Maladaptive

by J.D. Edwin

A daughter discovers the source of her own false memories in a world where thoughts take physical form in “The Drawer”. A driver for hire dissatisfied with the monotony of life finds that there’s still fantasy and magic to be had in the world when he encounters a passenger from another world in “The Ambassador”. A circus comes to town and brings with it intrigue, nostalgia, and a strange twist of the real and unreal in the “Shangaville Circus” tales. And in “Divine January”, the roles of predator and prey are not quite what they seem.

Take a journey through these fourteen evocative stories and discover what happens when the mind wanders, drifts, and creates, in “Maladaptive."

157 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 19, 2021

Reviews

[TJCarroll · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a set of short stories. The subjects are broad. Speculative fiction and the afterlife certainly are subjects this author is fond of. Good reading as you ride to work, eat lunch or consider life. The stories are short and can pack a punch. There was just enough black humor to make things work for me. I think these are stories you'll want to come back to and reread to see what you missed the first time around.

[Katlynn Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I opened up an email on my phone during lunch. I had just dubbed the day “Writing Wednesday” the night before so I was going through all the writing blogs I am subscribed to in order to help give me inspiration and try to actually finish writing something. There was a request to check out this book so I thought, sure, why not, I love to read. I was devastated when lunch was over half an hour later. I just wanted to keep reading more! A few hours later I was able to get back to it and I read until I finished all of the stories. Each short story is engaging and the book overall shows the author’s skill in writing across multiple genres. This book is inspiration that you can write anything you want and you don’t have to finish an entire novel to write a book or stick to one genre! Can’t wait to see what else this author will do with her writing career!

[CraftyChara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maladaptive? More Like Misguided.

The premise has glimmers of potential, but the execution is painfully amateurish. The characters feel like flimsy cutouts shoved through contrived scenarios, their motivations shallow and inconsistent. Emotional weight is constantly told to us, never shown. Dialogue is stilted, overwrought, and often unintentionally comical.

Stylistically, the prose is bloated with clichés and clunky phrasing. What’s meant to be psychological depth ends up as surface level rambling, circling the same ideas without ever offering meaningful insight. The pacing is uneven, stretching mundane details while glossing over anything that could have built genuine tension.

As an early effort, it’s forgivable to a point, but publishing it and presenting it as serious fiction only underscores how undercooked it really is. By the end, the only thing maladaptive is the reader’s patience for sticking with it.

In short: Maladaptive isn’t just a rough draft of a novel, it feels like a rough draft of an idea. If you’re looking for compelling characters, sharp writing, or even basic cohesion, you won’t find it here.

[Priscilla King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dang, she's good. That's what I thought.

JD Edwin likes to play with the plots of stories--what if Yoda was a spy for the Empire? Or, in this collection, what if the aliens who could destroy the planet chose to take their cue from what an autistic child told them? What if the sweet girl at the concession stand were a sweet rather than an actual girl? What if superheroes or supervillains weren't conscious of shifting from their mundane identities into their "super" ones?

There's a batch of superhero/supervillain stories in this book, and a few stories in which people are playing strange games, and a few in which aliens visit Earth. None of the stories seems to fit into the same alternative universe with "Headspace." But if you like "Headspace," you will like these stories.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maladaptive, my first read from author J.D. Edwin. A 157-page well-written, entertaining & enjoyable collection of short reads. I'll read more from this author. “I received a Kindle copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review." The gifting of this book did not affect my opinion of it. I look forward to reading Headspace in the near future. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 - July 24, 2018).

[Kym · Rating 5 out of 5]

Different

Different can be good & this collection of stories is great. They are original & fun to read. I look forward to reading more by this author