Henry and Jim by JM Snyder

TITLE: Henry and Jim
AUTHOR: JM Snyder
PUBLISHER: eXcessica
LENGTH: Short story (roughly 4.5k)
GENRE: Gay romance
COST: $2.99

Henry and Jim have been together for fifty years. As age sets in, though, Henry does everything he can to ensure their remaining years are just as rich…

Considering the age of the characters, it’s obvious from the start of the story that this is going to be a very bittersweet read. We wake up in Henry and Jim’s bed, learning right away that Jim is suffering from some sort of early dementia, where his memory is slow to return and sometimes nonexistent. Henry dreads the day when Jim wakes up and can’t recall Henry’s name, and is determined to enjoy every last moment he can with his partner of the last fifty years. Through his eyes – the story is told in 1^st person from Henry’s POV – we learn how they met, with just enough detail to put their long relationship in perspective. It’s done with romantic, slightly idealized detail, but nonetheless, reaches straight to the gut of these two men’s emotions.

To say I loved this story feels like an understatement. It succeeds for so very many reasons, not the least of which is the subject matter. So many shorts forget they still need to encapsulate a tiny fragment of time, to have a beginning and an end without biting off more than they can chew. Henry and Jim at first seems to have a slight meandering feel to it, but it’s too short for that to damage its delicate arc. Instead, the author pulls it all together at the end in what seems like an inevitable conclusion, yet somehow still managed to surprise me by how gut-wrenchingly real it was. I felt more in these four thousand words than I have with most of the much longer works I read this year. It’s haunting and romantic, a love story in all the best senses of the phrase. My one and only regret is that I let it sit on my TBR pile for far too long. I’ve had mixed reactions to Snyder’s work, sometimes really enjoying it, sometimes not, which is why I didn’t jump on this right from the start. After this, I’m likely to trust her far more.

Readability	9/10 – Haunting and truly romantic
Hero #1	9/10 – His pain and feelings are devastatingly real
Hero #2	9/10 – Filtered through Henry’s eyes, though still real
Entertainment value	10/10 – This broke my heart with what a terrific love story it was
World building	8/10 – A tad idealized, but vital to the depth of emotion
TOTAL:	45/50

Last Wish for a Dying Man by Gabriel Daemon

TITLE: Last Wish for a Dying Man
AUTHOR: Gabriel Daemon
PUBLISHER: eXcessica
LENGTH: Short story (roughly 15k)
GENRE: Mainstream drama
COST: $3.99

James Mailer has been granted his Last Wish, thirty days to live as a free man in exchange for giving up a life sentence behind bars and all rights to an appeal. After thirty days, he dies…

I find this author fascinating. The juxtaposition of a certain fatalism with hope within his characters lends a melancholy to his work that makes me respond intensely when the story is done well. I had incredibly strong reactions to two of his shorts in the anthology I read earlier this year, and this one most definitely falls in their league.

James has been convicted of killing his wife and her lover, and rather than spend his life behind bars, asks for the Last Wish. This grants the criminal thirty days to live as a free man (with some restrictions, since the police don’t want more crimes on their hands) with the understanding that he will die in some way when those thirty days are up. When the judge asks James why he’d choose to end his life now rather than potentially live another fifty years, he says simply, “I deserve it.” And means it. That demonstrates the level of guilt he feels regarding his crimes, and starts the path he takes over the course of this short story.

James chooses to spend his last month alive at his dead grandfather’s fishing cabin, a place he associates with peace and happiness. He just wants to be alone, but a female neighbor named Megan soon makes her presence known, and the two begin a friendship. Through their interactions, we learn more about James, his feelings about what happened, and how he deals with his guilt. It’s poignant without ever lapsing into melodrama, uplifting without ever getting sappy, and indicative of what short stories should really do. There is some mild graphic detail of what James did to deserve his punishment, but I was left with more questions than answers, and actually wished I’d gotten them.

Megan is a little more of an enigma than James, but then again, this isn’t about her. Still, I found their relationship believable and invested in what she gave to James in his last days. Their sex does get described in erotic detail, but it’s never overdone or overwhelming to the story’s emotional thrust. In fact, the only thing that really throws me in this – other than the ending which didn’t end up surprising me as much as the author probably would have wanted – is the few places where POV gets a little fluid. The bulk of this story is told in James’ 3^rd person perspective, but every once in a while, it slides into Megan’s for a sentence or two. It’s distracting and weakens it overall.

Not nearly enough for me not to enjoy it, though. And hardly matters at all when considering buying more of this author’s work, because I most definitely will.

Readability	8/10 – Though POV slips every one in a while to slow me down, it’s otherwise a swift, smooth read
Characterization	9/10 – I believed in both leads, though I had even more questions about them at the end
Plot	8/10 – Trusting characterization made it easier to get embroiled in the journey they took
Entertainment value	8/10 – I love the quietness of the emotional evolution contrasted with the violent circumstances that brought them there
World building	8/10 – The cabin milieu is strongest by far, but then again, it’s meant to be
TOTAL:	41/50

Shock Radio and Other Stories by Gabriel Daemon

TITLE: Shock Radio and Other Stories
AUTHOR: Gabriel Daemon
PUBLISHER: eXcessica
LENGTH: Anthology (roughly 37k)
GENRE: Paranormal
COST: $4.99

A collection of four stories, whose only connections are the elements of the supernatural and erotic tones…

Don’t be fooled by my scores given in my matrix below. When I read an anthology, I break down each category equally amongst each of the stories, score them individually, then add them all together for a final number for that particular criterion. For me, it’s the only fair way to judge an overall work. Every story should carry its own weight. However, that ultimately means that an overall score of an anthology could be lower than what I feel it deserves, based upon my reactions to the individual stories. I absolutely loved the first two stories in this anthology, but unfortunately, my scores might not necessarily reflect that.

The first, and strongest, story in the anthology is “Shock Radio.” Joe Rags is a successful shock-jock on satellite radio. On Halloween, he invites his audience to share stories that embody the true spirit of Halloween, not the whitewashed version he thinks it’s become. He ends up taking a call from a guy identifying himself as Nick, who warns that he is stalking Joe’s ex-wife. What follows is a series of increasingly horrific phone calls from Nick, leaving Joe suitably afraid of the worst. There is nothing gentle about this short story. It’s bold, brutal, and unforgiving, just like most shock programming. Joe typifies the host you’d expect, until he finally starts to show some humanity in his reactions to what is going on with his ex-wife. While I never liked Joe, I did believe him, and got caught up in his anxiety and anger as the situation progressed. I couldn’t put the story down. The graphic horror has erotic content, but it’s not meant to arouse. It’s meant to terrify, and in this case, it does so excessively well. I would have bought future work by – and been a fan of – this author based on this story alone.

But then came “Spirit of Love.” Where the first story abrades nerves and emotions with its stark language and disturbing content, the second creates a softer, gentler, far more melancholy atmosphere. Pete is determined that his ex-girlfriend find a new relationship, someone who can make her happy again, and sets out to show the man who has garnered her attention exactly how to woo her. Pete mourns the loss of his ex in touching, careful prose, and even though this story didn’t challenge me like the first did, it touched me in ways the other couldn’t. It succeeded in both making me smile and moving me to tears, all within the same page. The fact that two such different stories could create such spontaneous and disparate reactions in me, back to back, cemented my earlier decision to trust this author.

Unfortunately, the first two stories are leaps and bounds above the latter two. The third in the anthology is “Amazing Grace,” the story of a single mom, mourning the carefree life she used to have and living vicariously through her neighbors. It lacked the flow of the first stories, its focus constantly shifting. I’m sure I’m meant to get worked up over Jessica’s frustration, but it doesn’t have the same driving force as the other protagonists’. I’m left just kind of coasting along, wondering when something interesting is going to happen. Then, when it does, it comes so far out of the blue, it was never believable. I liked Jessica. I just never believed or really cared too much about the story that was told for her.

The final, and weakest, story in the anthology is “Streetwalker.” Even more than its predecessors, it seems to be a study on how a young girl takes to the streets for her very first time, but the erotica feels forced and the emotions unreal. I can’t say much about it without giving too much away, though really, nothing of much note happens other than the two girls talking and the sex that occurs.

But in spite of my lack of satisfaction in the second half of the anthology, I’m still seeking this author out. I might be a little more selective in what I buy, though. I’m not convinced erotica is this author’s strength, so stories that focus on that probably wouldn’t interest me as much as other elements of his writing. Strengths here lie in subtle emotional shifts, even in characters as unsubtle as Joe Rags.

Readability	8/10 – I gulped down the first two stories, barely able to breathe, though the latter half isn’t as strong
Content	6/10 – The first two stories, though drastically different, carry emotional weight and intent, while the latter two failed to thoroughly engage
Characterization	6/10 – Nothing beats the personalities in the first
Entertainment value	7/10 – The power of the first two stories is more than enough to inspire me to look up more of this author’s work
World building	6/10 – Focus is on character most of the time
TOTAL:	33/50