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"Music of the Gods"
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“He hated her!”
During a planned weekend getaway to rekindle their marriage, Donald and Susan become lost along the way. An argument ensues, which distracts Donald with the fear that their marriage has been lost for much longer than their car ride. Donald is determined to get them back on track and to the bed and breakfast, but instead their car nearly careens into the grill of an oncoming truck! The near miss accident leaves the couple in a complete wreck along the countryside. There’s a place called White Hall just one mile away, according to a nearby road sign, where Susan hears music and Donald suggests they travel by foot.
During a planned weekend getaway to rekindle their marriage, Donald and Susan become lost along the way. An argument ensues, which distracts Donald with the fear that their marriage has been lost for much longer than their car ride. Donald is determined to get them back on track and to the bed and breakfast, but instead their car nearly careens into the grill of an oncoming truck! The near miss accident leaves the couple in a complete wreck along the countryside. There’s a place called White Hall just one mile away, according to a nearby road sign, where Susan hears music and Donald suggests they travel by foot.
Readability
The story reads like a piece of flash fiction, and is structured around a single event. The plot is character driven and moves right along with an ample use of dialogue from beginning to end.
Creativity
Aside from dialogue fueled bouts of typical married couple bickering, the author makes use of symbolism which leaves room for some engaging reader interpretation. The symbolic imagery gave me a sense of what could have been the couple’s unaddressed issues within their marriage. For example, there is a part in the story where Donald approaches a phone booth (communication) that was perfectly clean without any graffiti like “No phone numbers for a good time”, while his wife is inspecting a neglected building in an intrusive way (“Her hands cupped around her face as she tried to look into the interior of the building.”) to which Donald thinks “He wanted to tell her to get away from the building. But how could he explain his feelings”. I’m thinking this was a creative way of telling the reader that the married couple has some unresolved trust issues and a nonexistent sex life without telling the reader that the couple has unresolved trust issues and a nonexistent sex life (implied). As for the overall concept of the story, it wasn’t exactly something that I wasn’t already familiar with (car accident themes).
Delivery
“Music of the Gods” is something that I like to call a lunch break story or break time fiction. This is something that you can get through in a matter of minutes, however what I liked most about this story was Schiver’s engaging writing style. Short stories that revolve around an accident (especially in horror) is not mind blowing, and for the most part I knew exactly how the story was going to end before I got there. However, it’s not always the destination that matters as much as it’s the journey that counts, and I think that is a great message to walk away with from such a short story given the context of the subject matter.
The story reads like a piece of flash fiction, and is structured around a single event. The plot is character driven and moves right along with an ample use of dialogue from beginning to end.
Creativity
Aside from dialogue fueled bouts of typical married couple bickering, the author makes use of symbolism which leaves room for some engaging reader interpretation. The symbolic imagery gave me a sense of what could have been the couple’s unaddressed issues within their marriage. For example, there is a part in the story where Donald approaches a phone booth (communication) that was perfectly clean without any graffiti like “No phone numbers for a good time”, while his wife is inspecting a neglected building in an intrusive way (“Her hands cupped around her face as she tried to look into the interior of the building.”) to which Donald thinks “He wanted to tell her to get away from the building. But how could he explain his feelings”. I’m thinking this was a creative way of telling the reader that the married couple has some unresolved trust issues and a nonexistent sex life without telling the reader that the couple has unresolved trust issues and a nonexistent sex life (implied). As for the overall concept of the story, it wasn’t exactly something that I wasn’t already familiar with (car accident themes).
Delivery
“Music of the Gods” is something that I like to call a lunch break story or break time fiction. This is something that you can get through in a matter of minutes, however what I liked most about this story was Schiver’s engaging writing style. Short stories that revolve around an accident (especially in horror) is not mind blowing, and for the most part I knew exactly how the story was going to end before I got there. However, it’s not always the destination that matters as much as it’s the journey that counts, and I think that is a great message to walk away with from such a short story given the context of the subject matter.
#LFLR Indie Rating: 7/10
“Music of the Gods” is a well written short story which not only made for a nice quick read, but also a quality sampling of Schiver’s work. After reading this, you may be more inclined to check out some of his novels, like “Cursed” – a story about a widow and her six year old daughter trying to rebuild their lives in a small town, but the town has a history of dark secrets that center around a witch. Or dive into Schiver's post-apocalyptic dark fantasy series “The Lawless Land”, which spans four titles starting with “All Roads Lead to Terror” – in which a teenage boy and his three friends embark on an adventure to rescue children from a compound where they’ve been enslaved. Richard Schiver has also published novellas and anthologies among other works available on Amazon Kindle.
“Music of the Gods” is a well written short story which not only made for a nice quick read, but also a quality sampling of Schiver’s work. After reading this, you may be more inclined to check out some of his novels, like “Cursed” – a story about a widow and her six year old daughter trying to rebuild their lives in a small town, but the town has a history of dark secrets that center around a witch. Or dive into Schiver's post-apocalyptic dark fantasy series “The Lawless Land”, which spans four titles starting with “All Roads Lead to Terror” – in which a teenage boy and his three friends embark on an adventure to rescue children from a compound where they’ve been enslaved. Richard Schiver has also published novellas and anthologies among other works available on Amazon Kindle.
THIS BREAKDOWN IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE #LFLR NETWORK.
