Just as the title Elegant Punk promises, this is a collection full of contrasts, surprises, and strange revelations. Embedded in the gritty realism, there is poetry of the highest order, and grace is splashed all over the commonplace. High passion, silliness, cosmic shifts, and acute psychological insights are rendered up in Darlin' Neal's prose so seamlessly and intensely she makes it look easy. You won't forget these characters, and there's not a story here you won't want to finish after you've read its first sentence." -- Laura Kasischke, author of The Raising: A Novel