Prepare Her

May 10, 2021
Plunkett’s striking debut puts a series of women’s interior lives in stark relief. In “Something for a Young Woman,” teenager Allison confides in the owner of the antique store where she works about her boyfriend’s shortcomings, while sensing that the owner finds her attractive. He gives her a necklace, which she doesn’t wear until many years later. First, she marries the boyfriend and has a child: “these decisions—the birth, the wedding—as well as others, were made with the earnestness of dogs wanting to be good,” Allison reflects. The protagonist in “Single” longingly thinks about what it would be like to live by herself, but instead marries her childhood friend. During their honeymoon at a rundown retreat, the young newlyweds explore ideas they’d never said aloud, but it’s not enough to keep them together. “Rodeo” depicts an audience witnessing the unexpected death of a horse in Vermont as April worries how her son will be affected while brooding about her husband. “He was like a well-made box,” April thinks after snooping through his belongings and failing to find evidence to explain her feeling of unease about him, “with a clearly defined purpose—on the outside, at least.” Plunkett’s keen observations will pique readers, and the stories pay off with dividends. Agent: Reiko Davis, DeFiore & Co.

May 15, 2021
Meditative short stories about the befuddling domestic lives of women and girls in northern New England. The stories in this debut collection are full of horses. Certainly, horses are common in the landscapes of rural Vermont, where these tales are usually set, but they are absolutely everywhere here, alongside narrators whose demanding young children and difficult marriages make their daily lives gray and exhausting. Often the horses are symbols of comfort: In "Farmer, Angel," a young trail guide's horse acts as a buffer between her and a customer with ill intent. In "Arla Had Horses," a schoolgirl tries to navigate an odd friendship with her Jehovah's Witness classmate by helping her brush the filthy horses the girl owns. Elsewhere, horses remember their wildness. In the opening story, "Something for a Young Woman," a young mother, Allison, and her son are thrown from a horse belonging to Allison's mother-in-law, an event that is tangled up with both what is to come for Allison (leaving her patient, boring husband) and her past (an uncategorizable relationship with her former boss, an antiques shop owner). It is this unpredictability, both human and animal, that is magnified in one of Plunkett's most memorable stories, "Rodeo," in which another young mother takes her toddler to the rodeo as an afternoon escape from her husband, who is deteriorating into mental illness, only to watch a horse become fatally injured during the event. Although the narrators blend together as variations on a single theme, Plunkett's strength is in the patience and precision of her interior and exterior landscapes. Like horses, too, these stories are full of beauty and elegance but also inscrutability, with Plunkett content to braid scenes and images together and let the mystery of their relationships abide. Wistful tales rendered with delicate writing and powerful perception.

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June 1, 2021
Plunkett's nuanced debut story collection follows characters navigating and identifying the shifts and relationships in their lives, present and past. In "Something for a Young Woman," Allison receives a necklace from her boss. Years later, separated from her husband and raising a young child, when she learns of her boss' death, she is forced to reconcile her memories with her current situation. With "Arla Had Horses," young Renee, eager to live up to adults' and her peers' expectations but also creating lies to do so, strikes up an unlikely connection with outcast Arla, which offers Renee a glimpse into a life different from her own. With the captivating "Rodeo," a visit to a rodeo show takes a harrowing turn for April and her young son after they witness an accident, an event twined with April's increasing concern over her relationship with her husband. In the title tale, newly separated Rachel finds herself adrift, having moved back in with her disapproving mother. With bracing honesty, Plunkett's richly drawn narratives bring emotional depth to the characters' struggles and internal conflcts.

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