What do readers think of This Is Salvaged by Vauhini Vara? Write your own review.

Author Vauhini Vara is a talented writer and her collection of short stories, THIS IS SALVAGED is sure to stir up a response in the reader. Vara seems to gravitate towards the dark side of life: there are houses that smell foul from dried vomit in one story and young girls desperate for employment applying for telephone sex jobs in another. These characters and their behavior may not interest all readers, but I am sure that all readers could agree that the author has captured the essence of sad situations and people desperate for a better life but not always able to escape. Everyone’s life is not a happy ending, and these stories are realistic in that sense. Not all stories were for me, but I appreciate the talent of the author.

"This Is Salvaged" is a haunting, thought-provoking collection of short stories about people struggling through difficult times and recovering pieces of themselves to string together into a new whole. Some of the stories are clever and really comical in places, but I found the collection as a whole a bit uneven. While I loved the story, "Hormone Hypothesis" for its warm and fascinating look at how women comfort and support each other, I found the very next story, "Puppet Master Made the Puppets" ever so choppy and unreadable, For the most part, however, I found this collection an enjoyable read.

This is a thought-provoking series of stories and most difficult to review. The jacket mentioned so many questionable characters that I was interested to see how they could be combined. They aren't. The first story seemed to be the first chapter of a novel that the author might later finish. After that most of the others were so depressing that I thought perhaps I did not properly define salvage; thinking it meant something that could be saved for a useful purpose. Then I thought perhaps my misunderstanding was a religious tenet--something to do with hope--if not of life eternal, at least being a better person. In most cases these stories presented neither. My overall take was that I had to realize that people I know are in these type of situations and I should be more aware.