[Mrs. Y Reviews] The Clouds Beyond Us by Rahf AlRashidi

Book Cover via Amazon.com

Poetry and short stories to me are both critical for their worth. Today we are going to do a review that is a mix of short stories and poetry. So, roses are red; violets are blue, this book is sweet, let's have a review! "The Clouds Beyond Us" is by Rahf AlRashidi. 

Opinion
Hello my dear readers and friends, welcome to another review. I’m on a bit of a poetry kick, and I am reading a book of short stories and poems by Rahf AlRashidi who asked me to do an honest review. I

This is a mix of short stories and poems. The poems are center aligned, and in italics, the short stories, however, are justified aligned and in a standard styled font. I read this on Kindle Unlimited, and I’m glad I picked it up, and I really want to thank Rahf for asking me to read it.

My first impressions of the book, I was a bit surprised, but in a good way. This is an exciting first-person narrative of short stories that are glimpses into the author. I believe this is a work of fiction, but there likely are many deep non-fiction roots into these stories. The reader is splashed into a world of the love of breathing and living. I mean in all honesty how can anyone judge the candor and beauty of this story, because it’d be close to impossible.

There is one part of the book called “Transformative Experience,” and it resonated with me on many levels. It’s very detailed; it has a lot to do with life and how people can easily be swayed to outside pressures and influences, and what that can do to a person. This one story I think is the heart of the entire book, and worth more to society as both a cautionary tale, but also as a reflection of the world we are living in. I adored this story, and thus my first impressions of the book are very positive.

Critiques time. Since this is not just a poetry book, I find this much easier to use my scoring system on that the previous Poetry Collection I reviewed yesterday. There is a basic structure just like any novel or short story. So my first critique goes into the “Story Structure, Foundation and Presentation” part of my scoring.

“The Clouds Beyond Us” had edited and I can tell from the way the book looks that it was worked on extensively. With that said and this is where the critique comes in, there are portions of the book that are difficult to read. Some sentences sit instead of paragraphs for example, such as in the second short story. It’s not bad per se, but it looks strange. Short stories have one structure for the most part (Note for clarification: There are times that the stories are entirely in italics, such as the Grandmother’s story which is under the “Alzheimer’s” section).

In contrast, poems generally are centered or left aligned for the most part. This book has random sentences between paragraphs as if that one sentence is the focus to put attention to. I have this odd feeling that the book was written more in a blogging format than the structured story or even a structured poetry format.  If you are a traditionalist in either short story format or poetry format, this might bother you is why I even mention the situation and thus, why I noted it.

For example of the odd paragraphs or line breaking issue, read the “SkySailor” story and poem. The poem seems to end on one page with what feels like the final stanza that ends with “Continue revolving around me.” Okay, I was entirely on board, that felt like a proper ending to this part. And then when I flipped the page, there is a whole new stanza, with a lot of depth and meaning. It’s odd how this book is spaced sometimes or has page breaks. I’m not sure it’s on purpose, and it’s a genius level thing that I may not be smart enough to understand fully, or if it was some mobi conversion error on the e-reader copy.  I even took the time to remove the copy I had, and re-download it from KU to check, and those strange random page breaks and line breaks are still there.

My last critique doesn’t have a category and any story that I found with this going on, and I did not score this at all because I have no category for this, so it’s mostly me just mentioning it. Those of you who read my reviews regularly know I find things and I point them out, so consider this one of those times.

Periodically through the book, some experts are transcribed into “The Clouds Beyond Us” that was written by someone else.    These are not the same simple one or two line quotes from peoples work; it’s a literal portion of a speech or, another body of work or an entire chapter from someone’s book.

I contacted Rahf and asked if there was permission to use these pieces and I have been assured there is written permission to use them. For the record, I do believe Rahf when I was assured that there is permission. I do not think anything shady is going on here at all, and that this is all on the up and up. I think to avoid any confusion going forward though, that some acknowledgments were somewhere in the book as often you see with other books that do similar things.

Let’s go into the profound positives about “The Clouds Beyond Us” because there are so very many. One of the big ones, though it’s short stories, the whole story I feel of what we are meant to know, is conveyed in this book. This isn’t a story that has cliffhangers per-say, but it does leave the heart and mind fulfilled upon the completion of it.

Next is how well the poems and stories flow together. It’s nice. I enjoyed that everything fit well together and had a pleasant and enjoyable cadence to it. The poetry elements were written very well, and I enjoyed how the stanzas fit. I also loved the short stories. There were many things to take in, somewhat like walking around a bed of flowers and noticing every unique thing about each one, while admiring them together as a group.

Next, let’s talk about the imagery that is called up throughout “The Clouds Beyond Us.” The details are gorgeous; the prose is tight for the poems. There is a poem after the short story “Sky Sailor” that is breathtaking. It’s untitled, but it captured my heart, and I enjoyed it.



Score

This beautiful hybrid short story mixed with a poetry collection is getting an 87/100 which is a 4-Star review on Amazon and Goodreads.

If you are a fan of poems and short stories, or you are really into introspective stories that are thought-provoking with a stanza around, this likely is the perfect book for you. I want to thank Rahf Alrashidi again for pointing this wonderful book my way, and I’d like to thank all of you for reading my review!

Until next time my friends, have a beautiful day!