Small Things - Wanda M. Morris - ★★.½

AUTHOR: Wanda M. Morris

SERIES: Alibis Collection, #6

GENRE: Short Story

PUBLICATION DATE: June 2, 2025

RATING: 2.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: The sixth and final story in the Alibis collection. More of a domestic drama; not much of a mystery or thriller. The characters are interesting but the plot has neither depth nor surprises. Not great, not bad.

Plot Preview:

To the outside world, Hannah and her husband have the perfect marriage. But only Hannah knows the emotional trauma and gaslighting she endures behind closed doors. She has her small acts of rebellion when he isn't home, but if he’s present, he keeps attacking her dignity. When he threatens to take away even the small things that bring her joy, she is forced to amp up her mutiny.

The story comes to us in Hannah’s third-person perspective.

This is the sixth standalone story in the 'Alibis’ series, described on Amazon as “stories about lies, truth, and deception. It’s just a matter of what you can get away with.”

Woohoos:

🥳 Hannah – I love how she stays meek in front of her abusive husband, but she still does what makes her happy when he isn't around. Her spirit elevates the story.

🥳 Hannah’s husband – The type of character you love to hate! His vileness seeps through the pages until you feel like thwacking him. A well-carved negative character and a great example of how gaslighting functions in real life.

🥳 At just 36 pages, this is the shortest story in the series, and goes by fairly quickly.

🥳 The adherence to the ‘Alibis’ theme – perfect.

IDKs:

😐 This is the kind of story where you keep reading, you even like the overall flow and the end, but when asked to describe it to someone else, you might not know what to say. It is decently good while it lasts, but it doesn’t really break the mould.

😐 Hannah’s sister – such a teeny role but such a major presence. I wish there had been a lot more of her.

Mehs:

😒 Doesn’t really work as a mystery-thriller as there’s barely any mystery and hardly any thrill and scarcely any surprise.

😒 The ending. I do like what happened but would have loved more details of how it happened. What’s the point of a thriller story if we don’t even see the action on the page?

Overall, this isn’t at all a bad story, but by offering so much background in the first half and barely any details at the end, the story ends up stressing more on the drama than on the thrills. It works as a decent one-time read, but it would have benefitted by a more padded-out ending. If read as a domestic drama, it would work better.

This standalone story is a part of the ‘Alibis’ collection, and is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.