Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Review: Tripping the Flash Fantastic by Allison Symes

 



Genre: Short Story Collection/Flash Fiction

Description:

A collection of short, short stories, also known as flash fiction.

Author:

Allison Symes writes short stories, sometimes very short. This is the second collection of flash fiction she’s published.

Appraisal:

For those not familiar with flash fiction, it is extremely short-short stories. While I don’t think there is any official definition, the consensus seems to be that the maximum size is something under 1,000 words. Within the flash fiction universe there are other descriptions used for flash fiction of different sizes, a drabble for example is a story of less than 100 words. The stories in this collection are almost all well short of that 1,000 word limit. (With just short of 60 stories in less than 11,000 words, the average is something shy of 200 words apiece, some only half that.)

I find flash fiction is fun to read, not only for the stories, which in this instance includes a lot that would fall outside my typical genres, but at only a few hundred words, even if a specific story isn’t your thing, it’s over quickly. I also find myself admiring the ability a good story teller has to tell so much in so few words. With a wide range of stories with different flavors like I found here, I suspect any reader will find some they’ll like, some that will convince them that maybe they need to give longer books with certain elements a chance, and others that just won’t appeal. But those that don’t appeal will be over before you know it, so no big deal, right?

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

The author is from the United Kingdom and thus uses spelling conventions and some expressions unique to their flavor (or flavour would be more accurate) of English.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 10-11,000 words

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