Death and Other Survival Strategies - Carolyn R. Russell - ★★.¼

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AUTHOR: Carolyn R. Russell
GENRE: Flash Fiction Collection.
RATING: 2.3 stories

In a Nutshell: I love flash fiction, but just couldn’t connect with this indie flash collection.

This is a collection of 55 flash fiction shorts. Before some of you start hyperventilating at the high count, let me clarify that flash fiction is not the same as short fiction. A flash fiction tale will not exceed more than 1500 words, which is about 10-12 paras on an average. So this 119-page book can be completed in a jiffy as each story doesn’t require that much of a time investment.

There’s no author’s note, so I have no idea about the intent or theme behind these stories except for what’s mentioned in the blurb. Let me just paste a line from it here: “This cross-genre collection of flash explores the far realms of our most basic instinct.” Did the stories remind me of the far realms of human instincts? Nope, sorry, not even once.

The stories are taken from a variety of genres. But many of them were too poetic or abstract for my liking. Some of the stories were just a paragraph long. This is perfectly acceptable in micro or flash fiction, but only when the paragraph makes sense and feels like a little universe unto itself in terms of its plot. In this book, none of the shorter entries made any sense to me. They might require a more introspective reader who loves to ponder upon the metaphysical; I am unfortunately too dense to make sense of that genre.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Of the 55 entries, 10 reached or crossed the four star mark. The rest were all in between the 1-3 star range.

Looking at the other reviews indicates that many readers have found value in this collection. So this might be a case of a reader-book mismatch. Do read through those reviews and then take a call on this flash fiction compilation. To me though, this was an utter disappointment.

2.3 stars, based on the average of my ratings for the individual tales.

My thanks to author Carolyn R. Russell and BookSirens for the DRC of “Death and Other Survival Strategies”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn't work out better.

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