Five Stories to Experience if You Liked ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’
Recommending similarly wonderful, chaotic reads.
‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ came out on April 8th, 2022, shattering the internet and also my mind. Rarely do I hear negative thoughts about this film, and when I do, it’s usually from people who don’t like its chaotic, overwhelming energy.
That’s my favorite part.
In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a huge fan of the movie. But after you’ve seen it, what else can you do? There’s really nothing else quite like it, but I tried to get close in terms of both vibe and content. Here are my recommendations for a few short stories, a novella, and another film for you to consume if, like me, ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ left a little void in your heart.
‘Plausible Realities, Improbable Dreams’ by Isabel J Kim
If your favorite part of ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ was the relationship between Evelyn and her husband, you’ll enjoy this science-fiction short story. It’s a sweet workplace romance that just so happens to involve multiverses. The prose is as polished as it is fun, and it has the same light/heavy vibe that made the A24 movie so popular. You can read it for free on Lightspeed’s website.
‘Sorry to Bother You’ (2018, written and directed by Boots Riley)
This 2018 film has similar surreal elements to ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’, so if you’re a fan of the whole freaking-out-in-a-tax-office part, you’ll definitely enjoy it. But beyond aesthetics and genre, it leans further into social commentary on classism, racism, and contemporary capitalism. It’s exciting and beautifully shot, and the pacing is perfect. If you enjoy movies that are ‘weird’ but weird for a reason, this one is for you. It’s streaming on Netflix right now.
‘It Happened in Loontown’ by Lavie Tidhar
If your favorite scene was the hot dog fingers scene, and you love absurdity and playing with genre conventions, you’ll also like this funky noir. At first, it seems like a straightforward noir short story, but there’s a twist: all the characters are balloons, and they live in a society of balloons. If it sounds strange, it’s because it is, but if you’re here for the weird, you can read it for free on Apex Magazine’s website.
‘This Is How You Lose the Time War’ by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
This multiversal love story is less action-packed than ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’, but it still combines a unique science-fiction military aesthetic with big emotions. In this, Red and Blue are on opposite sides of a war, fighting each other across different strands of a fraying timeline. It’s told in the format of letters and vignettes, and Red and Blue’s blossoming relationship make this novella both emotionally poignant and really interesting, just like how Evelyn’s relationships at the core of ‘EEAAO’ hold the plot of the film together.
‘The Waves’ by Ken Liu
Did you cry at the scene with the rocks? If so, you might also cry reading this short story. It starts out with a mother on a spaceship heading to an unknown planet, but the technological developments of humanity are changing quickly. The story ends in light and the dawn of another civilization, and the way in which it gets there is absolutely fascinating and full of love for the human in the non-human. You can find it in Asimov’s December 2012 issue or in Liu’s collection, ‘The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories’.
I hope these recommendations managed to satisfy your cravings for more of this phenomenal film. I, for one, can’t get enough of it. Please let me know of any stories that remind you of ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ — I would love to check them out!
PS: You may notice that I recommended a lot of short stories. That’s for two reasons: 1) short stories reflect the chaotic multiversal nature of the film (many worlds in a short period of time), and 2) they’re one of my all-time favorite genres. I wrote a whole essay on why, if you’re interested in my reasoning.
