Review: Quick fun reads
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 2, 2013
For the most part I like the way Kelsye Nelson writes, the four short stories featured in Smart Girl, Dumb Love / The Break Up Girl: Volume One had an element of speed to them. They were quick to read and the events seemed to unfold quickly as well. For the first two stories Five Things You'll Hate About Me and Surprise and Disbelief,  I think the speed worked well. For the remaining two stories, I would have preferred to see greater detail and little more depth.Five Things You'll Hate About Me isn't so much a story with a plot line as much as it is the self analysis about a girl and her rather blunt appraisal of her selfishness that she knows you will come to hate. Yes, it's bald, fast and a little "matter of fact" but I found that technique quite effective in displaying the real person behind the revelations. We all have character flaws, some of us even acknowledge them, most of us though, like this girl only admit to faults in a superficial capacity. Yep, this me, MOVE ON!Surprise and Disbelief, this story really resonated with me. I remember being this girl, in another life time. Not so much because of her desire to be a Good Person and the number of times that she Failed at it, but because I remember the nice guys and no matter how perfect they were, they were never quite acceptable until they were... you know... Not Nice Guys At All! What is it with this flawed need to be treated Mean by men?This story also touches on the concept of First Love, so if the Bad Boy Interest doesn't strike a chord, I'm betting the concept of returning to your First Love, again and again, (in your heart, if not in actuality) will be something most readers can relate to.Girl on a Hot Tin Roof. This story, I felt had a lot of potential that it just didn't meet and I blame it on the same pacing that made the two earlier stories work. I just don't feel that you can skip over stories of angst like this. When people feel afraid it's usually not a selfish response, and you don't "get over" such encounters very quickly. If this story is ever extended upon, if the main character is ever given the depth she deserves, if the voyeuristic construction workers are ever given a conscience, or if even a genuine shred of their inner sickness is delved into... I would love to read that story!Osaka at Night was another quickly paced story, in this instance the skipping over details kind of gave credence to a drunken evening with friends where the details few and what memories you have would be fuzzy, but I honestly just couldn't see the point in this one at all, but I guess that would be because what I read was just an excerpt. However, this particular segment would not spark in me an interest to read the rest of Osaka at NightOverall I would give these stories a 3/5. They're quick and they're light, but they could be sooooo much more. Also 5700 words for $1.99, is a bit pricey.❀❀❀