Jeff’s Reviews > The Novellas > Status Update

"Midlisters": 3/5 - This story was entertaining all the way through and it held more of the character-driven quality that Burke clearly attributes to his best writing (and he's not wrong). In this one, he writes a vaguely fictional account of a horror author in a struggling marriage who endures varieties of insecurity until life events render the insecurities moot. Rough typos and a self-indulgent ending

The one you think you're already writing about. The same one we all fear: Death. Mortality. Isolation. Fear of being alone. Fear of having to bury our loved ones, and the selfishness of wanting to go before them, despite the terror the mere thought of it instills in us.

This collection is of wildly varying, and apparently, decreasing quality: "The Tent" - 4/5, "You In?" - 3/5, "Seldom Seen in August" - 1/5. Especially this last one felt like an abortive effort, great groundwork and then total abandonment, no lingering meaning or depth.