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Thursday, January 17, 2019

[Mrs. Y Reviews] Earthware by Amr Nasser

Book cover via Smashwords
I love it when I get a collection of short stories. I genuinely do enjoy short stories, but I realize, not everyone is into them. The thing I enjoy the most is the contrast in various stories, in an overall collection. Today we are going to review a collection that I picked up, not on Amazon but this time on Smashwords. It’s time guys! Make sure you leave your time machine for grandpa, be sure you enjoy the light at the end of the tunnel, and please follow the rules that The Council of Carbon Dispensation ruled on. It’s time for a review of Earthware by Amr Nasser. 

Opinion
Amr contacted me a while ago to review this, and I appreciate Amr for the patient. I had to save up to purchase the collection, and those of you who sent me tips via Digital Tip Jar made this possible, so thank you again for the help! At the time that I picked it up, it was selling for $9.49. I noticed upon writing this review today, it is on sale with a coupon for $.99! This collection is on Smashwords, and if you are interested, I’ve linked it to the book cover link. Amr asked me for an honest review, and that’s what I am here for an honest review.

Initial impressions of this book were mixed between intrigued and slightly lost. The first story is poetic and lovely, but it’s confusing. The next story was that of rage and terror, and its beautifully done with this kind of expert execution. Specifically, the second story is something that should be considered with vengeance tales. But, when I say where I was initially mixed with my thoughts, by the time I got to the third story that changed. The third story is also a line on vengeance and anger, and I have to admit, it had me stunned. While there are some confusing bits in it, it’s well done. As we go down the line, the stories flow and ebb beautifully, but they are not stories of beauty, they are stories that truly make you think. Each story has bits of things that are similar, anger, vengeance, and the occasional foolish moment.

This collection fuses well together, though it’s a bit choppy at some pieces when it comes to pacing. That said, with my initial thoughts, I honestly feel that what I was reading is a connected set of tales that belong together and have a purpose. That’s important in a short story collection, that not only they work together like puzzle pieces which make up a whole, but that the theme brings them together for a reason they are there if there isn’t some uninformed purpose behind it, then it will not be a decent collection of short stories in my opinion.

This is the part of the review where I go into critiques, and my first is “Story, Structure, Foundation and Presentation” part of the scoring. The first and last story of the series have similar points, and I’m not going to give spoilers as to why know that there are similarities. In both cases,  if the story had quotations, or some clear indication as to if this was monologue, dialog or narration, I think the first part would have been easier to understand. The reason that it does not have to do with punctuation, which falls into this category. Again though, this only applies to the stories where this happened, not every single story had these issues.  Also, without giving spoilers, the first story has a redemption later, but I had to score based on each story, so I want to clear that up with anyone confused by what I am saying who read the book.

Also in this category of “Story, Structure, Foundation and presentation” I’d like to mention a couple of pacing issues. The tales are good, and the way they fall together is paced well, as is the tension to the selection of the stories. However, there are a couple of the stories where the pacing in the structure isn’t as tight as it needs to be for a short story on its own. It’s not a huge problem, but when I said earlier it’s a bit choppy, that’s what I am referring to. The structure of a short story has to be so precise and tight that it is intimidating to most writers to try writing them. Amr did an overall great job, but there were a couple of bumps, and I don’t want to spoil anything so I can’t say precisely where. I just noticed that it happened.

Now, this is the part of the review where I go into the big positives. I enjoyed these tales. They read at a decent pace, and the dynamic tension is good. Where there are characters, they fit well together and are built up as they need to be.

I also loved the alliteration from the book. Some very poetic visuals are painted into the stories, and it helps to liven up my imagination. The way the words are chosen and in what order make that possible. As an example, there is a bit about arrows and bark, landscape and twigs. This bit here reads beautifully and let my imagination run rampant.

Overall, this was a fun collection. If you love short stories as much as I do, I’m sure you will enjoy these. I like short stories like this collection over a cup of tea and warming up by a fire, so I hope they bring you warmth too.

Score

After doing all of the math and calculations, I am giving “Earthware” an 84/100 which is a beautiful 4 Star review on Goodreads and Smashwords! If you need something new to pick you up through some short stories, pick up Amr’s collection on Smashwords!