Twin Study: Stories

Cavemen roam the suburbs, morality is questionable, teens are angsting, and oddities abound. This is the world as Stacey Richter sees it. In spite of - or perhaps because of - this rather eccentric cast of characters, her stories are infused with wit, humor, and keen observations of what makes humans tick. There is no sentimental hand-wringing about lousy or absentee parents, lost loves, or the most terrible suburban neighborhood Christmas displays. Richter's characters are allowed to continue to live, exist, play, and sometimes party too much because that is simply what they do. Carrying on is the only option.
Richter writes with volatile energy, hurtling through her stories while flitting seamlessly between the unusual and the mundane. She shows the repercussions of bad parenting, the loneliness of forgotten children, the struggles of the smallest creatures, and the frailty of age. While her observations may sometimes sting, Richter is never afraid to up her characters' antes. Often scathing, sometimes disturbing, and just as frequently funny, her stories occasionally wend off into the surreal - they are populated by Neanderthals, bong-sucking Bat Boys, and a long-suffering woman raising a clone of herself as a replacement part. Ultimately, Richter's flights of fancy are about pain, human and real and unrelenting, and very, very subtly, about humanity itself.