Gone to Mums - Barry Simiana

Gut Instinct Rating - 4

Story Line - 4

Writing Style - 4

Characters - 4

Excitement Factor - 3

Believability for type and topics - 3.5

Similarity to other books - 5

Cover art - 5

Title Relevance - 5

Goodreads users gave this book a 4.25. I think it was more deserving of a 4.16.

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Published in 2013.

Pages: 39.

Number of books by author: 5.

Genre: Short Story.

The distant love story of Ray and Kelly.

As I've said previously, I don't typically enjoy short stories. However, Barry is a friend of mine, so I read his work as a favor. That being said, we did not speak of the works prior to my reading them, nor did he give any payment for a good review. My reviews are honest - and he actually doesn't (at the time that this was written) know that I've just read Gone to Mums or that I'm writing this review.

I really enjoyed the last portion of this book - the beginning is actually what caused me to give it 4-stars. For me, it didn't mesh well - and I think because Barry is from Australia, and I'm from the states, that maybe this type of environment at the beginning seems less believable. However, as whole, I really enjoyed this story. I think the numerous 4's given out were simply because I wanted more from the story.

The characters were good - although, I didn't like that we were left without Ray's name until the end of the story (this would've bothered me if this was a novel of 200 pages, and we didn't learn the name of the main character until the 30th page). It's not a necessity to know this information, obviously - but I don't like calling the main character "he" in every sentence of my notes, either. So it's more of a personal annoyance. The writing style didn't feel like a short-story... but I did want more out of what was provided. I felt like we kind of skimmed over some things. I would've maybe been more satisfied with a 60-page short, rather than 40 pages. I just felt like we could've gotten a better feel for Kelly's side of things with more story line.

I didn't find this book overly excited. But that doesn't mean it was boring. It just means that it was a mellow read. I wasn't rushing to get the end. I wasn't overly-involved in the story. But I felt the story, and that is more important for me than being super excited about what's going on. And I think that's because the writing style combined with the story line allows this to be a less-exciting read.

The title - usually a title is a summary of the story in 5 words or less. I think that's a fair assessment of the purpose of a title. This was a good phrase of closure. I think it completes the story fairly. Furthermore, the art work is a good start of the story. I think these two items combined are a really good representation of this story.

The afterword - I'm not sure if Barry was advised against this for one reason or another, but this was the best part of this story for me. That being said... DO NOT skip ahead! It would drastically impact the way in which you view the story. And I think it's important to read it the way Barry intended it to be read... and then read the second part of this story.

#ShortStoryaturday