Review: A sad little story
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 24, 2011
Dan Barbier's story "The Twin" is told by seven-month-old Peter-James McDonald who was killed by his father and tells the story from heaven.  Peter-James is a twin, and while alive he cried a bit more than his brother and bumped into things more when he learned to crawl.  The twins' father lost his job, it became hard to feed everyone, the mother was getting frustrated with the father, and one day when Peter-James wouldn't stop crying, his father lost his patience and ended his little life.The story is well-written but there are editing problems.  It's brief, but it's an accurate picture of what happens when people don't have the resources to manage anger and to respond to a crying baby appropriately.  Although the story is good, I thought it could have been longer to tell a little more about the mother and the family dynamics.Overall, this was worth reading, because the voice and point of view of the baby who died had an impact on me and I did not guess how the story ended.  Good editing makes all the difference in the world, so that is my suggestion to improve the story as it is.