Early praise:

"I adored this collection of surreal stories, which feel both of-the-moment and timeless. Bizarre, very funny, and emotionally authentic, these stories pulse with pathos and surprising insights into what it feels like to be human...A vital addition to the canon of weird fiction.” - Kate Folk, author of Sky Daddy

“Like a season of Black Mirror but less bleak and more melancholy, each story in this collection offers a door into an inventive new world, strange and familiar at the same time. Every page, every line offers possibility, surprise, humor, or heartbreak...An exciting new voice.” - Charles Yu, winner of the National Book Award and author of Interior Chinatown

“Beguiling and funny and desperately, delicately human...I found these stories as irresistible as a pack of time-traveling mints.” - Ed Park, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Same Bed, Different Dreams

“The pages of I Am the Ghost Here are as electric as a live wire: dangerous in the most thrilling possible way. The world of these stories isn't quite like ours - but is it any more absurd than the one we're in, honestly? You might start a story thinking you're reading about, say, a woman who's turned into scrambled eggs; you'll end it realizing that, all along, you were reading about yourself.” - Vauhini Vara, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of This is Salvaged

“Samek debuts with a striking collection of fantastical and speculative stories about conformity, technology, and the limits of bodily autonomy...Throughout, Samek elicits genuine pathos and offers astute social commentary. This dazzles.” - Publishers Weekly, starred review

“With sharp prose, dark yet hopeful humor, and imaginative daring, Samek takes a unique look at existential crises, poignantly capturing the dissonance between who we believe or want ourselves to be and the realities that erode those beliefs.” - Booklist, starred review

“Within the brevity of her stories, Samek creates fabulously multilayered worlds featuring automatic vacuums equipped with hidden cameras, puppeteers for hire who transform people into better versions of themselves, a rampant disease that causes victims to excise major organs then carry their body parts in mason jars, and strangers who become lovers over a plastic-eating obsession. Most convincing throughout is her limitless imagination.” - Shelf Awareness, starred review

“Samek slyly erodes our sense of what's real and what's not to reveal the cost to humanity when we offer our lives up for entertainment, allow algorithms to shape our desires, and consume so ravenously that our whole world, including our own bodies, are being polluted by plastic...Smart, dryly witty stories as absurd as they are devastating about life in the 21st century.” - Kirkus Reviews

“Kim Samek blends subversive humor with the absurd in a memorable collection of stories...Recommended for fans of Ben Loory and Aimee Bender.” - The Los Angeles Times, a most anticipated 2026 book

“Dreamlike.” - The Seattle Times, a most anticipated 2026 book

“Surreal and unsettling...I Am the Ghost Here blends absurd humor and speculative storylines to offer commentary on social media, tech, conformity, and more.” - Alta Journal, a most anticipated book

“A contender for the Best Short Story Collection of the Decade.” - Debutiful