Try to imagine a world where hearts are being replaced in order to save relationships. You can purchase them online. Swan hearts, bear hearts, wolf hearts and plenty other kinds. This is a gimpse of one the stories. In this book, you get to explore an array of universes centered around the survival of flowers who narrate their own story, of a boy walking out of innocence and trying to make sense of adults’ complexity, of mermaids being displayed at an aquarium.

The story with the same title of the  book is my favourite. It delves into the idea that a story can be without a logic, without the restraint of rules. In it Evelyn forces her husband Julian to reinvent the beginning of the world at 3pm. In the mist of their conversation, Julian explains that wherever you make a decision in your reality, the other options you didn’t choose play out somewhere else, in some other world. To play along, Evelyn recounts the first moments of their relationship  using that premise.

Jen Campbell is good at making up fairy tales that reflects a critic of the actual world. For example, a boy is confused by adults especially when his mother says that “grownups don’t even know what they are doing most of the time”. The animals’story raises questions about the animals right all the while questioning our understanding of love. I love how Jen takes us on another level with her collection of short stories.