"Sheehy delivers a dark and dazzling collection pocked with surface tension and an undercurrent of menace. . . . Artfully imagined and written with a distinctly devilish edge, these beguiling yarns plumb the depths of humanity and explore how human behavior can be twisted and modified by science. Often murky and mysterious, with some only a few pages long, Sheehy’s curious tales never fail to enchant and entertain."

Publishers Weekly, starred review

"In this eclectic, second short-story collection, Sheehy draws on the genres of horror, fantasy, and [science fiction], blending speculative and literary styles. . . . Sheehy has assembled stories spotlighting complex characters as they struggle with events both real and imagined and what that tells us about human nature."

Booklist

"Suffused with pain, foreboding, and occasional humor, the stories in Hugh Sheehy’s Design Flaw are emotionally charged minithrillers. . . Approaching moral quandaries with a scientific detachment, stirring in the mixed emotions of his characters, and employing techniques and tropes from various genres, the experiments Sheehy has conducted make Design Flaw a collection of short masterpieces."

Rain Taxi

"Hugh Sheehy's compelling new collection Design Flaw is, as the title suggests, an examination of what it means to be human, particularly what it means to be male, Sheehy’s lens moving between male violence and vulnerability. Prescient and compassionate, funny and frightening, Design Flaw is the work of a masterful storyteller who understands deeply the world we currently live in, which makes his view of the future all the more unsettling."

Lori Ostlund, author of 'After the Parade' and 'The Bigness of the World'

“The stories in Design Flaw are masterful as both straight-up naturalism and the most arresting sort of speculative fiction. They present with both wit and compassion schlumpy and self-aware protagonists contending with their worlds turning ever-more apocalyptic in both emotional and literal terms. These characters’ lonely passivity seems to them heightened by their emotional acuity, and they’ve made their peace with all they’ve pretended they can’t see, while conceding that caring for people like them is an endurance test that others can’t pass. Yet they cherish those moments when, against all odds, they are there for one another.”

Jim Shepard, author of 'The Book of Aron'

“Here we have Hugh Sheehy’s absorbing latest—these intricate, often eerie stories, at turns lonely and longing, suffused with subtle melancholy. A deep and rewarding collection.”

Amelia Gray, author of 'Isadora'