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Down the Other Street by Jennifer Cie

17 Jul 2014 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, General, Short Stories Tags: ebook, four stars, jennifer cie, short story

Published: 29th July 2014
Publisher: Self Published
Pages: 135
Format: ebook
Genre: Short stories
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

Long winded, unemployed, and timid, on the first date Brendan Bloom is already in love. Comfortably arched over his body, Ryan contemplates murder. Cold, necklace gleaming against the pale tint of her collarbone, the passenger could have mercy. Not a little black book, but a faded love letter out from under the sheets. Some romances ignite on sight, others flare at the base of waterless tubs soaked in agitation. Rooted in the South, this collection of short stories delivers five electric confessions of love, sexuality, and identity across time.

Note: I was provided a copy of this book by the author to review.

Down on the Other Street is a collection of short stories that are about love, relationships, sexuality, and discovering who you are. Focusing on the South and across many different time periods, these stories invite you into the intimate lives and emotions of various people, making you realise that people can be a lot more complicated than they appear.

The stories Cie has created are touching, emotional, and unique. They are stories of the passion of love and sexual experience, and the yearning and exhilaration you can experience as a result. The characters are detailed, emotional, in-depth, and trying to discover themselves. They do this through the relationships they have with other people and in each of their stories we see the struggles, social issues, and freedoms that these relationships have on them.

Despite the fact that there are many connecting themes between these stories, no two are truly alike; some of them are so different that it isn’t just the time period that separates them. Two of my favourite stories from the collection are Intellectuals Are Fools and The Blue Bullet, both being excellent stories that capture not only a powerful relationship, but also stories of interest, unanswered questions and filled with the unexpected.

What needs to be mentioned is that while there is a strong focus on love and sexuality, it is in no way explicit, vulgar, or even in there unnecessarily. As someone who has a slight aversion towards explicit sex scenes and over the top romance I found that how Cie has controlled and developed not just the relationships, but also the intimacy and sexual nature, was really well done. There was meaning and emotion brought out through the detail and done so tastefully to the characters and who they are as people without requiring anything to be over the top or disrespectful.

Down on the Other Street will not only open your eyes to the complexities that human emotions are capable of, but also demonstrate that the journey towards discovering your own identity can take many different paths and no two will ever be exactly the same. Cie’s stories follow these many different paths and provide each character with a voice, one that draws in the reader to the emotion and complexities of the surrounding world as well as the character within it and they do so with style and compassion.

Space Sushi by L. R. Currell

08 Jun 2014 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, General, Short Stories Tags: ebook, five stars, l. r. currell, short story

Published: 7th June 2014
Publisher: Smashwords Edition
Pages: 33
Format: ebook
Genre: Short Story
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

This story is part of the upcoming inaugural “Futuristic in Nature” anthology which will be released annually. Volume one will be available in July/August.

Chang Luis Sahari is the most celebrated food critic in the cosmos. But the competition is always snapping at his heels.

Set 100 years in the future, Space Sushi follows a passionate food critic as he faces his hardest challenge yet. A dish which is such a delicacy that it is only enjoyed by the rich and the elite. A tasty delight that is as potent as it is gorgeous with the potential to kill him. The culinary wonder is poisonous and there is no known antidote. Death is guaranteed if the poison is digested, already it has claimed an impressive number of victims.

There are very few chefs who can prepare it with the meticulous care necessary to make it safely edible.

Chang’s employer sends him to the universally renowned Chef Nikons restaurant to sample the notorious Ambrozian sea slug from the Andromeda galaxy. Despite being in the care of a personal friend and a gastronomic legend who has prepared the dish fifteen times Chang still feels extremely nervous.

After all, it isn’t every day that you sample a meal that could be your last.

I was asked for a review by the author

Space Sushi is a short story that is very well told with an equal balance of information, anticipation, and good writing. Currell tells the story in a light but detailed manner that is engaging and makes you eager for not just the outcome but the journey towards it. Set one hundred years in the future there are similarities to the present world but also new technologies that represent the advancements that have been made, while also touching on a few downsides.

Throughout the story we learn about the main character Chang and his food critic profession, how he is so skilled, and why he is one of the best. Asked to try the dish by his boss in order to help the company cyberzine sales, Chang attends the yet to be officially opened restaurant where his friend Chef Nikon is to prepare it. With his T 21 worker bot Tablet at his side, Chang prepares himself to taste the prominent dish, the wonder of the cosmos that is supposedly delicious but with a touch of danger attached.

As a character Chang is used well in establishing the atmosphere of not just the nervousness about what he is experiencing and anticipating, but also providing a wider context, history, and supporting details about the world in which the story is set. We are provided with an intense build up about what may and has already happened to people from consuming this esteemed and potentially poisoned dish so as a reader you understand why Chang is nervous and why the dish is famed and loved by those who can afford it.

While we wait alongside Chang as his dish is prepared we are hidden from what is happening in the kitchen, aside from what the Chef Nikon tells us when he emerges on occasion, as well as any details provided by Chang’s personal waitress that evening Judy. Being the only customer in the restaurant we are allowed to focus on Chang and the other three characters. We follow their interactions with Chang and we use their conversations to aid the story and build on the narrative. It isn’t until you finish the story that you really notice just how well Currell uses these other characters either. Everything plays together in telling this story and by limiting the descriptive aspect in the story so much of our knowledge is provided through the conversations and interactions among the characters.

Space Sushi is a wonderful short story with a narrative that manages to entertain but also build up your own anticipation and nervousness as you get involved with Chang’s story. You become captured in the story and by the end of it you are left wanting more.

The Sense of Touch by Ron Parsons

04 Jun 2014 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, General, Short Stories Tags: blog tour, four stars, literary fiction, ron parsons, short story, the sense of touch blog tour

Today as part of The Sense of Touch Blog Tour hosted by Pump Up Your Book, I have a review to share with you all. The Sense of Touch is a collection of short stories by Ron Parsons about transformation, finding yourself, and hope. In the eight short stories we see the lives and experiences of a range of people, with each story offering the characters and the readers something to take away with them. The book is available as a paperback or as an ebook so check it out!

About the Book:

Old friends uncomfortably reunited and lovers who cling to their distance from one another; disappearing fathers, fiercely loving grandfathers, and strangers who pass through and radically change lives…These are among the characters who populate the rugged Midwestern landscapes of the mesmerizing fiction world of Ron Parsons. In his debut collection, THE SENSE OF TOUCH (Aqueous Books; May 1, 2013), Parsons captures people of various ages in the act of searching for meaning and connection and themselves. Firmly set in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Michigan, the lush but often brutally cold heartland of America, the eight stories explore universal themes–loneliness, betrayal, transformation, hope–in fresh, sometimes fanciful, sometimes comical, sometimes jarring, and always moving and memorable ways.

About the Author

RON PARSONS is a writer living in Sioux Falls. Born in Michigan and raised in South Dakota, he was inspired to begin writing fiction in Minneapolis while attending the University of Minnesota. His short stories have appeared in many literary magazines and venues, including The Gettysburg Review, Indiana Review, Storyville App, The Briar Cliff Review, Flyway, and The Onion. His debut collection of stories, THE SENSE OF TOUCH, was released by Aqueous Books in 2013.

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Published: 1st May 2013
Publisher: Aqueous Books
Pages: 252
Format: ebook
Genre: Short story/Literary Fiction
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

Note: I was given a copy of this book to review

The Sense of Touch is a collection of short stories that capture the lives and the landscape of the Midwest. The stories in the collection are all different, but in some ways they are all the same. They all tell stories about men and women and their lives, however extraordinary or otherwise. They show that the lives of the seemingly ordinary can be complex, that they can be both mundane and filled with passion or excitement at the same time.

What occurs in these stories shows that the seemingly ordinary can be quite extraordinary not just for the people involved, but for the reader as well. Parson is quite skilled at lulling you into a story only to turn it on its head. And while this does not occur in every story, or even in an obvious way, you never know when one will happen. It is a sudden turn you were not predicting in the story, and the style in which Parsons introduces is clever, sneaking it upon you, or casually throwing in a sentence in among a seemingly ordinary paragraph. A line, a word, a piece of dialogue can change everything and leave you questioning what has happened or shocked and engrossed in the change or new piece of information.

Short stories have the ability to capture an entire life in a short space, whether that entire lifetime is covered or not. How people are portrayed in short stories reveal so much about them as people, about the relationships they are in, they are quite skilled and powerful at telling you an entire story while not telling us an entire story. Parsons does this well, the lives of the everyday are captured and highlighted, in the remarkable and unremarkable, in the public eye and in the intimate. The characters in this collection bring their own essence to their story, whether it is the contemplations of man’s life with his grandfather, a woman trying to find herself in the city, or a man reigniting a friendship with a school friend.

What was interesting about this collection is that there are not always conclusions or final answers about things. The open ended nature of the stories isn’t unsatisfying though; there is a sense of completeness where you do not need to know any more. You understand the characters will either continue on as they are, no sign of change, or there are heart-warming moments that make you realise they are going to be ok, even after all they’ve told you. A few unanswered questions allow the readers to make up their own minds, and even those with hints at conclusions still allow you the same opportunity.

With a total of eight stories making up this collection Parsons’ gives us people who could be anybody and who in some way can be related to by everybody. The absurd stories are beautiful and engaging, while offering an insight into the lives and mind of others, with a touch of the unspoken, and certainly one of lasting impression.

An Australian Short Story by Ryan O’Neill

01 Apr 2014 1 Comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, General, Short Stories Tags: five stars, ryan o'neill, short story, the lifted brow

Published: October 2012
Publisher: The Lifted Brow
Format: Online
Genre: Short story
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

I love Ryan O’Neill’s approach to writing stories and this short story is no exception. An Australian Short Story is compiled entirely of lines from other stories, 149 to be exact, and all Australian authors and poets with works ranging from 1850 to 2011. The idea a story could be created with snippets and lines from others is one that seems so simple and yet sounds highly complicated all at the same time. The effort and research that would have gone into this is certainly admirable and at the end of it it is actually quite a good narrative.

The story, which first appeared in Issue 14 of the Lifted Brow, is of a husband and wife on their property, a writer without words to write, a frustrated wife, and a relationship that neither is committed to admitting out loud isn’t going very well.

Like O’Neill’s other short stories a lot is told in a short space, and a marriage, a life, and a yearning is captured well within these borrowed words. The story flows seamlessly and if it were not for the citations you would not know that this wasn’t a pure piece of original fiction. The works O’Neill draws from are vast, with Henry Lawson, Peter Carey, Amanda Lohrey, and Patrick White being just a few.

As wonderful as this sampled story is though, it is highly perplexing. Where I would normally commend O’Neill on the excellent image provoking description of a writing desk, or that eloquent and captivating description of wine, or imagery of a disintegrating jacaranda, I find myself commending Christina Stead, Damien Broderick, and A.G. McNeil instead.

Do I adjust this by saying I commend him on his choice of words, that certainly can mean a few things. And I think there needs to be a commendation about this. The way O’Neill arranges his narrative is one that engages you and makes you feel a sense of pity for those involved and the lives they choose to live. As you read you don’t know they aren’t original lines, they are certainly original moments and original scenes, and once you’ve read the story you are then able to return and admire the effort in construction. There is however one line in there sampled from O’Neill’s Flinch which was a particularly fine sentence, so perhaps only 148 works are truly borrowed from.

Avid fans of the sampled works may one or two familiar lines, but what O’Neill has managed to select are in the majority of a combination of nondescript, common, and seemingly ordinary sentences, and yet has managed to weave a telling story as a result. Personally I just knew that that specific “Yes” was from Morris Lurie’s 1979 Running Nicely even before I looked, you could just tell.

An Australian Short Story is yet another example of O’Neill’s marvellous story telling ability and capturing moments in time with skill, creativity, and unique characters.

You can read the story on The Lifted Brow website

Nocturnes by John Connolly

14 Mar 2014 Leave a comment

by Amy in General, Mystery, Short Stories, Thriller Tags: horror, john connolly, mystery, short story, thriller

Published: February 28th 2007
Publisher: Hodder
Pages: 486
Format: Book
Genre: Short stories/Horror/Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

A dark, daring, utterly haunting anthology of lost lovers and missing children, predatory demons, and vengeful ghosts. In these stories, Connolly ratchets up the tension to almost unbearable — and irresistible — levels. Nocturnes is a deliciously chilling collection from “one of the best thriller writers we have” (Harlan Coben)

John Connolly’s short stories in this book are dark and magical and monstrous, in so many different ways. All monsters are different, not all monsters can be seen, and there is always something lurking in the dark. There are 17 stories in this collection, each of them revealing something terrifying and eerie. The variety Connolly comes up with are amazing, and the fact we do not always find out what exactly is hiding in the shadows is what adds to the delight. What isn’t told leaves a lot to your own imagination to fill in the gaps, and what is told is just haunting enough to stay with you even as you move onto the next story.

With the opening story, The Cancer Cowboy, you know that these stories may not be entirely pleasant or uplifting, but with the other stories varying from being less dark and tragic to being simply eerie, or on occasion humorously tragic, you are given a wide variety in which to challenge your nerves and keep you awake at night.

Connolly writes with a wonderful descriptive simplicity. We are given details and basic information, but there are things we aren’t told as well. What we are told is what we need to be told for the story to progress and for us to understand. Anything else is revealed gradually in conversation, or implied through something else, or we don’t need to know it at all. The joy of the short story, and the art I suppose, is trying to capture a life within less space than normally provided. Connolly gives us characters that are as developed as they have to be for the roles and situations they are placed in. You do not always need to know everything about them, but we are not left with any husks of characters that we have no sympathy for and for what is happening to them or around them.

The title Nocturnes comes from one of the stories within the book, a story about things that come out in the dark, that haunt you, and hide in the shadows; the very name suitable to cover the nature of these stories. Nocturnes can be defined as “a work of art dealing with evening or night”, something these stories do, mixed together with the creepy and scary. Connolly draws you in as you read with the mystery and unknown, but also compassion for the characters involved; of the innocent parties, the guilty, and even an admiration for the monsters. The extent of what he has created is of such variety it must be said it isn’t all darkness and shadows, but the daylight monsters are no less unnerving than anything that Connolly creates in the night time shadows I assure you.

One stand out addition was the Charlie Parker novella The Reflecting Eye towards the end. Even this manages to suit the theme Connolly has going rather well. Charlie Parker is from Connolly’s detective series, with this novella being between the fourth and the fifth in the series. I have yet to read any of the Charlie Parker novels; I suppose with this novella I have had a taste now to reignite my desire to start reading them.

From the man who wrote the beauty of The Book of Lost Things, seeing the darker side was very revealing. The Book of Lost Things had its own darkness certainly, but the darkness and monsters hiding inside Nocturnes, whether they are treated with a distracting light heartedness like some, a mysteriousness that remains not entirely revealed, or one that brings a twist, is something that I found very exciting, and a wonderful surprise. Perhaps it was because we don’t always know what is happening, we only see snippets of events and what happens, or perhaps it is because it shows that darkness can breed anything and anywhere, and no one is exempt from its talons.