SCATTER

by Mindy Macfarlane

148 pages, Paperback

Published November 13, 2023

Reviews

[Victoria Atkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a great story fatally crippled by the complete absence of editing. I want to give it four stars for the frequent flashes of brilliance and the creativity of the concept - especially the ending - but the “first-draft” feel was a terrible struggle to read. I had to put it down several times because it was painful to slog through the constantly changing verb tenses and the errors that would have been so simple to correct with the most cursory read through by anyone but the author (winning is called being “in the black,” not “in the green”; the main character’s epilepsy - which is a huge plot point in the climax - is never once mentioned until the final pages, etc.).

Mindy has a wonderfully deviant mind, and I know her next work will improve immeasurably upon the foundation she’s laid with this one. But poor editing dragged this one down from four stars to two. Still worth a read - and I’d love to see it as a short film.