Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),
Hi! I'm here to leave a quick review!!
First Impression: ANother lovely collection of stories here. I'm really liking how these are starting to have a bit of a connection to each other. I think it ends up making the whole things a bit more powerful as a result.
Anyway let's get right to it,
“You know Violet? The clown?” Etta asked. April and Etta were up late at night in the orphanage, sitting on the floor, cross-legged.
“Of course I know Violet. Why’d you bring her up?”
“Want to summon her?”
April thought about summoning a demon clown, out for blood, out for war, sharp-toothed and sharp-clawed, to their little orphanage.
“Sure, why not?” April asked.
They’d just wish her away if it was all too much.
Well that's quite the little tale there. I love how much you describe what would be a terrible idea and why this is definitely something that shouldn't be done and then just follow it up with the most casual of agreements and I love it. A really fun little snapshot that one.
Violet walked out of the carnival, born anew. Deep within her was the desire to kill. Old, young, it didn’t matter. Just as long as their blood was ripe and red.
There was a small voice inside, telling her that she was Sophia, a girl looking for her friend, Reagan.
What nonsense! She had always been Violet the violent, leaving no survivors behind.
All she had to do was lurk, hide, stalk, and wait until a human summoned her.
But first, Violet had to assume the form of an innocent adolescent girl, a shape no one would want to harm.
OOoh this is a nice little balance to the previous one. Immediately showcasing why that summoning idea is so bad. Its a lovely follow up to the previous one and now we get some extra tension there for how that goes here.
Philippa stormed out of the carnival. Everyone was gone, she could finally go home.
Philippa didn’t want to spend another second there. It felt like she was suffocating, like she was dying.
Home was just across the street.
She could do it.
Well this is a terrifying little tale. Just someone lost and a little tired and just wanting badly to get home. The way you specify just how close she is definitely makes it extra scary because it just implies so heavily that something quite bad is about to happen.
Philippa could hear feet running upstairs. They sounded young, like a little girl’s. Like Lily when she ran.
But how? It was just Philippa in her lonely house. There was no way that there were any humans…unless…
Before Philippa could disappear, the door burst open.
Three girls stared up at her, faces edged with worry, then fear.
Then they were gone. She was all alone in the attic, with her makeuped face and costumed body.
A stranger to herself, even.
Hmm it seems this one's a little bit disconnected from the rest. Just Phillipa running about through quite a tough point in that experienced she must've suffered from earlier and just trying to survive. Certainly a powerful a powerful moment in the end.
Conrad was at home, sitting on the couch, watching over Lily, who was playing with dolls on the living room rug. Mom and Dad were at the circus, managing it. Even after Philippa’s death, they still didn’t want to close down Morison family circus, for no matter what, “the show must go on”. People still went to the circus, but very few did.
“Will more people come to the circus?” Lily asked, fidgeting with a lock of plastic doll hair.
Conrad didn’t think that Lily would ask such a question, given her young age. But he supposed that he should answer her.
“I don’t know. What happened to Philippa was serious, so people may not want to attend.”
“Because she died?”
“Because of how she died.”
Well it seems this is that one slighter longer story we usually have and we're already starting with quite a powerful bang there. Just a bit of an emotional punch there and that distinction about it being how she died is very powerful.
“How did she die?”
Conrad couldn’t tell her that. He couldn’t tell Lily that pain was eating away at Philippa, so much to the point that she disappeared from the face of Earth. It was scary, how fast a bright soul could leave the living world. Almost as if something was pulling her deeper and deeper into misery, till she couldn’t take it anymore.
Philippa wanted Conrad. She kept calling him and he wouldn’t answer. He wanted so bad to leave the Morison life behind, to fade into the world of computers and numbers. He didn’t want to step foot into the life of tragedy, clowns, and noises.
But he had no choice. Conrad was older, he had to be present for Lily. Maybe she would have a better future.
“Well, what happened?” Lily asked, breaking Conrad out of his thoughts.
“Something terrible. Now, don’t ask me anymore.” Conrad said.
Ooh love how you're portraying Conrad's thoughts there. You can see just how much he's struggling with having to hold onto that knowledge and not wanting to subject Lily to it. That's really quite nicely done I think.
“But-“
“Go play with your dolls.” He said, more aggressively than he intended.
Lily sighed defeatedly. She saw Philippa’s dead body, but it bothered her every day that she didn’t know why or how. She kept asking Conrad, for their parents wouldn’t answer.
He wasn’t sure if he’d ever tell her.
Ooooh that's a lovely end to this. Conrad not being able to handle it and snapping a little and Lily acknowledging how she's suffering about it is a nice little touch to round out what we've established so far. Quite nicely done here.
Aaaaand that's it for this one.
Overall: Overall a pretty good little collection this one. I think you do a wonderful job once again bringing us some very exciting stories that of course leave us worried for all of the poor characters.
As always remember to take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.
Stay Safe
Kate
Points: 254288
Reviews: 4103
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