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TheBecks

TheBecks

Storms in Jars - E.J. More I'm actually somewhat surprised by my own rating of this book. Several months ago, I received a copy of this ebook (in a roundabout way - through a blog that I contribute to sporadically) for review. I accepted it, despite it having only one rating of 2 stars. Not exactly a shining endorsement. But, I like horror, and I like short stories, and this was very short, so I figured I wouldn't be investing much time if it did stink after all.

And then I read it, and found that it didn't.

There were some editing issues - a plethora of missing commas, mainly. Though there were some other little things I noticed, general editing clean up items such as improper capitalization, etc, they didn't really detract from the story as much as the absentee commas did. There's a big difference between "We have a basement, Detective," ("Detective" used here as a title in lieu of name, so it should be capitalized) and "We have a basement detective," which is what was in the text. The former advises the detective being spoken to that the speaker has a basement; the latter could be implying that there's a detective housed in the basement, or they staff a detective who specializes in basement work.... who knows?

But, editing aside, I quite liked the stories. They were short, but much longer, and they wouldn't have worked. All were contained in this gray zone of Info The Reader Doesn't Have, and it was good that way. We don't know what the creature in "Smoke" is - just that it's hungry and old, and its been crouching above the smoker's room at the office for a long, long time, feeding on the illness it can smell there. We don't know who - or what - the Other Beryl of the story is.

These stories are little snapshots in time - a format that I've come to discover I like more than a little bit - and around them is the void. The reader is left to fill in the whys and hows. The story is just the story and we live in that little bubble of time until it collapses with a popping noise. There's a little twist with each of the stories, and they weren't hard to spot, but still enjoyable.

"Smoke" - This one was a surprise to me, and sticks in my mind for a few reasons. First, because it was the first story in the book, and it grabbed my attention with the vague-but-vivid imagery. Second, it's not really a proper story, with a plot or anything, it just is... Much like what is described in the story. It's kind of like how poetry doesn't always have to rhyme, or that... stuff... called "free verse" (*shudder*), short stories can vary in their content and still be really good stories. Like this one.

"Milton Hobbs and the Price of Serenity" - This story was familiar, because it's been done many times before. It's your typical "Deal with the Devil" story. But what I really liked about it was Milton himself, his chutzpah... There's also a bit of an inevitability, which I liked.

"Other Beryl" - I liked this story quite a bit, though it was the one with the most need of editing. I liked how we're thrown right into the midst of this man's fears for his safety, and as the details slowly come to light, it becomes clear that his concerns are valid, but too little and too late.

"Post" - This is my favorite of the lot, if only for the perspective and the confusion. It's not often that we see this perspective in this type of story, and usually when we do, it's a kind of romanticized version. The reader is supposed to understand before the main character does, which creates this sense of dread - though we're not quite sure who we're supposed to feel for yet. What does the memory signify, or will instinct take over? When the main character finally understands, it's over and done... But the ending switches perspective again, and restarts the dread cycle... This is possibly the shortest story in the collection, but it was well done.

"Kimmy's Not Welcome Here Anymore" - This was reminiscent of Stephen King's story "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band", though this one also had themes of coming of age, and recognizing when one needs to leave a toxic relationship behind to save oneself. Quite good, actually.

Overall, I did enjoy this little collection much more than I expected to. I'll be keeping my eye out for more from this author.