Review: "Ginger's Marble"... a great short tale but a few writing concerns
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 12, 2012
"Ginger's Marble" is a short horror story by author Erik Gustafson. This Kindle e-book was a 116 Kb download and was priced at $0.99 at the time of writing this review.SPOILERS...general theme, no specific details revealedGinger is an eight year old tomboy who loves climbing trees. On this particular day, her favorite pastime sees her discover a marble high up in a notch on one of the branches..a special marble, unlike any other. Maybe she should have listened to her mother and kept her feet firmly planted on the ground.END SPOILERSSome thoughts...The Pros:1.) a unique and intriguing premise for the opening plot.2.)  events unfolded in a timely fashion giving this horror novella a good sense of pace and timing.3.) cover art... an attractive scene, hinting at the opening locale.The Cons:1.) I found the writing somewhat chunky... prose that seemed written in short staccato like sentences. The end result was that the reading of this tale seemed to lack a smooth flow to it.2.) the marble... mysterious and malevolent, but forgotten after the first few pages. It had such great potential for further 'influence' in this short work... an opportunity lost perhaps.3.) unexplained occurrence... about 2/3s the way through Ginger 'changes' for a short time and I couldn't understand how or why.Don't want to say too much and give the plot away, but I was puzzled.Conclusion:An interesting tale with lots of horrific detail that will satisfy most who enjoy this particular genre.However, the quality of writing just takes away some of the luster from from what might have been an outstanding short work.Not bad... just not truly great!As it is... 3 1/2 StarsRay Nicholson