Fiction. Fantastical and disquieting, yet utterly familiar and human in their strangeness, the six short tales in Blake Kimzey's FAMILIES AMONG US introduce us to the work of a wildly imaginative and masterfully nuanced new writer. In the tradition of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, but also of Roald Dahl and Aimee Bender, Kimzey taps into the dark and darkly beautiful plights of six families pitched against mysterious and uncontrollable conditions. We encounter characters at the painful point of transformation: from sea to land, from human body to animal body, from compassion to rejection. When confronted with the surreal, the unknowable, the impossibly strange, we could choose to run. Or we could make the difficult choice, the one that leads us to weirder and better things. Kimzey's stories ask us to do just that, and in doing so, to be a little more human.

In these six controlled and full-hearted tales, Blake Kimzey propels his characters into a wilderness that threatens and promises to obliterate our old notions of home. Steeped in legend and grounded by nature, FAMILIES AMONG US is a powerful reminder that one can, even in the most supportive families, metamorphose into an adult whose only option is flight. What a terrific start to a long and bright career.--Gabe Durham