Official Review: The Liar and Other Stories

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Sherlock_1
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Official Review: The Liar and Other Stories

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[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Liar and Other Stories" by Matthew W. McFarland.]
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The Liar and Other Stories by Matthew W. McFarland is a collection of six short stories. Each story is separate from the others, so I will give a brief summary of each one. The Liar follows a man who can spin a tale at the drop of a hat. Hospital focuses on the family of a little boy awaiting medical news. Making Headlines revolves around a young actress who wants to be famous. The Savant tells the story of a man with hidden talents. Ripples follows a girl with a secret, and Toxic Love is about a man who is certain that his wife is trying to kill him.

Out of all the stories in this collection, I particularly enjoyed Ripples and Toxic Love. I thought that the characters in these were better developed than the characters in the other stories, mainly owing to the fact that these stories were longer. When I read about Anne’s predicament in Ripples and the backstory of the husband and wife in Toxic Love I was able to identify with their current situations to a greater degree than I could with the characters in the other stories, since there was more background on them.

I thought the plot of each individual story was interesting, even though I wasn’t attached to many of the characters. I like books about revenge and mystery, and these stories provided some exciting, albeit short, problems that dealt with those themes. The writing style was very plot-driven, with some beautiful descriptions and eerie details throughout. I did feel, however, that given the abruptness with which each story ended, more time could have been spent on characterization than on descriptions of settings.

As I mentioned before, I felt like the stories ended too abruptly. Just as I was getting invested in a story, it would be over. I understand the need for brevity in short stories, but there was simply no time to introduce me to a new character, tell an intriguing story, and tie everything up with a satisfying conclusion. I think the first three stories in particular suffered from being too brief, with the last three getting a little longer, which gave them more depth.

I give The Liar and Other Stories two out of four stars. The short length of each story weakened the effect of an otherwise interesting plot. All the elements of a solid short story collection are present in this book – good writing, intriguing plotlines, and potentially well fleshed-out characters. They just don’t quite come together in this compilation.

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