Review: Dead as a Euphemism, Definitely a Story You'll Talk About With Others Who Have Read it
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 5, 2012
When Sean wakes he knows has come to the realisation that there is no doubt about it, he is dead, so decides to tell his parents.  They don't react well to this news blaming each other such as his father telling his mum he wouldn't be saying this is she let him play football.  Obviously Sean is using the word dead as a euphemism for being gay, vegetarian, different religion or something else that is not just frowned upon in his local community (the world as he describes it) but pretty much unofficially outlawed.  If you took the story literally as him being dead, it doesn't make any sense and isn't very good.  But with dead being used a euphemism, the ten minute short story gives an insight into what it must be like for someone who knows they are different after living in denial and trying to be like everyone else, when that difference goes against societal views, with Sean riding the school bus and realising in the past he used to act and feel a certain way in the situation of sitting next to a girl who expects him to ask her to be her date to a local party, to wondering what the point is of sitting and behaving a certain way in class. He feels alone.  Is he the only one who is "dead" or has he just not noticed others going through the same thing before?  Is there a reason why dead is the term Sean uses?The story is definitely a conversation starter with others who have read it.