Home At Elyu & Other Stories

by Raphael "Rapc" Chuson

145 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 21, 2026

Reviews

[mjccdz.bookdigests · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story Ranking :

1 — Top Student 🥇
2 — Chosen Family 🥈
3 — Dating App 🥉
4 — Young You
5 — It Is Nice to Have a Friend
6 — Beach Break
7 — I Will Always Love You
8 — Home at Elyu


Plot — ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Home at Elyu and Other Stories is a collection of slice-of-life stories that explores different forms of human connection: friendship, family, romance, grief, self-discovery, & the quiet longing to belong. While each story stands on its own, they are united by a shared atmosphere of nostalgia & hope, with La Union serving as both a physical setting & an emotional anchor.

Characters — ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Because this is a short story collection, the characters have limited page time, yet many still feel familiar & believable. Their struggles are grounded in everyday life, making it easy to recognize parts of ourselves in them.

My favorite stories were Top Student, Chosen Family, & Dating App because they left the strongest emotional impression. They explore different kinds of love & belonging without relying on grand gestures, allowing the quieter moments to carry the emotional weight.

That said, some stories ended rather abruptly, leaving me wanting to spend more time with the characters & wondering what happened after the final page.

Writing Style — ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Raphael Chuson writes with warmth, making the collection an easy & comforting read. The descriptions vividly capture the relaxed atmosphere of Elyu.. the beach, the sea breeze, & the feeling of slowing down.. which adds another layer of nostalgia to the reading experience.

However, there were moments where the narration leaned more toward telling than showing. While the prose is descriptive, I found myself wishing for more scenes that allowed the emotions to unfold naturally instead of being explicitly explained.

Emotional Impact — ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This collection feels like a quiet weekend by the beach: gentle, reflective, & comforting. It reminds us that home isn’t always a place; sometimes it’s the people who make us feel seen, accepted, & understood.

While I wished some stories had more satisfying conclusions, I still enjoyed the journey. Home at Elyu and Other Stories is a heartfelt collection best appreciated for its atmosphere, quiet reflections, & its celebration of the many ways people find connection.

[Cecelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a little bit longer review because I have so many thoughts in each story. ☺️
Thank you, Rap, for the opportunity to be your ARC reader!

1. Home at Elyu—Reading the first story makes me miss Elyu; I might want to come back soon. Anyway, this is a short read story, and I like how it was open-ended, but to be honest, nabitin ako! I thought there was going to be something more like a twist and such, but still, I like how open-ended it is.

2. Dating App—At first I thought this was somewhat connected to the first story, but it has a different spark. It relates to the modern dilemma of online dating and how the main character navigates it in the story. Kilig kilig in some way, and the same with the first, it has an open ending that lets the readers imagine what would be the next scenario for the main characters.

3. Chosen Family - I like how this was written, and as an emotional reader myself, I sympathize with the grieving father. I know this was all fiction, but one thing I can't grasp is that there's a scene where something changes the MMC's life, but he doesn't report it to the police? Or it is not included because the story might not be a short story anymore.

4. Young You—My first impression of this one is mala teleserye vibe na long-lost sibling; nevertheless, I like how the characters interact and there's depth

5. Beach Break—Reading this one made me miss Elyu so muuuch. The first story made me reminisce, but this one, it makes me yearn. I like how the other characters are incorporated in this story too.

6. Top Student - This is typical Filipino student life, and I like how students are portrayed and how someone is eager to be a top student.

7. It is nice to have a friend—in contrast with the top student story, this is also a heartwarming story about an unexpected blooming friendship between two students.

8. I will always love you—I don't know if it was just me, but I feel like there's a little unrequited love between the characters. I love how genuine their friendship is.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're into:

Stories that will make you emotional, make your heart full, and make your tears flow. Then I think this book is for you!

Thoughts:

I love a good collection of short stories, these kinds of books were the ones that would keep me occupied when I'm sick, bored, tired of living or tired in general.
It also shows how good an author is in making readers feel something in just a few pages and just a few words. It just shows how you don't need a story to be long to portray a large amount of emotion. Overall I can truly say I was deeply moved with these stories.

Characters:
I love the friendship in this book, how easy the author was able to express human emotion through them. It felt like genuine human interactions if you get what I mean, like it was real. The way that characters show support for each other, the way they look out for one another it just reminded me on how I'm like with my own friends and family. You don't leave someone when they're in difficult times, that is exactly the time where you have to look out for them the most.

Pacing:
Obviously the pacing is gonna be fast since they're short stories, but somehow I just kept hoping that some of them would be a bit longer haha. If the author were to make a longer version of some of these short stories I'm totally up to read them.

Ending:
A lot of these actually have open endings, I personally don't really like open endings TvT almost like giving tea to someone in a convo and then you ghost them afterwards ba... WHERE IS THE REST YOU COME BACK HERE AND FINISH IT RAHHHH. Jokes aside even if the endings weren't my type it was still fun to read and think about what happened afterwards.

[kay · Rating 1 out of 5]

𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬 𝙤𝙛 𝘼𝙙𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝘾𝙤𝙥𝙮 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘼𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧

As much as I want to love it as a proof of gratefulness, I felt that the writing was very bare, for something that is meant to showcase emotions and different plot lines, they were all just very linear. Some very unrealistic scenes also like wouldn’t you report it to the authorities first if you discover living beings left behind? The dialogues were also script-y with the “sure” “yeah” and stuff. The plots have so much potential if it was just polished more.

[audrereads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great palate cleanser! It’s a super quick read, so you won’t feel stressed while reading it. If you’re looking for something relaxing and easy to get through, I definitely recommend this book. It features different stories in one collection, all written by a Filipino author. I did find myself wanting more from some of the stories, but that’s just the nature of short stories. Overall, I still enjoyed the book!Thank you, Rap, for choosing me to read your ARC!

[Patch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book feels like having a short serene vacation in La Union. It was short, easy-to-read, warmth and inspiring stories of love, self-discovery, friendship, familial concerns and more.

One thing I like about this book is the simple yet impactful prose written by author. I wish I was in a longer version but since a short story collection and that's fine.

Thank you, Rap. And congratulations in advance on your book launch. ❤️

[Raphael Chuson · Rating 5 out of 5]

For Angel, my home