Review: A strange short story with a longer story needed to expand the backdrop of the whole idea.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 17, 2013
Sometimes we get exactly what we expect, and the reader doesn't have a full understanding of the other half of what is read in this short story. I tried not to look at the whole picture, unless it's given there right on the pages and developed fully to see all of the story. This is a short story, capsuled into just around 6,000 words with a handfull of characters. I get the idea that the dad is controlling and somewhat abusive including over protective of his son. The son is basically safe in this area outside the dangerous  city of London. Now he is faced with a person named Simon, who he assumes has fallen from the train. The rest of the story explains a little more on that early premise. I see something else in this story even, if only briefly and not fully detailed. Some people like to have some adventure and kicks even when it could be dangerous. The life style in the cities is dangerous compared to where the young Carl Weston lives with his father in the countryside. It is knows as Reading Greater Forest Area. Or GFAs for short. The story has more to it, and the ideas, that although some like to explore and take risks of excitement and thrills. We all know our most comfort zone will eventually be, where we are the most familiar. I thought this story had a peek of a serial look to it, but that's the author's domain. I wouldn't mind, if the characters were rejoined and the story's setting were to change to explain more about what was it more like in both places. I liked it, but for the reasons left unexplained and some matters not fully closed at the final words. Only a hopeful thought expressed in the last sentence. A dream is not reality in a dangerous world where death, tragedy could occur without much effort, if in the wrong place, setting or circumstances.