Hello Dan, First of all, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to you; this is the very first review my book has received. However, looking at it not from the biased perspective of an author, but rather as a discerning reader, I must respectfully dissent from your assumption that a short story must inherently rely on well-defined protagonists with explicit goals and obstacles to overcome. This classical structural framework was never the intended purpose of this text. By this, I do not mean to dismiss characterization entirely, but rather to point out a deliberate subversion of a "clear objective." If you notice, the story is entitled "The Drowned," yet it swiftly abandons that initial focus to immerse the reader in folklore, cosmic dread, and primal, deeply rooted human anxieties. It is as though there is a hidden truth or a cryptic thread that the author—and the narrator—does not seek to unravel; on the contrary, it is intentionally obscured to foster a dense atmosphere of existential ambiguity. Look, for instance, at the conclusion of the first story, which ends in such a way that the reality of witnessing the skeleton or the ghost cannot be definitively verified, even though two individuals perceived it at the exact same moment. Furthermore, at the end of the second version—which shares the same beginning as the first but diverges into a different outcome—we plunge into the labyrinth of a world steeped in brutality and indifference, where man becomes indistinguishable from jackals, and jackals mirror humanity. The ultimate goal here is not to provide a sense of closure or comfort through a conventional resolution, but to provoke haunting questions that reflect our collective, timeless human anxiety. It is meant to make it seem as though "The Drowned" is not merely a corpse drifting in the water surrounded by hungry fish, but rather that the drowned is us, adrift in this cacophonous world. Thank you once again for your review. Since it is the first, I felt it was only fitting to cast some light onto that dark corner. With my highest regards and respect,
First of all, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to you; this is the very first review my book has received. However, looking at it not from the biased perspective of an author, but rather as a discerning reader, I must respectfully dissent from your assumption that a short story must inherently rely on well-defined protagonists with explicit goals and obstacles to overcome.
This classical structural framework was never the intended purpose of this text. By this, I do not mean to dismiss characterization entirely, but rather to point out a deliberate subversion of a "clear objective." If you notice, the story is entitled "The Drowned," yet it swiftly abandons that initial focus to immerse the reader in folklore, cosmic dread, and primal, deeply rooted human anxieties. It is as though there is a hidden truth or a cryptic thread that the author—and the narrator—does not seek to unravel; on the contrary, it is intentionally obscured to foster a dense atmosphere of existential ambiguity.
Look, for instance, at the conclusion of the first story, which ends in such a way that the reality of witnessing the skeleton or the ghost cannot be definitively verified, even though two individuals perceived it at the exact same moment. Furthermore, at the end of the second version—which shares the same beginning as the first but diverges into a different outcome—we plunge into the labyrinth of a world steeped in brutality and indifference, where man becomes indistinguishable from jackals, and jackals mirror humanity.
The ultimate goal here is not to provide a sense of closure or comfort through a conventional resolution, but to provoke haunting questions that reflect our collective, timeless human anxiety. It is meant to make it seem as though "The Drowned" is not merely a corpse drifting in the water surrounded by hungry fish, but rather that the drowned is us, adrift in this cacophonous world.
Thank you once again for your review. Since it is the first, I felt it was only fitting to cast some light onto that dark corner.
With my highest regards and respect,