In this post: A cute story to bring in the New Year. Great writing in a short piece.
Category: Short Story Collection + Fast Fiction
Ramiah Recommended?
Yes. I wonder if 'cute stories' should have their own category on RRW.
If so, "To New Beginnings: A Short Story" should be the poster-book of such a category.
To get into the spirit of a new year, this is a great read!
The story jumps between two characters: Mindy and Simon. They both have moved to a new city - Chicago - have different feelings about it.
In the next few, short passages, we get a peek into how they're experiencing the city. And then their paths eventually meet, it's really cute!
I didn't even know the story revolved around New Year's, to be honest. I was so captivated by the way the story was told that I was honestly surprised and sad when the story was over. Almost like "The Lottery" (except I wasn't too sad when that was over because the story was sad enough itself, haha). Chai's piece went by so quickly, but tastefully!
The author, Howard Chai, does an excellent job of exemplifying 'show, not tell'. In the first 4 paragraphs, readers are given context clues to know the scene is taking place during a job interview without Chai needing to write 'this is a job interview'.
I loved it and no other short story I have read thus far for RRW has done this nearly as well. Like gosh, give some agency to readers to be able to connect the dots! Make reading the story interesting!
I would recommend the story purely for the way it was written. With it being so short, we don't get a chance to see any character development. But frankly, it was such a nice and refreshing read that I almost didn't care that I didn't care about the characters.
A super short review to couple a super short story. Read the story for yourself here!
Ramiah Reflects
Questions to Ask Yourself (and answer!):
What's your preference as a reader: to be told the scene or to connect the scene yourself based on context clues?
What does 'new beginning' mean to you?
Ramiah's Re-read When
Re-read when:
You want to get into the spirit of a new year
You want to read a quick story
You want to read a short (but absolutely well done) story
(No notes this time, folks!)
Check out my other posts and book notes here.
Until next time!
Montana Houston
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