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Friday, 30 November 2018

THE SEA WAS A FAIR MASTER by Calvin Demmer

The Sea Was a Fair Master
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The author of this very cool flash fiction collection was nice enough to send me an eBook copy of this book full of treats (thank you so much!), so I got stuck into it as soon as I could.

But I didn't read the collection in one sitting or even two. I took my time. I grabbed my Paperwhite and squeezed in as many stories as I could during that time in the morning between hubby going to work and my daughter waking up. When morning is still dark and you feel like you're the only person awake.

Yeah, this was the perfect time for these small and varied tales.

Here are my micro thoughts about each one:

ON THE SEVENTH DAY: Creepy & interesting. Great start to this anthology.

RESTROOM FINDS: Ooooh. Loved this one. So much tension & a killer ending.

UNDERNEATH: This was a short tale about an asshole.

YARA: Sweet story about an android missing her human. Loved this one. Heaps!

PEEPER: Predictable, but well-written story.

REVENGE OF THE MYTH: Krampus! Loved this holiday-themed nightmare. Definitely my favourite shortie.

THE ONE: Such a deranged little tale, but not one I enjoyed as much as the others.

FEAR THE CLOWNS: Oooooooh. Love that super creepy ending! One of my faves.

WEST: Interesting shortie with a bit of a twist.

THE SEA WAS A FAIR MASTER: What seemed like an average tale at sea became so much more after reading the last line.

TRASHCAN SAM: This one made me laugh because I thought the janitorial premise was very clever.

BLIND TEDDY: Oh! This was disturbing af. Not a merry Christmas tale at all. :(

VOODOO CHILD: Loved the creepy kid vibes in this one. Mix in a voodoo doll, and... yeah. Great story.

LETTING THE DEAD GROW: Terrible things happen to people who hate Halloween. This should be a message to everyone. ;)

THE SNAKES OR THE HUMANS? is a sad, sad story about grief and who is the deadliest species? One of my faves.

NOT SUICIDE: Interesting story.

EVOLUTION = CRIME: This one was just okay. Didn't grab me as much as some of the others.

THE GUESTS: Didn't think much of this one...

LIKE A SPANISH GUITAR: I really enjoyed this creepy story about one couple's doom. Definitely one of the best ones.

HANGMAN: My favourite thing about this one was the crafty, murderous use of the hangman game. Otherwise, too predictable.

GRAVES: Loved the twist in this sad tale. One of the top ones for me.

NOISY NEIGHBOURS: Pretty random serial killer shortie. Meh.

SEA ATE NINE: Liked that the sea demands a payment, but the execution was just okay for me.

As you can see, I enjoyed some more than others, but ALL of them were worth my time. There are stories here for everyone. In a variety of genres, with all types of lovely, ambiguous and awful characters. Every story feels different and takes the reader to different places.

Asides from the great storytelling experience, my most favourite thing about this little book was the writing. It's clean, hooked me in and kept me glued to each story until it was over.

Like I said, this book is quite the treat!


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