Review: 3.5 stars, thought-provoking short story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 11, 2013
What a well-written short story. Clearly the author is bright and well-read -- her word choice and flow are a pleasure to read. I only found a handful of misspellings / grammatical errors, and boy was I pleased with that!The characters, Lydia, Chase, and their sundry friends from uni have gathered to say goodbye to Lydia who is moving from San Francisco to NY for her job. This is what she wants and it partly speaks to her immaturity (she's around 23) to not understand how important those friendships, esp. Chase's, are to her.Because it's a short story we are expected to fill in a lot of the blanks, but the author has made it really easy to do so -- she's given us just enough of the characters' personalities that we can figure it out.While some of the lack of communication between Lydia and Chase in particular but also between her and her "besties" (how she herself describes them) after she moves to NY seems preposterous, esp her missing her dearest's wedding, it does help the plot move along. If it were a longer book that would be a nit of mine, but in a short story yeah, okay. I can go with it. I just want to get back to Lydia and Chase figuring things out!What really resonated with me was that Lydia doesn't want to appear vulnerable. She is afraid to be honest with her friends, with Chase and really with herself. She covers it up with stand-offishness or ignoring the person, and that (unfortunately) really struck a chord with me. I've always admired people more like Chase, who are real, who put it out there even if it leaves them feeling exposed.Lydia grows, she discovers that she'll never really be happy unless she is honest with herself and those closest to her, and that I liked.It's simply a well-written short story with some good sex which made sense. I look forward to reading more from this author!