Graham Downs reviewed A Spark of Reverie by Sunee Le Roux (Reverie Flash Fiction, #1)
Some of the Best Flash Fiction I've Ever Read
4 stars
This is some of the best flash fiction I’ve ever read.
As a subscriber to Suneé’s newsletter, I’ve read many of these stories before, but you know how it is with emails: they appear in your inbox when you’re busy with something else, or thinking of something else, or otherwise have your attention on something else, so you end up reading them with half an eye...
That’s not the way to enjoy flash fiction. I think the reason why so many people don’t “get” short-form fiction in general is the fact that, BECAUSE it’s so short, the stories require your full attention. When you’ve only got 500 words to tell your story, every turn of phrase, every word, every article, has to be carefully and deliberately chosen, and if the reader “zones out” for even a moment, they could lose the meaning of the entire story.
This also means that …
This is some of the best flash fiction I’ve ever read.
As a subscriber to Suneé’s newsletter, I’ve read many of these stories before, but you know how it is with emails: they appear in your inbox when you’re busy with something else, or thinking of something else, or otherwise have your attention on something else, so you end up reading them with half an eye...
That’s not the way to enjoy flash fiction. I think the reason why so many people don’t “get” short-form fiction in general is the fact that, BECAUSE it’s so short, the stories require your full attention. When you’ve only got 500 words to tell your story, every turn of phrase, every word, every article, has to be carefully and deliberately chosen, and if the reader “zones out” for even a moment, they could lose the meaning of the entire story.
This also means that the occasional typo (like “draught” instead of “drought” or “queue” instead of “cue”), or a missing “a” or “an”, turns into a big deal. They don’t happen often in this collection, but they are there, and I think if this book had been one continuous story, you might not even notice.
I’m not a fan of the latter, but I suppose flash fiction has that in common with poetry, where every SYLLABLE has meaning.
But never mind that. Those things can be fixed, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were fixed by the time you read this review. Allow me to repeat myself: this is some of the best flash fiction I’ve ever read. Every story grabs you by the collar and demands your full, undivided attention, not letting go until the very end.
If you enjoy flash fiction, you’ll love these stories. If you’ve never experienced it before, then this collection is the place to start.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we’ve found our new queen of the flash fiction format.