The Reading Bud

Author: L.M. Brown
Release Date: 25th November 2019
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Short Story Collection, Family, Relationships
Series: 
Format: E-book
Pages: 215
Publisher: Fomite
Blurb:
In each story of this collection, events make the characters understand that their world is not as it seemed.

In Hidden, the discovery of an affair between her father and aunt is only the start of finding hidden secrets for Hazel.
What it Means to Be Empty-Handed is narrated by a fourteen–year-old daughter of an alcoholic. Her denial and elaborate imagination starts to disintegrate when she lies to the wrong person.
In Crashing, a middle-aged woman lives a life of servitude until she hits teenage boy with her car.
A thirty-year-old murder takes its toll on the victim’s family in Walking A Country Road.
The stories are set in Boston and Ireland.

REVIEW

★★★★

A collection of exceptionally narrated and well-plotted short stories that depict the complexities of life. Each and every story felt complete and was very different from each other in respect of plots as well as their implications, yet the theme somewhat remained centric to the multi-faceted and emotionally taxing life one has to plough through no matter how much they wish otherwise.

I enjoyed reading all the stories as they were all well-written. This is my second book by the author (the first being Treading The Uneven Road The characterisation was flawless and I was able to relate to each and every central character in this collection. The pacing was good and I found the stories very realistic.

I’d recommend this collection to all the readers who want to take a break from their usual genres and try something new and refreshing.

You can also read this review on Goodreads and Amazon