Victoria Patterson's beautiful stories break our hearts as they inform us. Through her characters we see the complications and trauma of not fitting in with one's surroundings, in a version of California we are rarely allowed to see. Haunting, affirming, and often comic, her stories make the reader grateful for this writer's documentation of our human alienation-and our unexpected bonds. Patterson is a gifted storyteller, a fresh, essential new voice. - Dana Johnson, author of Break Any Woman Down (Dana Johnson ).