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The dress is made of velour in a muted gold colour. Stella puts it on in her bedroom, and Blue tightens the spaghetti straps by tying them in knots on Stella’s shoulders. On Blue, the dress would have been shin-length, but on Stella it trails the floor, and she has to lift it every time she takes a step. It's fair to say that some adjectives sound better than others. Using the better adjectives is only a little white lie, like wearing shapewear, or having lowlights put in at the salon.” Non mi aspettavo un libro del genere. Lo volevo leggere perché mi aveva colpito la copertina, e mi sono trovata davanti una fantastica raccolta di racconti brevi che mi ha lasciato senza parole. Blue puts her thumb in the air so that the others can see. Claire’s had her hands over her face, and she takes them down. Stella almost takes another spoonful, but changes her mind. Let’s save the rest for mum and Frank. I want them to try it.
Jasmine keeps refusing to meet Blue’s eye. The ash falls from the end of her cigarette onto the table and scatters. Stella slows, uses her hand to shield her face, looks at Jasmine, and nods. Through the car windscreen, Stella can see her mother fanning herself with a map of the island. Shotgun, says Stella. How long did this story take to write? I read that you began working on it when you were 19 years old, and returned to it later.Stella feels the inside of her mouth get dry. She pours herself a glass of water from the bottle and takes a sip. At times I found some of the stories slightly odd, and was unable to connect at all with the characters. “Tinderloin” was an example of this, where the character seemed completely passive and distant to the reader. Maybe it could be due to the length of the stories, but some didn’t immerse me fully into the narrative. There are stories that stand out more than others, but each person who reads this will have their favourites. My own favourites were “Flying Kite” and “The Bread,” and I thought both these stories had more tenderness and emotion to them. I think this collection had a lot of promise, but some of the stories don’t hit the mark. Send Nudesis full of perceptive, raw accounts from girls growing into women everywhere – in clubs at closing time, on pub toilets, at free spirited music festivals and on make-do beach holidays. What ties the protagonists of each story together is a primal sense of what growing into yourself looks like – often chaotic, sometimes teetering on menacing, and yet always perfectly real. As they battle their own demons and others’ and as they fight for a space to fit into, they reveal some wonderfully incisive universal truths about womanhood. The door opens, and there’s Blue, dressed in a pair of fluorescent orange bikini bottoms and a white crop top, her dark nipples just visible underneath. One of her hands is full of cherries, the other full of stones.
Blue’s enjoying this, Stella can tell. There’s something like laughter in her voice. That camera’s worth thousands, says Stella. Think of the films. They’ll be ruined. Jasmine blushes even more then. She has her eyes on her empty plate, and she looks to Stella like she might start to cry. Nico is smiling a little, amused. How do you feel winning the BBC NSSA will shape you as a writer? Will it change your life, in any way, do you expect?This included stories on toxic female friendships, jealousy, abortion, sending nudes (hence the title), seduction, desire and the complex relationships to other women (eg mothers and daughters, best friends, the ex’s). It's a fierce look into womanhood and girlhood. It's all about what it means to be a girl or a woman, using your body or being used, taking charge, growing up, making mistakes... some stories were almost feral and difficult to read, but I loved them all. Frank swims with his bag held above the surface. In her mind, Stella sees the water seeping into all the round outlines of the buttons, the ridges where the Dream Lens has been carved to fit, the film canisters sloshing aqua. In 2019, her story ‘Tinderloin’ was shortlisted for The White Review Short Story Prize. In 2018, her story ‘Overnight’ was published in The Stinging Fly, edited by Sally Rooney. Her writing has also appeared online in places such as Litro, The Manchester Review, Arcturus, Forge, Tangerine and Granta. Send Nudes(2022) is a promising new collection of short stories focused on and around – and occasionally, on the periphery – of what it means to be a woman. Told over ten quietly assertive stories, Saba Sams’ debut allows its reader a glimpse into the messiness and painful contradictions of girlhood.
Frank drives the girls into town, pulling into a bus stop to drop them off. He passes Stella a roll of notes through the window, to pay for dinner. I make the assumption that the stories are well received because they have drawn attention from a new, and different, reading demographic. I’m guessing that this would be predominantly young, and probably female……The protagonist in every single story is young, and female.My favorite stories of the collection were 'Tinderloin', 'Snakebite', 'Send nudes', 'Here Alone', 'Blue 4ever' and 'The Bread.' These tales are about passionate friendships, elusive dating rules, and learning to live in your body.
The strongest four i've ever given, and that is not because it was not good enough or 'just' entertaining, which my usual fours stands for: some shorts stories in this collection is 5/5, while some are more between 3-4,5. I really enjoyed 'Here Alone', 'Snakebite', 'Blue 4eva' and 'The Bread', but my favorite is the title story 'Send nudes'. Really refreshing perspective on girlhood and female sexuality.
Praised for its ‘utter truthfulness’ and ‘authentic portrayal of the dynamics of familial relationships’, ‘Blue 4eva’ is a story about a newly blended family’s summer holiday. It was inspired by Sams’ memories of her own childhood holidays on Formentera and features twelve-year-old Stella as she deftly navigates the powerplay between her voyeuristic new stepfather, eighteen-year-old stepsister, Jasmine, and Jasmine’s best-friend, Blue. First drafted when Sams was a 19-year-old creative writing student at the University of Manchester, the judges were particularly enamoured by the ‘veracity of the writing’ and the portrayal of Stella, whose warmth, agency and strength of character, were both refreshing and empowering. Blue laughs. Am I going to feature in an upcoming exhibition, Franklin Royce? Franklin Royce is Frank’s public name. Stella’s never heard anyone call him that in real life before. Dad took me out to practice once, says Jasmine. I guess he thought it was a good opportunity for bonding.
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