions.” Kelley makes a similar statement with this collection; she asks readers to accept these characters at face value and through their stories, to find the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary.

Kelley is a gifted wordsmith who is as equally adept at third person narration as she is at first person. Often, what she does not tell readers about her characters is every bit as thought provoking as what she asserts about them. Case in point—in the title story “Listening In,” we learn a plethora of details about the main character Mireyah—that she is agoraphobic, that she loves her brother Micah and hates seeing him used by his girlfriend Ella Lynd (who wants him to leave with her to raise another man’s baby she is carrying), and so on. We hardly notice that we are never told how Mireyah became agoraphobic, but when we do raise the question in our minds, we realize that it doesn’t matter; what is important is how she copes with it and attempts to move forward with her life.

This is a most engrossing story collection, and I highly recommend it!

[Diane Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listening In and Other Short Stories by Shauna Kelley is a great little book of, well, short stories. Eight in total, and all wonderful to read, even with their dark themes. The book was provided to me for free for a review via Booktasters.

I love short stories—it’s what I first turn to in a New Yorker magazine. Short stories, when written well, tell a reader just enough of the story to give a complete picture: a novel in just a few pages. Kelley’s work is no different. She focuses on people who aren’t really “known” by others, or people others don’t bother to get to know. A woman who takes care of her adult, disabled son, but wants a better life. A young alcoholic who suffers a miscarriage that she thinks is her fault. A girl suffering from agoraphobia and who knows more about life than the rest of her family. A young man who goes searching for an older sister, who he imagines is living a wonderful life.

These and most of the other stories send a reader’s emotions on a roller coaster as the characters suffer, are revived in a sense, and sometimes suffer some more. Kelley’s writing style creates main and minor characters who come to life within a paragraph or page or two. The author crafts all characters with great sensitivity but is not flowery in her descriptions. A man with major disabilities who uses people’s guilt to get them to do things for him is portrayed as the narcissist he is. A couple of the stories fall flat or perhaps end too early. But overall, the stories are well crafted and interesting.

One disconcerting aspect: a number of misspellings, comma use violations, missing words here and there. Being a proofreader and copy editor, these little things often bother me while reading. They take me out of the story, back into real life. With a good going over for errors, this book would definitely rate 5 stars. I look forward to more stories by Shauna Kelley.

[Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kelley's writing style is very lyrical and evocative, making these narratives easy to visualise. I read another review saying that the stories are quite literary; which I agree with but I found them really accessible and would imagine those who aren't into literary fiction will do so too.

Her characterisation is also impressive. In many of the stories - the most obvious being the eponymous 'Listening In' - have quite unusual narrators, which could lead to a reader feeling alienated from the story. However, Kelley does a great job of humanising them and making you care about these characters despite their odd quirks. Even if you disagree with their actions you understand their motives.

I also liked how Kelley weaves senses into the stories. As you can tell from the name of the collection there are plenty of references to them; sound, sight and smell all seem to feature in one or more of the stories. This helps to make the narratives more visceral and also helps to create really powerful imagery.

If I had to criticise, I did notice a few spelling mistakes. They didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the book but they definitely did pull me out of the narrative for a few seconds. But apart from that there isn't much to dislike here. If you're a fan of literary short stories with some great characters and imagery then you might want to check out Listening In.

[Kerstin Vollbrecht · Rating 5 out of 5]

Different stories about a variety of persons that only have one thing in common-they are suffering in some way. This compilation of short stories is somehow depressing but, at the same time interesting, because they show how different people cope with the. difficult situations they're in. Besides being quite different situations, like the mother who it's taking care of her disabled son all alone, the girl who had a strange disease that makes her incapable of the simplest tasks like getting out of her room and join her family, or the woman who tried to commit suicide and sees herself and her loved one in a species of out of body experience- they all have in common that they're conscious about what's happening to them, in most cases even why, and in some stories they clearly make the decision to dip better towards themselves and their loved ones.
This book is very sensitively written, so the reader could almost put herself into their shoes. It abounds in emotions, which is very appropriate for the type of stories shared here. The stories are short and precise, finding just where the main characters make an important decision, which makes the reader think about the possible outcomes. It has been a depressing but moving and interesting read.

[Jenn Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is filled with short stories you really have to look into and analyse or you'll lose the obscure message the author is trying to convey. Tales of characters trying to find their way through life and understanding the mysteries of what life has to offer.

Eight stories of disturbed, interesting, and a gallant of mixed emotional characters, depicted in stories of intrigue, wonder and shock. Short stories like the Bank Statement, Silent Reel, Listening In, Tattoo, Life Beneath the Piano, Collecting Faces, The Soul Mouth and Angel Fish - all drew me in to how each character absorbed their life and what it meant for them each to have lived it.

There were three stories that stuck to me. In Bank Statement, I could feel the mother at odds with herself on what she should do with her son's wealth. In Tattoo, Tess was so obsessed with the reasoning as to why the girl got the tattoo in the first place. In Collecting Faces, at first I didn't know the character was a prostitute and I like the way the author wrote the story through her eyes and emotions.

I have to admit that these short stories aren't the usual work I read but I got a chance to see another point of view and a different side of literature.

[Vaishali Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listening in and other stories is a brilliant collection of short stories with characters who are suffering in their own ways. There's Margery who is living with her 28 years ols mentally challenged son - her despair clearly visible in the small things she find joys in.
In another one, there is this waitress, who is mesmerized by the love she sees in the eyes of the couple she serves and which reminds her of her own loveless futile life.
My favorite is Angelfish - A girl who is somehow trapped in a situation where her good and supporting nature for others is causing troubles in her personal life. I would love to say more about the stories but don't want to give spoilers for new readers
I loved the writing style of Shauna Kelley. The way she had explored all her characters is worth applauding. All the stories are so powerfully written. After a long time, I've read such beautiful collection of short stories.

[Jon Fassnacht · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read Kelley's "Don't Wake Up," a novel featuring flawed characters and an untidy ending befitting them, I wasn't expecting "Listening In" to be filled with feel-good stories. And that certainly was the case. Each of the main characters in the eight tales are dealing with some sort of malady, whether a physical affliction or mental anguish. What ties the stories together is a sense of longing. Each story spotlights someone with a hole in his or her life trying to fill it, whether its a girl whose condition causes her to get sick whenever she ventures out of the comforting confines of her room or a teen who left an abusive father to seek the whereabouts of a beloved older sister. In some cases, the situation is resolved and things end on a positive note. In others, the hole is filled but without the expected satisfaction. And in the rest, the story simply ends, with the reader experiencing the same kind of "what now?" exasperation as the main character. "Listening In" is a quick read, and because it's filled with short stories, it can be consumed piecemeal much easier than a novel. You may not like some of the characters, but the journeys are interesting.

[Courtney Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found "Listening In and Other Stories" by Shauna Kelley to be a brilliant collection of short stories. I wish that I could go into a deep dive of praise and analysis of each piece, but I don't want to do these great stories the injustice of giving spoilers to future readers. All of the stories are so well-written. My other favorite aspect of Kelley's writing is that she imbues each story with such raw emotion, including love, loneliness, joy, guilt, and regret. I must also say that I never found myself to be disappointed with the length of any of the stories, in terms of feeling like a story was too short and ended abruptly, or that a story was too long and became uninteresting. Each piece felt just the right length, which I believe is the true mark of a well-written and powerful short story. In summary, I highly recommend "Listening In and Other Stories" to readers who are looking for a fulfilling, well-written, and emotionally powerful set of short stories.

[Gabriela Vulpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first story caught me straightaway – a no-nonsense and honest glimpse into the life of a mother and her disabled son. I think ‘honest’ is how I would first and foremost describe Shauna Kelly’s writing after reading this book. She chooses ambitious subjects and she attacks each of them bravely and uncompromisingly. I loved several of the stories and they all kept me turning page after page. It was as if the author was painting her characters with quick brushstrokes and you could see their portraits emerging in front of your very eyes. Quite often, you could feel what they were feeling, too. The relationships between characters are built up tenderly and with a subtle shade of humour, whether they are brother-sister, or a couple, or mother-daughter. It was also enjoyable to gradually discover what each story was about, while the writer led us through her meandering exploration of the human psyche.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

ok, so I discovered this book through Booktasters and was offered a copy in exchange for a review. This was right over the holidays so there was a delay and I ended up just picking it up on Amazon it was only 99 cents and hey, support upcoming authors right?

This collection of stories was incredible. I could not put it down, read it in 1 sitting. They were tiny glimpses at ordinary yet totally extraordinary moments in life. When I got to the end I wanted so much more. All the voices were female and very powerful. The writing is evocative and you are immediately drawn in. They were very thoughtful but also painful. I wouldn't say they made me happy but they stayed with me and I drank them in one after the other.

Would recommend and looking forward to trying something else from this author.

[Carlos Valois · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listening In and Other Stories is a thoroughly interesting read from beginning to end. Through a series of tales with themes that range from motherhood and the relation of one's family to their development, to codependency and it's effects on one's life, the author reaches out and creates believable, relatable characters that manage to portray anything from obsession to mental illness.
I am particularly fond of the Silent Reel and the titular stories of the book. One of which deals (in my opinion) with one's national identity and culture and how it can affect familial relationships, the other one an incredibly relatable dive through the familial home of someone who lacks the support they need.
An extremely short read, it is possible to go through the whole thing and only realize it when you're at the end.

[Kate Miner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beginning with the story of a mother begrudgingly caring for her disabled adult son in “Bank Statement” and concluding with a woman caught between her guilty feelings toward a disfigured, manipulative man and her fiancé in “Angelfish,” Shauna Kelley reveals the continuum of human reactions to in and outside forces in her collection of short stories entitled Listening In. The titular story, actually the second in the collection, is a heartbreaking tale of an agoraphobic girl whose contact with the outside world is limited to the conversations she overhears from her bedroom, and is probably the most moving of the bunch, though Kelley skillfully engages the reader with the truthful human experience in all. My only complaint would be the editing.

[Mandy Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was totally different than I expected. You jump into the lives of each main character and discover, no matter what they seem like initially, each has a secret that gnaws away at them. For one, it's the unexpected survival of her special needs son. For another, it's a struggle with alcoholism. Each story is different. I enjoyed the majority of them. The story story format makes the pages fly by. I was left with a feeling of impressed unease. You don't often see the subject matter in this book written anywhere else. It's unique and has a sense of authenticity. I recommend it to adult short story readers.

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Listening in and Other Stories” is a collection of short stories by Shauna Kelley. I’m amazed that so much emotion can be incorporated into a story in just a few pages. The stories all delve into difficult situations surrounding some very odd characters. I felt like the stories were just the appropriate length to capture the story without all the unnecessary extras.

I enjoyed this book so much. My favorite story was “Bank Statement”. There are some errors, specifically with the word “then” which keeps repeating throughout the book but other than that it was very well written. I would definitely recommend this book.

[Emily Vern · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection of short stories on the darker side, that made me think, and feel as if I was there, actually 'listening in' the narrators mind. I hope to see more short stories like this from the author. Really did enjoy them.


Only issue was formating, as I was reading via a pdf file on my samsung phone, but that was nothing major, just annoying - page breaks not consistent, nor alignment, some pages to the very left, some to the very right, but that is more of a technical issue.

[B · Rating 5 out of 5]

A set of short stories that focuses on characters that are going through difficult times.

I found this collection of short stories to be very real and raw. Each story focused on something different or suffering in a different way. Each story was just the right length, saying and conveying exactly what needed to be said. I found myself engaged the entire time in every story.

The last story in the book was by far my favorite.

[Ghassan Samaha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the characters of these pieces are lonely, some are surrounded by loved ones. between the hectic and the silence, one can listen to slow small steps celebrating their own steps.

[Jessica Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through simple yet eloquent prose, Shauna Kelley masterfully gives us a glimpse into the lives of those less fortunate than many. From a young girl with an unusual illness that stunts her ability to do a task most of us take for granted, or a mother who although, on the outside, seems selfish for putting her interests before her disabled son, really isn't selfish at all, to a young woman dealing with alcoholism and regret. This is not only a wonderful collection of stories, it is an asset to your bookshelf. There may not be fairies and dragons and paranormal beasts saving lives of princesses in towers; there may not be fantastical worlds you can whisk yourself away in, but ... there is truth. And often truth is the hardest to write about. But Kelley pulls these stories off effortlessly. I lived in every page.

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got to admit that, once I started this book, I couldn't put it down. The stories had the rarity of being emotional, realistic and very emphatic.

While the stories were very interesting, in that they are mostly about family and the protagonist is mostly a woman protagonist, it wasn't overly dramatic like other books (and reality, really) are. The characters are people could be your neighbor, or your coworker, or someone you see on the street in one of their very normal days. They have their goods and their bad, and you can't fault them for it.

The stories allowed me to experience the point of view, and life, of many different people. People who wanted to help their family, or wanted to be understood or wanted to know if they were loved. There was no character I couldn't understand their reasoning for being what they were.

My favorite were "Collecting Faces" and "Bank Statement."

Give it a try. You might find yourself in one of the stories. After all, aren't we stories just waiting to be read?