Rating: 
Summary: You'll Never Think of Suburbia in the Same Way Ever Again...
Review: A.M. Homes has painted a dark and bizarre picture of suburbia, knocking down that whole fantasy of how the suburbs are pure and clean. She has put together a twisted collection of stories that are subtle, outrageous and downright disturbing. This is not an easy read for those who have weak stomachs or are extremely sensitive. However, if you're looking for something a little more darker and sinister, "The Safety of Objects" just might be the thing for you.When you think of "suburbia," you think of somewhere that is safe, quiet, boring and normal. These stories take place in a neighborhood that could very well resemble somewhere where YOU live. The truth is that this "normal" neighborhood is contaminated with bizarre behavior and unbelievable stories. There's the couple who decide to do drugs when their kids are away from home. There's the kid who was abducted by a kidnapper, only to end up being a big disappointment to the abductor. There's the mother with the son that is in a coma after a car accident, and she doesn't know what should be done. And let's not forget about the little boy who has an extreme obsession with his sister's Barbie doll. These are only some of the stories you will uncover in this unrelenting and unapologetic read. Homes has a great way of getting straight to the point without using any extra or unnecessary words. Her writing reminds me a little of Raymond Carver, only more twisted and graphic. She's able to create some very interesting and creepy characters without having to give you their complete life story. While there are some stories that I like more than others, I found myself enjoying the entire book. Just when I thought I had read some pretty twisted and disturbing stuff, I started to realize that I hadn't seen nothing yet after I started reading this book. I cannot stress this enough; this is NOT recommended for those who are extremely sensitive and get offended easily. These stories are dark, graphic and unforgiving. Some stories aren't as extreme as others while there are some that'll make you feel downright guilty for reading. I had a hard time reading some of these stories, but A.M. Homes' craft is done so well that you can't help but continue reading. People who like Chuck Palahniuk are bound to get a kick out of these stories. My favorite stories in this collection are "Looking for Johnny," "Jim Train," "The Bullet Catcher," "Esther in the Night," and everyone's favorite cult classic, "A Real Doll," which is the funniest and most deranged story in the entire collection. "The Safety of Objects" is a humorous and chilling read that you will have a hard time forgetting. It's great to see something that is supposed to be viewed as innocent such as "suburbia," and see it transformed into something much more sinister and terrifying. If you're a fan of the short story and aren't afraid to venture into some of the darkest and tragic corners of fiction, then this is something you should consider picking up. I will never forget these stories. They are forever imprinted into my brain. -Michael Crane
Rating: 
Summary: Anything But Safe
Review: An earlier reviewer said that reading A.M. Homes was like discovering a dead animal at the edge of a children's playground. I couldn't agree more. The very definition of 'buried humor' THE SAFETY OF OBJECTS is filled with laughable ironies set in the backdrop of dark, eerie suburbia. ADULTS ALONE introduces a married couple who, after packing their sons off on a vacation with grandma, indulge themselves by smoking crack and drinking wine in their bed. LOOKING FOR JOHNNY tells the story of a young boy who is kidnapped away from his boring single-mother and retarded sister only to fail his kidnapper's unusual expectations. CHUNKY IN HEAT is essentially a story about a fat girl who doesn't really care that she is fat. In JIM TRAIN, a man becomes EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR at his law firm by indulging in a strange after-hours habit. When forced to stay home one day with his family after a bomb-threat, he realizes why he so eagerly makes his workplace a sanctuary. THE BULLET CATCHER tells the story of a sappy man who becomes obsessed with a unique contest at the mall while harboring the determination to achieve the standard American dream. YOURS TRULY is a sort of affirmation of the self in which a girl hides in her mother's closet to shun the superficial values her elite mother espouses. ESTHER IN THE NIGHT is about one woman's brutal decision in the wake of her son's coma due to a tragic car accident. THE SLUMBER PARTY tells the story of a nine year-old girl and eleven year-old boy who engage in mischief and attempt to discover each other's sexuality only to find themselves crossed by dangerous strangers. THE I OF IT is narrated by a gay young man who is frustrated after growing up without a father and in the company of only a mother and sisters. A REAL DOLL is the story which essentially everyone refers to in this collection. I read it once and thought it was just okay. The second time, I absolutely loved it. It's chilling, it's creepy, but it's also so brutally funny in parts. Probably the best in the collection. Essentially, Homes is a very good, very unique writer whose determination to put little humorous sparks into the most bleak of stories is not seen in many writers. Some of the stories don't seem very dark and yet others seem to be so dark that one doesn't even realize it. My favorite stories were "Adults Alone", "Jim Train", and "A Real Doll". If there is a single problem with these stories it is that they are anticlimactic. In stories such as "Chunky In Heat" basically nothing happens other than a fat girl sitting in her backyard engaging in a sort of striptease by herself. I would have liked to see more action, but that doesn't take away from how elegantly these stories were crafted. THE SAFETY OF OBJECTS is definitely worth a read if you like literature that is intelligent yet perverse. I would say that this collection of stories is better than her later one THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful Writing, The Worst Book I've Ever Read
Review: Does A.M. Homes really have an English degree? She should have payed closer attention in class. This is the worst book I have ever read--and I read a lot. Not just the themes,--which are juvenile and desperately wanting (and failing miserably) to be creative and original (nice try!),--but also the writing itself is very, very poor, very amateur. The dialogue is unrealistic. The characters are completely unlikable--every single one of them. Also, the pornographic stories remind me of kids who get purple mohawks and 80 body piercings so that everyone will oooh and ahhh at them and say, "Look at him: he is so controversial!" Well, no one ooohs and ahhhs because we see these kids for what they are: kids, children who want attention by being obnoxious. Please! I love sex in literature, but Homes makes it cheap, silly, and less sexy than a bowl of Cheerios. Read this collection of stories only if you want to be offended and annoyed by Homes' amateurity and immaturity. If not, try Lorrie Moore's "Birds of America" or "Like Life" instead.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful imagery, intensely psychological
Review: I purchased this after watching the beautiful, artful movie adaptation of this collection of short stories. What surprised me most when reading "The Safety of Objects" was how the movie so deftly combined the stories into one coherent drama, using the haunting imagery and psychological trauma interwoven throughout what seems on the surface to be a very disparate group of stories. I liked this book, although I am not sure if I would have liked it quite as much had I not seen the movie beforehand? But, the book has its merits. It rips the roof off of the suburban houses & shows the disillusionment and pathos within, and in this regard, goes down well-worn paths, but the author provides provocative scenes & memorable, highly believable characters along the way.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful imagery, intensely psychological
Review: I purchased this after watching the beautiful, artful movie adaptation of this collection of short stories. What surprised me most when reading "The Safety of Objects" was how the movie so deftly combined the stories into one coherent drama, using the haunting imagery and psychological trauma interwoven throughout what seems on the surface to be a very disparate group of stories. I liked this book, although I am not sure if I would have liked it quite as much had I not seen the movie beforehand? But, the book has its merits. It rips the roof off of the suburban houses & shows the disillusionment and pathos within, and in this regard, goes down well-worn paths, but the author provides provocative scenes & memorable, highly believable characters along the way.
Rating: 
Summary: Peculiar People
Review: In a series of skillfully constructed short stories, A. M. Homes has unveiled with great élan the frightening underside of suburbia. The characters run the gamut from a disappointed pedophile to a lascivious obese girl, from a responsible mother gone wild on a weekend away from her children to a teen boy who becomes strangely attracted to his sister's Barbie. However, revealing any more about these stories would be unseemly, as the degenerate twists are part of their seductive powers.
Despite the shocking premises, the basic situations and feelings evoked are often universal - making this book a somewhat uneasy read. The reader does not want to identify with these characters, but Homes, with laser-like precision, forces the reader to just such apperception. Reading "Safety of Objects" left me alternately paralyzed with laughter and oddly nauseous - a true mark of genius! This book is the first I've read by Homes, but I'm already eagerly anticipating the next.
Rating:
Summary: Not for Children or Morons
Review: It would be comfortable and convenient to say Amy Homes is mentally ill but I doubt it. This is a very good book by an amazing writer who can see past the facades we all put up and look into the depravity of everyone. Nothing is scared in this book and very little is hidden. The reader is invited into the intimate lives of the characters and we see them as they really are. Many won't understand the book and some will criticize it for being to graphic but I recommend this book for anyone who is willing to take a good look at the grit and filth that life is too often full of.
Rating:
Summary: Not Mr. Rogers' neighborhood
Review: The thing to love about this disturbing collection of short stories is their ability to reach deep down into the churning gut of suburbia and pluck out the darkest desires, fears, and perversions we all harbor in our deepest and most private of selves. While no readers will admittedly identify with any of Homes' characters or situations there is no doubt that all readers will, on some level, find something that sounds familiar. Homes is incredibly skilled at picking apart the dreams all Americans harbor and of showing us the hellish reflection in the mirror. Her characters are not outlandish and as much as we would like these stories to be inconceivable they could easily be articles in the daily newspaper of any "normal" town. Her ability to break the fine line between maintaining an acceptable life and shattering the set molds calls into question the true meaning of "mental illness". If you are easily offended, these stories are not for you.
Rating:
Summary: catatonic reading
Review: this book are one of those that make me feel numb after reading them. A.M. Homes came to me as such a revelation since i haven't encountered any of her works before. i just saw the book in a local bookstore and instinctively bought a copy. and thank god i did. i like her tremendously because of her explorations of middle-class america; hers are themes not anymore new but presented freshly through her powerful prose. her minimalism is impressive; it brings an electroshock effect as i move along with her stories, like your plugged to her system and then she runs electricity through your body. Homes is definitely someone i'm on a close watch of. this collection is powerful, the kind that make me say, "god, i wish i wrote this!"-- particularly her story "Looking for Johnny", my favorite among the stories in this collection. The Safety of Objects is a book that teaches me a myriad of things in terms of fiction reading and writing. i highly recommend her.
Rating:
Summary: Slice of Life
Review: This is a very interesting collection of short stories by A.M. Homes which was published in 1990. In 2001, the book was turned into a movie. The stories are chilling, delving into sci-fi and fantasy. In each story she lets us into the mind of the narrator who the story involves, and goes into every twist and thought, every nook and cranny, and leaves no stone unturned. Some of the plots simply shocked me, but it was such a grasping read, I couldn't put it down. A few of the stories included one with a woman named Esther who imagined what it would be like if a theif broke into her home, and what he would do if he found her comatose son, then later she kills her son by placing a bag over his head, therefore making it hard for him to breathe. In another story, two parents who have a weekend without their kids decide to do crack and have to deal with their fears about being caught by anyone. In one story, a sister's brother becomes infatuated with a humanized Barbie doll. One of the stories that really blew me away was the one where a man kidnapped a little boy and kept calling him Johnny even though he wasn't the same person that the man thought he was. There was many other stories, very chilling and revealing. If you want to be uplifted by a book, this is certainly not the one. This book however deals with people's secrets and their fantasies, that they let no one else see. A bunch of stories about twisted life in suburbia. Overall a worthwhile read!
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