Hey! There's been an odd influx of short stories on here lately and I can't say I'm disapointed. Anyway, let us get into the review, shall we?
First things first, let's review your opening line, "My house doesn’t look like much."
Now, in order for what I'm about to say to make sense, I have to explain what I understand as the modern standard for the opening line and all that jazz. (I'll try to keep it breif so as not to bore you too completely with my nonsensical rambling).
Okay, keep in mind that this has changed over the years because of readers' shortening attention spans and whatnot, and also that this is not by any means a solid rule. Then again, there are really no real rules in literature. But I digress. The purpose of the first line, according to my opinion and understanding, is to hook the readers and tell them a little something of what to expect. Those two things work hand in hand, so fulfiling both roles once you know about them isn't really that hard. (For example, the line, "If there was one piece of advice I could give to the living, I would tell you to fix your problems before they come back to kill you." sets up both the hook (the living?) and tells you a bit about the story (this is told from the perspective of a dead person)). If a first line doesn't do that, I see it as a missed oportunity. And that's what I would call your first line here, a missed oportunity.
In my opinion, the first line of this particular story would work best if it had something to do with the vase, and it set up your protagonist's feeling's toward said vase. Something like, "I've always hated my mother's prized posession." The following lines would describe the vase and basically, the story would go how it does. The look of the house, being irrelivant to the central emotion of the piece, would be only mentioned in passing, if at all. Maybe it could support your greater point, that the house looks just as stagnant and worn as the people within, or something along those lines.
Anyway, moving on from my nitpicky nonsense, the piece as a whole is really, really good. The message is powerful and it hit really close to home for me personally. You captured the emotion and the well, general feel of the empty house filled with people and cloaked bitterness. Well done, really. I rarely see something like this done so well as you did it.
So that's all fro me, goodbye and happy writing!
Points: 999
Reviews: 95
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