The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories

By stating in the foreword that Keegan would want to be read because she was good, not because she was dead, the book challenges you to reflect over its quality. And when the book is at its best, there's no doubt that she was a very talented writer. But there's also chapters that are well written, but an odd choice for a book like this. Most of all this reminds me of a "early writings"-compilation of the sorts you get well into the careers of established writers, and that's because that's exactly what this is. But tragically we can only imagine what the rest of the writing career would have been like.

Her best stories and essays are the ones where she can draw from her own experiences as a young person in the 2000s. She choses interesting perspectives to write from, like the "new" girlfriend of a diseased young man, having to face his family and his ex-girlfriend after his passing. Or a girl home for Christmas facing her fathers alcoholism, brother's escape into gaming and mother's depression(?). Of the non-fiction works, there's lots of good points spread throughout them, but the most memorable one to me was the portrait of the exterminator.