One woman is tortured by sinister bite marks that appear on her skin; another is swallowed up by the floor during a mortifying presentation; yet another resolves to return and exchange her boring husband at the store where she originally acquired him. The women at the center of this curious universe learn that their reality is shaped not only by how others perceive them, but also how they perceive the power within themselves.
...funny, wise and weighty ... One of the funniest stories concerns a woman who farts during an important presentation — only to find herself swallowed up by a black hole populated with other women in similar states of humiliation and shame. Not only does the story tap into something real, it recalls those endlessly popular women’s magazine staples in which readers share their most embarrassing moments ... It may make you put Roar down for a while so you can think about what the word 'woman' really means and why the roars women make sound so similar ... It’s best to read just one or two of Ahern’s fables at a time. That way you can truly appreciate their wit, pathos and imagination.
Ahern is a clever, whimsical fabulist, and the roar of each tale resounds in the moral. Her bold and unapologetic style is augmented by the dream-like, exaggerated quality of these chimerical stories ... Ahern often opines her political views with a megaphone. While this blunt approach is in accordance with the cautionary epimythia of traditional fables, the technique may come across as a bit too didactic to some readers, and the blaring political messages risk eclipsing the artistry of these tales ... has its hits and misses. In Ahern’s more successful pieces, her prose flexes its muscles with vim and vigor, and this sinewy, bizarre compilation is an entertaining commentary on the shapeshifting social mores of our times.
Cecelia Ahern’s collection of short stories titled, Roar, couldn’t be better timed ... Unfortunately, despite its relevant and pressing subject, Roar disappoints; the collection is largely saccharine and lacks subtlety and nuance ... Many of the stories in Roar have clever, catchy opening paragraphs and are humorous at times ... Although most of the stories in Roar get off to good starts, many rely too heavily on clichés, overused tropes, and obvious symbolism ... The endings of far too many stories in Roar are tied up much too neatly and are moralistic and corny ... Roar is a great idea not very well executed.
