When We Fall by Peter Giglio

And so finally after some poor offerings from DarkFuse publishing I read a short novella that is simple slick and brilliant. Ben is in the process of making the short but painful journey from boy to man where those care free days of childhood are left behind and the harsh world of the adult with all the accompanying pain makes itself known. Two of his childhood friends have been tragically killed and he must seek solace in the company of Aubrey who has a dreadful secret that she will not disclose...dear reader...until the end of the story. You will not see or understand what is happening until it is too late, and by then Ben's pain and suffering will continue as he learns to accept what fate has in store for him and how decisions that we take and our taken has a great influence on the direction of our lives.

Severed by Gary Fry

The idea behind this short novella is that the human..yes you and I have two sides to our personality, an emotional side and a moral side. What stops us being out and out bastards! is our moral conscience and if we did not have this conscience then there would be no inner body policeman and all hell would be let loose..." The fundamental division in human life was not between body and soul, but between an emotional and a moral being. And it was the way one governed the other that served as the principal determinant of behavior." Severed is the spreading of a virus amongst the populace that allows our moral side to drift skyward as what could best be described as an organic white cloud, leaving our emotional side as a zombie full of hate and loathing. Can Professor Stephen Hobbs, a man with an almost schizophrenia personality disorder, save the day. Apart from the initial idea this did not really work for me and I found both the writing style of the author and his execution of the storyline somewhat tedious and made this a difficult read to finish.

Westlake Soul, emotional writing of the highest order

Westlake Soul dwells in a permanent vegetable state following a surfing accident and he is now lives (if you can call it living) back home with his family. Although he cannot communicate, through his mind and his thoughts we travel with Westlake as he spends what remaining time he has in the presence of those he loves and who in turn love him....there are so many poignant moments in what undoubtedly is a memoir of a young man who constantly asks....what if? Nadia, the girl he was with, on that fateful morning cannot bear the pain and suffering and so there is one final visit....

" Those two words again: if only. She put her ipod and headphones back into her beach bag and stood up. The soles of her sneakers squeaked on the floor as she walked toward the door. One final look over her shoulder, the last wedge of snow sliding from her roof. I lay among my tubes and lines like a torn parachute. My cardiac monitor chirped. The door closed softly behind her." The family decision is taken to stop intravenously feeding Weslake and to grant him release from this living death, and so they gather around his bed in one final show of strength and love...

"This is going to be a night with Westlake," Dad said, parking my chair in the middle of the room before taking a seat next to Mom. They clasped each other's hands and that was nice to see. "A night for Westlake. We don't know how long we're going to have-" And here he stopped and his face stiffened and Mom rubbed his back. "We don't know how long Westlake has got, so we're doing this tonight, as a family, united in our love for him, and with a wish that our beautiful son and brother finds everything he wants in the next life."

There is a location at the midway point where Westlake uses the analogy of a plane crash to describe the situation he finds himself in…..

“ It wasn’t this fabricated news scene, or the thought of the crash itself- of dying- that unsettled me…but rather the thought of the time it would take for the plane to slam down to earth. Three minutes- or however long- of knowing you are about to die, of hearing the screams of the people around you, complete strangers, who know the same. A different timbre of scream. Harrowing. Pushed out on the final breaths. That’s what unsettled me. The time. And that’s what I’m experiencing now. My plane has lost all four engines and I’m nosediving toward my doom. I used to think that three minutes was a terrifying long time to know that you’re about to die, but it’s nothing – positively heaven- compared to one whole week. Or two”……..

Amidst all this pain there are some lighter moments of humour…Yvette is Westake’s permanent help/nurse and quite often displays bruises from yet another impromptu beating from her boyfriend Wayne. “I’ve told you very little about Wayne, but I’m willing to bet you’ve a fairly accurate picture of him in you head. The kind of guy who has Kimbo Slice wallpaper on his cell phone, and who thinks The Expendables should have won ten Academy Awards.”….

I truly love this story it is a story of sadness, a story about human nature and the bonds of family and love, and a story that ultimately can only have one ending…..but travel with us, travel with Westlake as he rides the big wave and sets out to meet his destiny and embrace his maker….

Dark and twisted tale from Kealan Patrick Burke

Kealan Patrick Burke has that rare ability only few good authors have and that is the ability to shock and surprise an unexpected reader. Jack and Jill is not an easy read and the complete antithesis of the rather bland and simple title. Gillian has been abused as a child by her father and this story is her quest for answers and salvation....to this end she decides to visit her father in the hope that by facing that which has gone before she may find some peace in her present life with her husband Chris and her children Jenny and Sam. The writing and the tension when the father and daughter meet is unbearable and for me KPB has described better than any author I know, the hatred and indeed twisted love that still exists, and the open wounds that will never heal. If this was not enough there are some shocking revelations...."He touches me, Mummy" and with those four words Gillian's nightmare has returned. When husband Chris seeks forgiveness "I've done something I'm not proud of, honey" the readers is taken on a last roller coaster ride to a conclusion that is brutal and sudden in its execution. This is brilliant writing from a true master of his art, a dark and twisted tale that will leave you breathless for more.