Summer Reviews of The Geography of First Kisses

Beautiful reviews of The Geography of First Kisses to share!

With thanks to Chris Harding Thornton for her review in The Colorado Review/Center for Literary Publishing, in which she writes: “Absence, loss, disappearance—these things haunt us, and the stories in The Geography of First Kisses do, too. But even when they’re heart-wrenching, they’re never maudlin. The stories are filled with delight, beauty, and amazement.”

Gratitude as well to BettyJoyce Nash for her review in the Southern Review of Books. “In the title story Davidson poses the question: ‘Why is there no such thing as north by south or east by west? Why does direction turn only slightly, instead of leaning full tilt into another place, another time, another anything?’ These stories do lean, full-tilt, into time and space, excavating complex forms of love, loss, and longing, starting with the title story’s unnamed narrator, who is ‘sweet sixteen and never been,’ covering compass points, longing for a North Star or a magnetic pole, ‘to show me where I’d landed.’”

MER Literary Journal - Book Review of The Geography of First Kisses - by Teresa Tumminello Brader

Beyond grateful for this beautiful review by Teresa Tumminello Brader in MER Literary Journal of The Geography of First Kisses, in which the stories feel truly seen and are called “an exquisitely rendered collection.” The review begins:

“The Geography of First Kisses, winner of Kallisto Gaia Press’s Acacia Prize, is a collection of fourteen short stories by Karin Cecile Davidson, author of the novel Sybelia Drive. The stories vary in that they are told from different perspectives, span the mid-fifties to today, and are set in locales ranging from Gulf Coast states to Midwest prairies, with a couple of stops outside U.S. borders. The constants are the lyrical and layered prose, and the focus on girls and young women. Whether these characters come down Lucinda Williams’s gravel road of the epigraph or visit the outskirts of Tallahassee, they are attuned to and act in response to the inherent dangers and beauties of their environments, whether to their benefit or detriment.”

To read more, follow this link to the review at MER: Motherhood, Literature, & Art.

British Reviewer Ellie Hawkes writes about The Geography of First Kisses

Feeling fortunate and blessed to have received a review as stunning as this one by British reviewer Ellie Hawkes. Back in 2021 she reviewed my novel Sybelia Drive in such a clear and beautiful way, and now she’s written a truly gorgeous and comprehensive review of my story collection The Geography of First Kisses. I’m beyond grateful for this gift of a reader and reviewer who understands and connects with my books.

A few of her thoughts on TGFK:

“The fourteen stories that make up The Geography of First Kisses hit the short story collection sweet spot of being tonally similar enough to form a cohesive whole, but individually full of variation and surprises. Like an album, there are repeated themes and strands, refrains that run throughout the book, but each story is its own song.

… she presents moments that contain within them hundreds of other moments. The prose flicks seamlessly between present and past, and there’s such wisdom in the understanding of how time works, how those defining moments of our childhood live with us and yet are so hard to recapture …

It is hard to describe Karin Cecile Davidson’s style, except by saying that her stories remind me of almost all of my favourite short story writers, from classics such as Raymond Carver, Angela Carter and Alice Munro to contemporary favourites of mine like Lauren Groff and Carmen Maria Machado. These stories are at that level – they’re so layered and intricate, and just beautiful to read. I honestly feel quite evangelical about this writer – with her first novel and now this collection of stories, her talent is so awe-inspiring, and her words are such a rich pleasure to read.”