Told through a series of short dispatches from a passenger on spacecraft carrying sleeping women to populate Planet B after Earth is all but destroyed, the title story of Jessie Ren Marshall’s collection is imbued with her signature blend of humor, heart, and terror.  There’s a moment I found particularly resonant, where the narrator ponders the usefulness of narrative in a world that’s been lost: “IDK why our stories have to make sense when the world doesn’t.” But “Women! In! Peril!” does make sense, in the sad logic of tragedy. It’s also reminiscent of Covid-era lockdown, when for a time it did feel like we were the only people awake on a spaceship, typing our little thoughts out to the void in an attempt to make contact, barreling towards terrors unknown.

From Women! In! Peril!, Bloomsbury, 2024