Entry Level (Autumn House Press Fiction Prize)

I picked up this book based on a recommendation from a family member and I was not disappointed! Each story quickly grabs your attention and leaves you wanting more. It was hard to put down!

One vendor I found classifies this book as “magical realism.” That’s wrong. There’s no magic here. Instead, I’d call it “weird realism.”Wendy Wimmer’s phantasmagorical short story collection, “Entry Level,” traverses some strange literary terrain. Many of the fifteen stories read like lucid dreams. Indeed, Elle, the sleep scientist in “Intersomnolence,” wonders about the lost meaning of her dreams.“It’s impossible for the normal human brain to not dream. Elle dreams but simply does not remember. She knows this for a fact. Working graveyard as a polysomnography technician at the sleep lab, she has the luxury of complimentary brain scans… She has held her dreams in her hand on a black-and-white printout. They look like bunny tracks in the snow.”It torments Elle that although she collects extensive data on her subjects’ dreams, she can only guess about her own. Similarly, readers of these stories may appreciate Wimmer’s wit and whimsy, but at the same time be unsure if they understood the endings or if there are levels of meaning they missed.The strength of this collection is that Wimmer places quirky but relatable people in unreal, implausible scenarios and turns them loose. In “Strange Magic,” the staff at the Rola-Rena skating rink discover that by skating backwards, they can reverse time. In “Where She Went,” some unspecified supernatural or extraterrestrial beings referred to as “we” disturb a woman’s happy domestic life by sending her dreams of a baby. “Fuse” explores the challenges of having a love life when you are half of a cojoined pair. A shady network service provider offers a package whereby customers can receive a deceased loved one’s “Texts from Beyond.” Readers approach each new story wondering, what in the world can Wimmer come up with next?Overall, the quality that makes this collection so much fun is its inventive scenarios. Wimmer’s characters exhibit some peculiar attitudes, struggles, and predilections, so they are by no means one dimensional, but it’s the offbeat circumstances surrounding them that stand out. These stories tend to be short (under 4000 words) – I’d like to see the author give the characters room to grow and change, and for more complex plots to develop.“Entry Level,” an aptly named debut collection, arrives with excellent credentials, having won the 2021 Autumn House Fiction Prize. Watch this writer.

Enjoyed the spooky, unusual genres in this collection. You’ll find yourself rereading and thinking, “What in the world?” Super fun and quirky!

I doubt that the author would self-classify "Entry Level" as a book of horror, but this collection of excellent vignettes proves once again that the pictures in our own heads are far more frightening than the jump scares and over-the-top special effects of Hollywood could ever be. For those of us who grew up with "Twilight Zone" and "Outer Limits", we learned that some of the best dread is implicit rather than explicit. True fear plants its seeds in us when we are far younger than is fair, and stays with us to sprout again decades later when the conditions are just right. More please...

Fantastic book. Ordinary elements swerve into wild and weird curiosities. Even the disturbing parts make you crave more.

This book of short stories is delightful. It starts with people living normal, mundane, unexceptional lives. Dealing with life, work, and regular old sad tragedy. Then most of the stories take a turn for the weird, with supernatural elements or just something wonderfully weird that happens. The turns to the fantastic are super fun escapism and you can feel the author having fun, testing her scenarios against various roles of the dice.

If you like your stories a little dark, sassy, funny, or poignant, this anthology is for you.

It could have been a longer book

I've never been one for short stories, preferring my fiction to be big and brash and loose.Wendy Wimmer's 'Entry Level' taught me that there's something to be said for brevity, for finding - in all of the millions of words there are - the exact number to perfectly express a sentiment. Reading 'Entry Level' was like driving a luxury car you're not used to, in a neighborhood you don't know, and getting all greens and easy traffic. It's a hell of a ride, just unsettling enough to be exciting, accessible enough to keep you wanting more, completely surprising with every turn of the page.I can't recommend it enough.