Closing Ceremonies and Dying Times - Darlene Madott - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Darlene Madott

GENRE: Short Story Collection

PUBLICATION DATE: September 1, 2026

RATING: 3.7 stars.

In a Nutshell: A collection of ten stories with one character in common. Bonus content in the form of one essay and one novella. Stories about broken relationships, their consequences, and the challenge of moving on. Focusses more on mature love than young crushes. Literary in approach. The essay and the novella were not right for me, but the stories were quite good. Recommended.

This collection contains twelve entries. The first ten are interlinked stories, all featuring a character named Francesca though she isn't always the central character of the narrative. Then there’s one essay documenting the author’s own experience with betrayal and heartbreak, and finally a novella focussing on imminent loss and grief.

The first thing that attracted me to this collection was the title. ‘Closing Ceremonies and Dying Times’ is such an intriguing way of labelling a set of stories about relationships that have broken and hearts that haven’t healed. I especially liked the clever use of the word ‘ceremonies’; it sounds almost antithetical to the tone. The tagline calls these "tales of abandonment, betrayal, and consequence". Another good word to use in this context – ‘Consequence’! The stories are indeed more focussed on the consequence of relationship breakdowns, which makes for a highly introspective reading experience.

The introduction by writer-editor Randall Perry set my expectations quite high with its praise of the author's writing. However, while the write-up is helpful in understanding the flow of the book, it contains mini spoilers about the stories. If you are particular about spoilers, I suggest reading the writeup after you are done with the collection so that you discover the surprises and links in the stories on your own.

Each of the ten stories is about relationships. You might think of these as romances gone awry, but that puts a somewhat youthful spin on the content. Barring the first story, all the other entries focus on a long-term relationship that came to an abrupt cut-off because of one partner’s decision. At the same time, it’s not accurate to say that all these stories are about mature relationships, because most of the tales are about the same couple. Despite Francesca and her ex Scott being the common characters in most of the narratives, there is no repetition, thanks to the author’s innovative way of looking at different aspects of the partnership and breakup. One triptych of stories features Francesca’s best friend Concetta and their culinary adventures during the time of the covid lockdown. Even though this sounds like Concetta will be the main character, the focus is still on Francesca and her response to her newly single status.

The character of Francesca, whose partner Scott decided to break their twenty-year-old relationship, is crafted with love and care. Her personality’s layers reveal themselves as each story progresses and builds up on previously provided information. It is very easy to root for her as she tries to navigate beyond her broken heart and her befuddlement over the why’s.

The writing in the stories is somewhat slice of life, which is a hit-or-miss style for me. This time, it was a hit for most of the stories but a miss in the novella. (More on the novella later.) The stories go back and forth because of the characters’ musings, so they do take concentration. But if you are used to character-oriented literary fiction, it’s not so confusing.

The author seems to favour one unusual writing structure, whereby many stories contain a singular plot flow that is divided by captions. (Hurricane safety instructions in ‘What To Do in Case of Hurricane’, sentences from a break-up letter in ‘Messages Undelivered’, an inventory of a house’s valuables in ‘Taking Inventory’,…) I liked how creatively the author used this atypical format to enhance the impact of the plot.

The endings are mostly good. Given that the stories are slice-of-life and that Francesca’s experiences span beyond an individual tale, we obviously don’t get a neat ending. But the stopping point for most stories is apt.

While the ten stories worked quite well for me, I wish their order of appearance had been slightly different. Some of the information revealed in one story reveals past information that is expanded upon much later, so it becomes difficult to follow. This is especially applicable to the trilogy featuring Francesca and Concetta, which is chronologically after ‘Parsing His Goodbyes’ though it comes three stories prior. I’d have preferred ‘Parsing His Goodbyes’ (and perhaps even ‘Thor and Lovise’) to be placed before the triptych.

After the ten stories is a non-fiction essay by the author about how she herself traversed the journey of grief after betrayal. I skipped this essay after reading the initial few pages as it was too raw in its pain – not something I was mentally prepared to read at that time. Plus, the mixed-media-type structure combining letter excerpts, poetic verses, and reminiscences was too stream-of-consciousness, a style that never works for me.

Finally comes the novella titled ‘Dying Times’, which is about 85 pages long. This started off very strongly, but it soon became a bit too meandering for my present state of mind. I will try to return to it later when I can concentrate better, but as of now, my rating is primarily based on the ten stories featuring Francesca.

As always, I rated the stories individually. I didn’t rate the essay or the novella as they were both DNFs. Most of Francesca’s stories were right up my alley. Of the ten entries, seven reached or crossed the four-star mark. These were my top favourite stories.

💝 The three Concetta stories - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

a. Cooking Sicilian with Concetta and the Prince in a Time of Pandemic

b. Concetta's Christmas Panettone in a Time of Pandemic

c. Concetta's Easter Colomba

A triptych of stories featuring friends Francesca and Concetta dealing with their respective relations and relationships during the pandemic. When I first read this trio, I found the stories decent but didn't feel I connected with the characters. After reading 'Parsing his Goodbyes', I returned to this set and read all three again. This time, I found myself relating better with the characters' predicaments and enjoyed all three tales, with the second one being my favourite.

💝 Thor and Lovise - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

A story of love and loss going far beyond romance and friendship. Love the realistic emotions in this one. The only story where Francesca is reduced to a secondary character, and yet probably my favourite story in the collection.

💝 What To Do in Case of Hurricane - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

A cleverly structured story about life choices and what-ifs. Loved how it kept me invested throughout. Unlike what I had assumed, the hurricane in this story is metaphorical.

💝 I Have 15 Minutes For You - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Francesca finally does things her way. Nicely written and introspective. I loved the path taken by her in this story.

💝 Taking Inventory - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

An introspective story where Francesca takes stock of her valuables after a burglary. Despite the theme being different, the author still cleverly links it to her erstwhile relationship. Nicely structured and presented.

Overall, even though I had to skip the essay and the novella, I still enjoyed whatever I read of this indie collection. Given the central theme, it is easy to guess that this isn't exactly an uplifting collection for the most part. Francesca’s pain is quite raw in a majority of her stories, and the essay and the novella too are not light reads. It’s nice that we ultimately see shades of hope in Francesca’s life story, but this is much later and then too, not exactly a sealed happy ending. So it’s better to pick this collection up when you are in a strong headspace.

Recommended to readers looking for a literary story collection.

3.7 stars, based on the average of my ratings for the ten stories (which make up about 56% of the book.)

My thanks to River Street for a complimentary copy of “Closing Ceremonies and Dying Times” at my request. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.