5/5 ⭐ | One Hundred Words: A Collection of Short Stories by Michael E Smidts

“One Hundred Words” is so brilliant.  Named due to the length of each short story, one-hundred words, readers are quickly spun by the text and spit back out once again.  Such a unique and exhilarating reading experience, I can’t say I’ve ever experienced anything quite like it, in the best way possible!

Take stories such as “Time Cab: Mourning Rays,” in a present-day world where taxis are often left unused in a world of Ubers, author Michael E. Smidts presents the story of a taxi that can take you to destinations in time rather than simply present-day physical ones.  Imagine going to the past to see someone just one more time, even if they can’t see you, that’s the beauty of this short.  Other stories, such as “Consolation Prize,” feel so painfully truthful and dramatically real, you can’t help but react.  While yet more leave you wondering what’s happening in the fictional characters’ reality to warrant that response and reaction within Smidts’ story. 

There’s so much baked into these short stories you find yourself yearning to read them again, share them quickly with the person next to you, and keep thinking about the outcome long after the story has ended.  This is a compilation of short, short stories, with each never running longer than one page, it is a truly extraordinary collection.  Laid out in a style that ranges from a half page, to just shy of a full page, there is so much packed into so few words. 

The work of true talent to convey so much into such a short number of words, time and time again are what make this read so spectacular.  Each story is unique and yet captivating.  Smidts’ work is truly remarkable.  

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5/5 ⭐ | First Things Last: Stories of Humor, Horror and Noir by Daniel Thompson

“First Things Last” is a collection of thirteen short stories.  Ranging from the short-short “When Tragedy Strikes” to the various episodes and chapters of “Famous Monsters.”  Author Daniel Thompson doesn’t shy away from any of the dark, twisted, head scratching exploits present in these various stories.  Tempting you to read through them twice as a nuanced and layered piece rears its head the second time around, these stories gnaw into your mind as you lose yourself to the story playing across the pages.

Short stories offer a chance for authors to flex their talents in creating plots, characters, and reader intrigue in a limited number of pages.  Thompson nailed this, and more, as he invited readers to critically reflect on his stories’ outcomes, think outside the box, and sit with the message and plot.  I found stories such as “Famous Monsters” and “Wolfenstock” playing in my head as if a movie on the screen, wholly engrossed and entirely entertained.  I loved the perspective and performance that teased across the page, from the desires and beliefs to the sport and depth each story was so entirely unique from the last.

See the world from a unique perspective, settle into the darkness, the horror, noir, and humor that Thompson has crafted amongst the stories preserved within. Drawing you in through his characters, their thoughts, desires, and reflections.  Whether a cloud, a killer, a movie star, or something else entirely, “First Things Last” draws readers in and captivates them story after story.

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5/5 ⭐ | Unaccustomed to Grace by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne

Author Lesley Pratt Bannatyne has created an extraordinary collection of short stories housed within the pages of “Unaccustomed to Grace.”  From stories like “The Patron Saint of Bachelors and Toothaches” to “OMG Winn Handler Moved Next Door!” These fourteen stories are thought provoking, moving, and emotionally charged.  The beauty of Bannatyne’s work lies in her ability to fully grip the reader in the fifteen or so pages in which she has you wrapped in her story.  In that short time, readers let go of reality and fall victim to the captivating drama playing out in her words. 

The story “Waiting for Ivy” especially clung me, in a way that will likely stay with me forever.  In it, Marianne and Tim are waiting, this time they wait outside of an empty bank building among a throng of other parents praying the angels bring out their child. Tortured by hope they travel to wherever the next location is as they hold out for the possibility that the angels will bring out Ivy, who at twenty-nine weeks was stillborn.  Unable to move on, grasping to hope, “Waiting for Ivy” brings to light the desire, trauma, and wait for a baby that many couples dream of.

“Unaccustomed to Grace” begins as a collection of sadness, loss, death, dying, or missing.  Each is beautiful, if not for the tragedy and sadness, then for its thought-provoking emotion.  Not usually ending on a happy note, but feeling complete all the same, these stories are a perfect compilation.  The second half of which are full of vulnerability and again not quite hope, but not quite disparity either.

Unsurprisingly the awards, recognition, and love from both readers and judges alike have poured in for these various stories.  For the few pages of which each of these short stories has you, they hold on and make readers fall completely into the characters’ world, their fears, and their thoughts, until they are spit back out on the other side changed by the message within and the feelings they’ve provoked.

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