Bug Week And Other Stories – Airini Beautrais

Read for NZ Book Awards

From 1960s Wellington to post-Communist Germany, Bug Week traverses the weird, the wry and the grotesque.

⫸ “Bug Week is a collection of short stories set predominately in Wellington, offering weird and wonderful fragments of people’s lives.

“There are bug collectors, necrophiliacs, an albatross at an open mic night, and body parts washed up on a river bank. The social settings and voices are never the same, rather the stories showcase a varied and authentic collection of characters, relaying unexpected stories of human relationships.

“Despite the focus on the cynical and perverse, there is an element of comedy amongst the tragedy, to avoid the reader taking things too seriously.”

⫸ “I have some kind of weird resistance to short stories in general – maybe too much analysis in sixth form at school rather than reading for pleasure? So I started Bug Week with a bit of trepidation. I wasn’t just pleasantly surprised, but genuinely enjoyed these beautifully written stories.

“Often a gentle tone would lead into an unexpectedly grim event however as a reader I continued to be drawn into a story and lulled into a rhythm only for a turn of events to throw things off balance. This was never jarring in a way that made for an unpleasant reading experience, it was done perfectly. 

“I tried to guess which of my colleagues would play the starring roles of the eponymous Bug Week and for that I can only apologise to them. I also do need to mention the final story which probably goes down as The Worst Short Story I Have Ever Read.” – Suzy

⫸ “Bug Week is a good example of why I don’t often read short stories. Just as I fall in love with the story and become emotionally invested in the characters, it is over. I get new book apprehension and end-of-book despair repeatedly and the mid-story joy doesn’t long last enough.

“Yes I did feel connected to each and every story in this collection; they were engaging, connected and piqued my interest instantly. Beautrais has a knack for conveying a maximum amount of content in a minimal amount of words and has an appealing wry humour. She knows just when to finish the story too for maximum frustration!

“I know this review is a bit of a backhanded compliment, in that I enjoyed the book so much it annoyed me there wasn’t more to enjoy. I do appreciate this is a fantastic example of its form, it’s just not my favoured type of read.” – Rachel

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Published 2020
VUP
184 pages