Author:

Genre: Short story

What I liked about this book:

This author certainly knows how to write, and it shows they've spent a lot of time doing it. They have a large vocabulary of metaphors and other linguistic devices to use.

What I did NOT like about this book:

Stop trying so hard to sound deep.

I sort of specialized in flash fiction for a while. I won a couple contests with it, even. Here's the thing about flash fiction: It still has to be about something. You can't just drabble with a bunch of pretty metaphors for 800 words and call it a story. That will fool some people, but not most of us. We will recognize you are writing about nothing and trying to pass it off as deep and introspective.

These pieces are doing the second thing. They're just a cluster of metaphors intended to sound good to someone who doesn't know any better, but they really have nothing to say. There's no plot here, no story, nothing to latch onto, and as a result they come off as incredibly cluttered and difficult to read, and also fairly pretentious.

I'm not really sure how this got to the state finals in anything, except I've seen a lot of judges in high school or even college contests be fooled by pretty metaphors for pieces that again, say nothing. This doesn't fly with actual publishers most of the time, and it doesn't make one think--it just tries to sound good while in reality not saying anything at all.

I think this author has the ability to be immensely talented, but they need to ground themselves and not lean so hard on their vocabulary. Drop some of the pretense and show me an actual short tale that is ABOUT something.

Overall:

This piece is everything I dislike about literary fiction.

Rating:

3/10. The writing itself shows so much talent, I just wish it had some substance behind it.