Austin Cross > Recent Status Updates

I'm crying.

Not sure why, but this is giving me Scooby-Doo vibes but with bigger stakes and consequences.

With each chapter I read, it becomes very clear that accepting outward and worldly things as they are while asking better of yourself is the key to living a personally prosperous life. This is like a bible with most of the religion taken out of it. It's philosophy and a way of life. Stoicism is a state of being, looking life in the face and not allowing it to take over your own well-being.

In just a matter of 29 pages, Clements establishes setting, character, and mystery. Plattsford, Nebraska, a failing small farm town, continues to dwindle as families are forced to move away. The school only has nine students and four of them are graduating. Ted Hammond, the only sixth grader, loves working his newspaper delivery job, working with the animals on his dad’s farm, and has a love for mystery novels.

There's an exquisiteness to the prose and the dynamic between the two sisters and their roles as ballet instructors shows promise. Definitely interested to see what comes of this story in the next section.

Two stories in and I'm intrigued. The plots for the eponymous story and "Boomer" revolve around a main character that stays and one that leaves while the environment around the main character progressively gets worse. So far, Hampton's prose is deeply rooted in Southernality and authentic realism.