Six Shorts 2017: The finalists for the 2017 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award by Kathleen Alcott

Six Shorts 2017: The finalists for the 2017 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award Reviews

• 
  Antoinette

  6 short stories that were up for the coveted EFG Sunday Times short story award. I read them not knowing who the winner was-I wanted to pick my winner. I chose The Tenant by Victor Lodato as the best story, but alas he did not win. All of the stories, but one, I found exceptional. All of the stories had a lot to say and all were wonderfully written. If you like short stories, well worth the read.
• 
  P.D. Dawson

  Six really good stories and unfortunately only one winner. As I read this anthology I didn't know who had won the overall prize, but it turned out to be 'Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows about Horses' by Bret Anthony Johnston, which, interestingly, was my least favourite of the six stories. It was a good story, but I just couldn't connect with it, but then again I've only read it the once, and the judges perhaps found that HOWARKAH had the most longevity and reread value.
  
  I have two stories that stood out most for me, and that was 'The Tenant' by Victor Lodato and 'Every Little Thing' by Celeste Ng. 'The tenant,' is a wonderful story about a friendship that saw a boy through his younger years, and 'Every Little Thing,' is a subtle but brilliant observation of a mother thinking about her own daughter as she watches a young girl make the same mistakes she did when she was young. I highly recommend reading this collection as one or two of the stories are sure to stay with you long after you've read them.
• 
  Rikke

  So far I've read:
  Every Little Thing by Celeste Ng ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• 
  Nicole Smith

  The only one I didn’t like was the real technical one about the author that used a different pen name. The last one was exquisite.
• 
  Danielle Whitney

  ⭐️⭐️
  
  My ranking criteria (✅= Yes, ❌= No, ➖= Kind of/a little bit):
  
  *Bonus points if I can't put the book down, it makes me feel strong emotion, or genuinely surprises me in some way.
  *Penalty points for editing errors (spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.), for children who act too mature or too young for their age (this is a bugbear of mine), or if there is something in the book that just really pisses me off for any reason.
  
  ----------
  
  I feel like I have to rate each story in this book individually to be fair, so apologies in advance for how long this review will be. There's a TL;DR summary at the bottom 🙂
  
  STORY 1 - Reputation Management (Kathleen Alcott)
  1. I was sucked into the story from the beginning ✅
  2. The story had a proper beginning, middle, and end ➖
  3. The writing evoked a feeling of suspense ❌
  4. I was engaged the whole way through/didn't get bored ➖
  5. The characters were interesting ➖
  6. There was some form of character development ➖
  7. The book wasn't predictable in terms of relying on tired tropes, clichés, themes, stereotypes, etc. ➖
  8. I cared about the outcome of the story ➖
  9. I didn't work out the ending/the ending surprised me ➖
  10. The ending was satisfying ❌
  
  🌟 Bonus points: None.
  ☠️ Penalty points: None.
  
  🏅 OVERALL RANKING: 4.5/10 (2.25/5 stars)
  Reputation Management had an interesting concept and beginning, but then it just kind of went nowhere. Why did Alice freak out at the owner of the hat? How did she feel when the recording of her Karen-like hysterics went viral? How does she feel about not getting any work, and then being offered a new role? I don't know, maybe the answers were all there, but I just missed them because I was so disengaged from the story. Not badly written, just kind of boring.
  
  
  STORY 2 - Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows About Horses (Bret Anthony Johnston)
  1. I was sucked into the story from the beginning ❌
  2. The story had a proper beginning, middle, and end ➖
  3. The writing evoked a feeling of suspense ❌
  4. I was engaged the whole way through/didn't get bored ❌
  5. The characters were interesting ➖
  6. There was some form of character development ➖
  7. The book wasn't predictable in terms of relying on tired tropes, clichés, themes, stereotypes, etc. ➖
  8. I cared about the outcome of the story ❌
  9. I didn't work out the ending/the ending surprised me ➖
  10. The ending was satisfying ❌
  
  🌟 Bonus points: None.
  ☠️ Penalty points: None.
  
  🏅 OVERALL RANKING: 2.5/10 (1.25/5 stars)
  Yeah this one did not do it for me. I found it to be kind of wishy-washy and boring. I mean, I guess the story was ok? But I only read it two days ago, and it's barely stuck in my memory; I had to go back and look at it again to write this review. I think my issue here might be personal preference? Regardless, I wasn't a fan.
  
  
  STORY 3 - The Hazel Twig and the Olive Tree (Richard Lambert)
  1. I was sucked into the story from the beginning ❌
  2. The story had a proper beginning, middle, and end ➖
  3. The writing evoked a feeling of suspense ❌
  4. I was engaged the whole way through/didn't get bored ❌
  5. The characters were interesting ❌
  6. There was some form of character development ➖
  7. The book wasn't predictable in terms of relying on tired tropes, clichés, themes, stereotypes, etc. ➖
  8. I cared about the outcome of the story ❌
  9. I didn't work out the ending/the ending surprised me ✅
  10. The ending was satisfying ➖
  
  🌟 Bonus points: None.
  ☠️ Penalty points: None.
  
  🏅 OVERALL RANKING: 3/10 (1.5/5 stars)
  Good lord this one was a humdinger. Maybe I'm just not literary enough for this stuff? I appreciated the idea behind the story (once it got to the point of being a story and not just a ridiculously boring essay), but I didn't like it in the slightest. Again, it's probably more a me problem, but who knows?
  
  
  STORY 4 - The Tenant (Victor Lodato)
  1. I was sucked into the story from the beginning ➖
  2. The story had a proper beginning, middle, and end ✅
  3. The writing evoked a feeling of suspense ❌
  4. I was engaged the whole way through/didn't get bored ➖
  5. The characters were interesting ➖
  6. There was some form of character development ➖
  7. The book wasn't predictable in terms of relying on tired tropes, clichés, themes, stereotypes, etc. ➖
  8. I cared about the outcome of the story ➖
  9. I didn't work out the ending/the ending surprised me ❌
  10. The ending was satisfying ➖
  
  🌟 Bonus points: None.
  ☠️ Penalty points: None.
  
  🏅 OVERALL RANKING: 4.5/10 (2.25 stars)
  The Tenant is probably the best short story so far, which isn't saying much. It was vaguely interesting, and at least had a full story structure which I appreciated after the last three stories. I mean, The Tenant was alright I guess? Sigh. I'm probably just not made out for the type of short stories in this collection.
  
  
  STORY 5 - Every Little Thing (Celeste Ng)
  1. I was sucked into the story from the beginning ✅
  2. The story had a proper beginning, middle, and end ➖
  3. The writing evoked a feeling of suspense ➖
  4. I was engaged the whole way through/didn't get bored ✅
  5. The characters were interesting ✅
  6. There was some form of character development ➖
  7. The book wasn't predictable in terms of relying on tired tropes, clichés, themes, stereotypes, etc. ➖
  8. I cared about the outcome of the story ➖
  9. I didn't work out the ending/the ending surprised me ➖
  10. The ending was satisfying ❌
  
  🌟 Bonus points: None.
  ☠️ Penalty points: None.
  
  🏅 OVERALL RANKING: 6/10 (3/5 stars)
  Every Little Thing was the best short story in this collection. While it's not a standout read, and I likely won't remember it past a week from now, it blew the other stories out of the water. I liked the little hook into the story that we got (Brianna's autobiographical memory condition), and I was interested in her story mostly. Still, it wasn't amazing by any account.
  
  
  STORY 6 - Mr Salary (Sally Rooney)
  1. I was sucked into the story from the beginning ➖
  2. The story had a proper beginning, middle, and end ➖
  3. The writing evoked a feeling of suspense ❌
  4. I was engaged the whole way through/didn't get bored ✅
  5. The characters were interesting ➖
  6. There was some form of character development ❌
  7. The book wasn't predictable in terms of relying on tired tropes, clichés, themes, stereotypes, etc. ➖
  8. I cared about the outcome of the story ❌
  9. I didn't work out the ending/the ending surprised me ❌
  10. The ending was satisfying ➖
  
  🌟 Bonus points: None.
  ☠️ Penalty points: None.
  
  🏅 OVERALL RANKING: 3.5/10 (1.75/5 stars)
  This short story was very blah in my opinion. Maybe the issue was more a me problem than a Mr Salary problem, but there you have it.
  Primarily, I didn't like the way that this short story was written, particularly the way that none of the speech was marked as so by speech marks. It made for a non-fluid reading experience, and stopped me from being engaged. Maybe Mr Salary was also just a tad short for me? I feel like it just really didn't achieve much of anything in it's current super short format.
  I tend to rate short stories lower than full novels (I know, I know, I shouldn't rate them on the same criteria), but this one is lucky to even get a 2 star rating when considering how underwhelmed I was by it. This short story is worth a read I guess if you love the Sally Rooney's books, and just want a little something extra.
  
  ----------
  
  Thoughts, Conclusion, and Recommendation:
  1. Reputation Management (Kathleen Alcott) - 4.5/10 (2.25/5 stars)
  2. Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows About Horses (Bret Anthony Johnston) - 2.5/10 (1.25/5 stars)
  3. The Hazel Twig and the Olive Tree (Richard Lambert) - 3/10 (1.5/5 stars)
  4. The Tenant (Victor Lodato) - 4.5/10 (2.25 stars)
  5. Every Little Thing (Celeste Ng) - 6/10 (3/5 stars)
  6. Mr Salary (Sally Rooney) - 3.5/10 (1.75/5 stars)
  OVERALL AVERAGE - 2/5 stars
  
  Overall, I'm giving this book 2 stars. You can read above for more specifics, but it seems that I'm not cut out for literary fiction in short story format. I understand it, I get how some people would like it, but I find it boring, often vague, and sometimes pretentious. My favourite story was Every Little Thing by Celeste Ng, and my least favourite was Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows About Horses by Bret Anthony Johnston (which of course, was the winner of the competition 🙄🤷🏼‍♀️). I would only suggest this collection for people who are already a fan of one of the authors featured within.
  
  
• 
  Rick Burin

  Four of these stories are so perfectly short stories, which I don’t necessarily mean as a compliment. They are formulaic to an almost hysterical degree: short stories written by people who have read hundreds of short stories and know exactly how they work, in every smug, impressive detail. Those are:
  
  - ‘Reputation Management’ by Kathleen Alcott, which uses new technology as a way to rehash old ideas, but until the final pages is thoroughly impressive.
  
  - ‘Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows About Horses’ by Bret Anthony Johnson, cursed with what feels like a parody of modern lit titles, though superbly done, with an assured non-linear style and a studied but deft marriage of the factual and the affecting. The best of the four.
  
  - ‘The Tenant’ by Victor Lodato, which is basically an indie film starring Lucas Hedges, but works well until it speeds up the narrative and starts hopping decades for no discernible reason.
  
  - ‘Every Little Thing’ by Celeste Ng, a superficial, unconvincing story about a cleaner with a convenient neurological condition trying to save the soul of a prospective teen mum.
  
  ‘The Hazel Twig and the Olive Tree’ by Richard Lambert may duck a little close to formula with its climactic revelation, but the format – an academic article, complete with footnotes – is an ingenious set-up, and the way in which that unravels can be justified not as an artistic compromise but as the work of a character losing his mind.
  
  And finally there is Sally Rooney’s ‘Mr Salary’, which prior to her two justly celebrated novels was her best-known work. It is so fresh and clean and sexy and sad, and while it perhaps lacks the psychological complexity and perceptive originality that so blesses her later work, it is like a breath of ice-cool air after five stories that trade genuine emotion for a wood-panelled, highbrow approximation of it. I found lots to admire in those other works, but I didn’t find anything to love.
  
  My order: Rooney, Johnson, Lambert, Lodato, Alcott, Ng.
• 
  Betsy

  I don't typically enjoy reading short stories, but I really enjoyed some of these!
  "Reputation Management" was a good read to start the collection. It could be an episode on Black Mirror: man commits crime, woman judges, woman loses it while someone films. Was the person filming the man who committed the crime? I wanted to know how the woman's story ends, but the story is never resolved.
  "The Tenant" wholly captured my attention because throughout the boy's childhood, I wanted the woman to report the abuse going on next door. In the end, I think she saved him and bettered his chance at normalcy by teaching him how to read. Teachers save lives, even when they don't get the credit.
• 
  Sarah Hsu

  Of the 6, highly recommend Every Little Thing and Mr. Salary (a page turner!). The Tenant and the winning selection Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows about Horses also leave with you a painful and lingering pang in your heart. A lot of musings about death and physical intimacy in these shorts.
• 
  Beth Gordon

  I really enjoyed the two short stories The Tenant and Every Little Thing. I liked Mr. Salary. The other three, but particularly the first, I didn’t care for.
  
  I think most readers will enjoy at least one of these stories, so feel free to pick up this collection.
• 
  Preethi

  Am not a fan of the short story format, I picked up this book only so I could read Sally Rooney’s story. Turns out, I had already read that one.
  However, I liked the rest of stories. Am not going to read the books these authors, but I liked these stories.
• 
  Quynh

  Quiet a collection of intriguing stories and unmistakably talented writers.
• 
  Isabel

  My first introduction to Celeste Ng and a rekindled thirst for more Sally Rooney
• 
  Carol

  The stand out are Victor Lodato, Celeste Ng and Sally Rooney.
• 
  Mary

  Loved it.
• 
  Des Lewis

  The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
  
• 
  Megan Schott

  I liked almost all of these! Read for Rooney stayed for the rest!
• 
  william ellison

  Short but sweet
  
  Six very engaging stories, surprisingly mostly by Americans - I would understand if it were poetry - though my favourite, and I admit to bias, is Sally Rooney's . She has the easy lyrical and quasi-humorous style of the best Irish writers and the frankness, though one could hardly accuse the Americans of being coy.
  Particularly beautiful is the Bret Anthony Johnston story about a man's love of horses and about horses. It conjures some utterly beautiful pictured of the American wilds.
  Makes me want to read more by these writers.
• 
  Wenting

  borrowed this after Conversations because of the rooney story which is a delicious slice of chocolate cake after all the others that i liked to varying degrees. uncritically: fascinated by the turns of 'reputation management' & slow creep of second-hand horror, weird ending; grew up watching every horse movie made for children so a very different relationship then atlee of 'half of what atlee rouse knows about horses,' but of course loved everything in it about horses, and secrets; skimmed 'hazel twig and olive tree' as am impatient reader without tolerance for dryness; intrigued by 'the tenant' then really conflicted upon discovering lodato authored MATILDA SAVITCH; didn't quite believe the main character's memory particulars in 'every little thing,' but the spot-on teenager-mother dynamics oh my god. and then, delicious cake which managed to be exactly what i wanted to eat & yet also a wonderful wrenched surprise