Erase and Rewind (PB) (2021)

An assault survivor realizes she can rewind time and relives the experience in order to erase it. A teen athlete wonders why she isn't more afraid of death when the plane carrying her team catches fire. The daughter of a superhero ruminates on how her father neglected his children to pursue his heroics. Two shut-in depressives form a bond on Twitter while a deadly virus wipes out most of the population of North America.

The stories in Erase and Rewind probe the complexities of living as a woman in a skewed society. Told from the perspective of various female protagonists, they pick at rape culture, sexism in the workplace, uneven romantic and platonic relationships, and the impact of trauma under late-stage capitalism. Quirky, intelligent, and darkly comic, Meghan Bell's debut collection is a highwire balance of levity and gravity, finding the extraordinary in common experiences.

Praise for Erase and Rewind:

A tough compelling new voice that tells us what it's like to be young nowadays. Meghan Bell is a writer to watch. --Susan Swan, author of The Dead Celebrities Club

Utterly bold, darkly funny, candid and bizarrely tender, Meghan Bell's debut is a testament to being young and female, lost, lonely, and neurotic, while simultaneously trying to navigate the perilous journey of everyday life. Erase and Rewind is a compulsive coming-of-age short story collection from a talented writer. --Lindsay Wong, author of The Woo-Woo