Status Updates From Friday Black

I can tell that these stories are meant to be resonant in some way, but they are just not hitting. I’m disappointed. At this point, I’m waffling between 3 and 3.5, at most. Still three stories left, so hopefully it’ll push me toward the higher end of the scale but this book has largely been a letdown.

Nothing has reached heights of that first story. The most recent I read, “Zimmer Land”, kind of brought back some of the pointed social commentary I appreciated from “The Finkelstein 5”, but not to as great an effect. The next one is the title story, so I’m intrigued by that. I’m starting to get concerned there may be more misses than hits here, though. Hopefully it gets me back on its side.

The first story in this collection was EXPLOSIVE. It was an incredible beginning. The second was 3 pages and seemed like filler. The third was about a futuristic dystopia and… while fine, didn’t rise to the level of the first. I haven’t started the fourth story yet. Still feeling optimistic about the rest because of the high quality of that first one, though. Getting through it pretty fast, too. That’s nice.