Send Nudes: By the winner of the BBC National Short Story Award 2022

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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).

A collection of short story’s focusing on the journey from girlhood to womanhood … each rather extreme and dramatic (but also oddly spot on) and each as intriguing as the next. I had a great time with this book.

Send a message to Saba Sams

Stella turns and runs through the house. In her bedroom, Blue’s velour dress is a loop on the floor. On the dresser, the cherry stones have lost their shine. Stella crawls into bed, pulls her knees up beneath her chin, and waits. Jasmine shakes her head. She’s just using you to wind me up. Blue and I have been best friends since we were practically babies. Thanks to Sams’ linguistic mirroring, we know this young character has found her kin. Young women still working out who to be will also find clarity in this original, engrossing collection. Her work calls to mind Eliza Clark, whose 2020 debut novel Boy Parts followed an abrasive young woman who convinces men to pose for explicit photographs, and Megan Nolan, whose 2021 book Acts of Desperation traced a woman’s cruel mistreatment of herself. Which is to say that Sams writes young women characters who are rarely straightforwardly sympathetic. “I didn’t have much in the way of standards,” Gracie, the protagonist of one story, admits. Does that make her a bad person? Not necessarily. Sams presents us with characters about whom we feel at once horrified, and then amused. Her prose, raw and tightly wrought, tests our capacity for compassion.

Threading between clubs at closing time, pub toilets, drenched music festivals and beach holidays, these unforgettable short stories deftly chart the treacherous terrain of growing up – of intense friendships, of ambivalent mothers, of uneasily blended families, and of learning to truly live in your own body.What do you think the judges admired about this story? Why does it connect with readers, do you think? Talking about her story, Sams says: “It’s very special to have ‘Blue 4eva’ – a story I’ve been working on, in one way or another, since I was nineteen – be given this kind of esteem. I first wrote ‘Blue 4eva’ in rainy Manchester when I was a student, though it was very different then. The story was very short, more of a vignette, but I had fun with it. When I was writing Send Nudes a few years later, I returned to the story and started working on it again. I’m always thinking about what it looks like to be a young woman: about bodies and power, about friendships and family, about the ways we’re constantly looking to break free. ‘Blue 4eva’ engages with sexuality too, particularly with queerness, in a subtle way that I found interesting to write.” In another story titled ‘Blue 4eva’, three young girls are on vacation with their parents, enjoying the freedom and fun the trip affords them. As the days progress and tensions develop and relieve in different familial settings, each girl makes a choice seemingly without realising the weight it may carry over their holiday. I’m always thinking about what it looks like to be a young woman: about bodies and power, about friendships and family, about the ways we’re constantly looking to break free,” Sams said. “Blue 4eva engages with sexuality, too, particularly with queerness, in a subtle way that I found interesting to write.”

This collection delves into the lives of different women at various stages of their lives, it was as if the stories were a snapshot of someone’s life. Each story examines womanhood, sexuality, and modern day issues. There are some very detailed and graphic topics such as abortion, abuse, sexual assault, adult/minor relationships. Although these themes are dark, the writing is simplistic and honest when writing about them. Stell, says Claire. You’ll be careful tonight, won’t you? Those girls are adults. You don’t have to do the things they do. Stella barely sleeps at all. It’s just past nine when she hears Frank’s voice, slightly raised, through the shutters. What the, he says. Stella only knows such details because Frank has told her. Frank is obsessed with his photography equipment. The day before they caught their flight out here, Stella watched him line up his camera, lenses and film canisters in the rectangle of light coming in through his bedroom window before taking a photograph of them on his phone.I was not expecting this book. I read it because of the cover, and found an amazing collection of short stories that really surprised me. Jasmine takes the steps down from the veranda. Stella stands up and follows. Blue falls into step behind her. The cool air opens around them, and Stella’s eyes adjust as she walks. This book shows the messiness but also empowering stories of different women: covering POV’s from young teens and women trying to navigate modern life. These were stories of mystery and intrigue, grief and humour. Some of the stories covered more serious topics than others. As an introspective collection of short stories, they really delve into the character’s emotions and thought processes/decisions and how these women take control.

A roiling, raw, gut-punch of a debut collection, best read in one sitting. Sams conveys the suffocation of being and the longing to break free - from parents, partners, children, convention, your own self - in tender, spare prose. I sat motionless for about half an hour after reading them; I can't wait to see what she writes next' PANDORA SYKES Quotes from the blurb describe Saba Sam's debut as "highly perceptive and intelligent" ( Nicole Flattery) and "wry, sharp and raw" ( Emma Cline). Perhaps I should have taken heed of the fact that I didn't particularly get on with these two author's short story collections (and Daddy respectively) Show Them a Good Time)... although I have to say though that whilst this was a mixed bag, I did prefer this to the two books mentioned above.

Jasmine is hopping on one foot. That’s disgusting, she says. Her eyes are wet with tears and a hot-pink rash has flared up on her ankle. In fact, Stella’s school made a point not to set homework on the computer. When Stella found out about the holiday, it was the first time she used the desktop for anything other than video games. She looked up the island and sat for hours, hovering her mouse over the images. She didn’t go downstairs again all evening, and Jasmine left without saying goodbye. The water looked so clear Stella could see the shadows of the boats on the sand at the bottom of the sea. She thought that when she swam in it, she’d be able to watch the fish drifting beneath her, an aquarium without the glass. In four of these stories, Sams attends to girls who are not quite yet in adolescence. The tenderness with which she writes “Flying Kite” is a welcome contrast to the tense fervour explored elsewhere.