What do you think?
Rate this book
Maybe This Is What I Deserve
Winner of the 2022 Fiction Chapbook Contest, selected by Isle McElroy
Tucker Leighty-Phillips builds a series of mythologies; of childhood, of Appalachia, of seeing the world through the 3D glasses of poverty. The stories in Maybe This Is What I Deserve dip their toes between sentiment and surrealism—a whirlpool swallows a boy in a family swimming pool, a girl befriends the lice her mother can’t afford to eradicate, a group of children form a secret society in the walls of a fast food play place. Using the logic of childhood across kids and adults alike, Leighty-Phillips builds a world filled with wonder and tells a new story of working-class, rural living.
Tucker Leighty-Phillips builds a series of mythologies; of childhood, of Appalachia, of seeing the world through the 3D glasses of poverty. The stories in Maybe This Is What I Deserve dip their toes between sentiment and surrealism—a whirlpool swallows a boy in a family swimming pool, a girl befriends the lice her mother can’t afford to eradicate, a group of children form a secret society in the walls of a fast food play place. Using the logic of childhood across kids and adults alike, Leighty-Phillips builds a world filled with wonder and tells a new story of working-class, rural living.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
47 pages, Paperback
Published June 20, 2023
5 people are currently reading
139 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 15, 2023
As whimsical as it is profound, as funny as it is heartbreaking, the flash stories in this chapbook are just as likely to hit you with a punchline as they are a gut punch, sometimes both. Leighty-Phillips offers up many glimpses into many different worlds, some like are own but slant and some fantastical. Many of these stories revolve around childhood and children, and Leighty-Phillips writes with a keen sense of the mix of curiosity and confusion that makes childhood such a bountiful source of compelling fiction.
July 16, 2023
review coming when I'm not recovering from being sick and can form a coherent thought, but when I say this chapbook is brilliant in every facet, I mean that with my whole heart. TLP has put on a master class in short fiction that carries that eerie beauty only intimate stories about Appalachia can achieve, and if there comes a day where I can write a story about lice that makes someone cry on the beach (me, I'm the one who cried on the beach while reading "Toddy's Got Lice Again", and there is a picture that may or may not exist of me just staring out at the beach with a runny nose and trying and failing to hide my tears with sunglasses after reading "Stages of Grief"), then I think I'll have made it as a writer.
Maybe This Is What I Deserve is everything and more one can ask for in not only a chapbook, but also a collection of heart and talent in prose that I personally think is once in a lifetime. Beautiful, sometimes absurd, always rhythmic. Incredible.
Spoiler review to come soon when I can put my emotions into words.
Maybe This Is What I Deserve is everything and more one can ask for in not only a chapbook, but also a collection of heart and talent in prose that I personally think is once in a lifetime. Beautiful, sometimes absurd, always rhythmic. Incredible.
Spoiler review to come soon when I can put my emotions into words.
January 5, 2024
A collection of micro-vignettes that encapsulates the feeling of growing up poor in a poor part of the country. Each story is playful yet melancholic, like a child trying to make the most of a bad situation he doesn't understand and didn't ask for. Rural poverty is a main theme, but always takes a backseat to Tucker's imaginative prose, which ranges from silly and surreal to downright heart-breaking.
Shout out to Burp Recycling Center, and also a shout-out to Tucker for gifting me a copy of your work. It really was a treat to read this.
Shout out to Burp Recycling Center, and also a shout-out to Tucker for gifting me a copy of your work. It really was a treat to read this.
October 5, 2023
This was a wonderful read. It was surreal and fun and touching. The writing has a cadence to it that reads like poetry and the stories, while fantastical, bring up feelings of nostalgia and are a beautiful picture of working class childhood.
May 19, 2024
It’s like he snuck in the themes of Rural Poverty into some stories about kids. So familiar, so good !!
“our spirits felts as reduced as our school lunches”
“our spirits felts as reduced as our school lunches”
August 25, 2023
These short stories took me back to childhood in ways I never expected. Lovely find and highly recommend.
August 17, 2023
I first read this as a reader for Split/Lip Press submissions and it was one of my top picks during that contest period. I was thrilled to see it chosen and have re-read it as a physical book several times since. I keep coming back to my favorite stories and finding more to love in others, whether it’s the page-spanning wiki article about the Rumpelstiltskin Understudies or the short paragraph where the mother meets her daughter’s new boyfriend, who isn’t what you’d expect.
October 9, 2023
This short collection of even shorter stories was a big delight. I highly recommend a read, and then a reread.
July 6, 2023
It’s so rare that a book is both absolutely fun to read and also breaks your heart at the same time.
I found these flashes taught me how to read them as I went, I knew I was gonna be entertained at the beginning of each one, that they’d put on a real show, and then they’d punch me in the gut at the end. Felt like top-tier oral storytelling, the best told joke at the table.
If I had to pick a word for it, I’d say these left me homesick, for both where I’m from and who I’ve been. That’s a powerful thing not every writer chooses to do or can do.
One of my favorite lines from the book sums this up: “Who is not unlike him, trying to return to their childhood home, or trying to escape it for good?”
Highly recommend!
I found these flashes taught me how to read them as I went, I knew I was gonna be entertained at the beginning of each one, that they’d put on a real show, and then they’d punch me in the gut at the end. Felt like top-tier oral storytelling, the best told joke at the table.
If I had to pick a word for it, I’d say these left me homesick, for both where I’m from and who I’ve been. That’s a powerful thing not every writer chooses to do or can do.
One of my favorite lines from the book sums this up: “Who is not unlike him, trying to return to their childhood home, or trying to escape it for good?”
Highly recommend!
July 18, 2023
Screw your sign, what’s your favorite piece from MTIWID?
Maybe This is What I Deserve has become a fast favorite. This collection is full of short stories that sing songs of familiar places, sentiments, and corners of your imagination. Tucker invites the reader to apply their lens each full-bodied, whimsical world and takes you on a journey to a “…mighty somewhere else" through each unique character’s voice. I’m personally a “Catfish Wishing Well” sun and maybe a “Togethering” moon.
Maybe This is What I Deserve has become a fast favorite. This collection is full of short stories that sing songs of familiar places, sentiments, and corners of your imagination. Tucker invites the reader to apply their lens each full-bodied, whimsical world and takes you on a journey to a “…mighty somewhere else" through each unique character’s voice. I’m personally a “Catfish Wishing Well” sun and maybe a “Togethering” moon.
December 24, 2023
Found this book tucked away at my favorite small bookshop in Pennsylvania, Mondragon Books. The title immediately made me curious, and I was already reaching for my card as soon as I saw the word "Appalachia" on the back. Frankly, I love flash fiction and I do not read nearly enough of it. Leighty-Phillips work was short and powerful, with extremely creative and witty perspectives. I read the whole thing in one sitting, and I likely will read it again just for the fun of it.
December 29, 2023
In these stories set in Appalachian Kentucky, Leighty-Phillips explores what it means to belong and not belong to the place you're from, through flash and short story very much in the oral tradition; perfect for where he takes us, what he shows us. Quirky, witty, poignant and gut punching just when you're safely chuckling. Each story - as with a poem - rewards a second and subsequent read- a marvellous debut. Highly recommended.
July 29, 2023
A wonderful collection of well-crafted stories that invite you into a wonderfully vivid childhood imagination while also leaving just enough unsaid to invite you to bring your own imagination. I loved it, read it in an afternoon, and appreciated seeing characters like me represented.
October 23, 2023
WINNER OF THE 2022 FICTION CHAPBOOK CONTEST, SELECTED BY ISLE MCELROY
"SHORTER IS BETTER" BOOK CLUB PICK AUGUST 2023
Blurbed by Isle McElroy, Matt Bell, Dana Diehl, and Michael Martone, the stories in "Maybe This Is What I Deserve" dip their toes between sentiment and surrealism—a whirlpool swallows a boy in a family swimming pool, a girl befriends the lice her mother can’t afford to eradicate, a group of children form a secret society in the walls of a fast food play place. Using the logic of childhood across kids and adults alike, Leighty-Phillips builds a world filled with wonder and tells a new story of working-class, rural living. Says Matt Bell: "Leighty-Phillips delivers us a surrealism suffused with joy and generosity and wit, grounded in sincere love for Kentucky and for the irrepressible potential of its people."
"SHORTER IS BETTER" BOOK CLUB PICK AUGUST 2023
Blurbed by Isle McElroy, Matt Bell, Dana Diehl, and Michael Martone, the stories in "Maybe This Is What I Deserve" dip their toes between sentiment and surrealism—a whirlpool swallows a boy in a family swimming pool, a girl befriends the lice her mother can’t afford to eradicate, a group of children form a secret society in the walls of a fast food play place. Using the logic of childhood across kids and adults alike, Leighty-Phillips builds a world filled with wonder and tells a new story of working-class, rural living. Says Matt Bell: "Leighty-Phillips delivers us a surrealism suffused with joy and generosity and wit, grounded in sincere love for Kentucky and for the irrepressible potential of its people."
April 17, 2023
a beautiful flash collection! little glimpses of stories that land in surprising, powerful ways. each piece is short on its own, but when combined, they have a wild variety that makes this collection feel so large. beautiful evocations of that glimmer-magic of childhood, full of humor and heart.
"toddy's got lice again" is a classic in my household, and i'm so glad the collection's title comes from it.
"toddy's got lice again" is a classic in my household, and i'm so glad the collection's title comes from it.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews