Review by Kaylee123 -- Illustrated Short Fiction of Will...

[Kaylee Elmer]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Illustrated Short Fiction of William H. Coles: 2000-2016" by William H. Coles.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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The good thing about short stories is if you don’t enjoy the characters, you don’t have to read about them for too long. The bad thing about short stories is if you love the characters, you don’t get to read about them for long. The Illustrated Short Fiction of William H. Coles: 2000-2016 delivers both these scenarios. The book is a collection of thirty-three short stories, two graphic novels, and a novella.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, even though the majority of the stories were dark or centered around a negative event. It would be quite the feat to try and summarize every story, so I’ll focus on those that stood out the most. The Gift, which was one of the only stories that had a somewhat happy ending, tells the story of a young girl who gives birth to a very special baby. In Suchin’s Escape, the reader meets Suchin, a preteen girl trying to escape her life as a child prostitute. Big Gene is a more political story, dealing with the KuKluxKlan. The War of the Flies was an entertaining yet disgusting story of a literal swarm of flies taking over a house. I could go on and on about these intriguing stories. Each story was extremely different, even when they touched on common themes.

The part of the book I liked most was the talent of the author. A proper story needs an antagonist, a protagonist, exposition, conflict, a climax, and a resolution. Doing this in just a few pages can’t be easy, and Coles does this well. The length of the stories covered a wide range. For example, The Bear was less than two pages long. In that short length, I still felt bad for the protagonist, got mad at the antagonist, and was thoroughly entertained. That takes talent. The Miracle of Madame Villard, which was about thirteen pages long, allowed Coles to go into more depth with characters’ backgrounds and emotions, so I enjoyed the longer stories, too.

I also enjoyed the illustrations in the book. The title of the book suggests there will be a lot of pictures. This wasn’t the case. Besides the graphic novels, there were just one or two pictures at the beginning of each story. I thought this was a nice touch. Before reading, I would look at the illustration to guess what the story was about. After reading, I would look back to see if the pictures made sense. The images added extra to the already engaging stories.

What I liked least about the collection of stories was how horribly gruesome parts of a few of the stories were. I’ve read other works by William H. Coles, and he writes about some dark topics. I can usually handle that, but reading about a beheading that didn’t go as planned was a bit much. Another story focused around a baby that was born far too early and passed away. Reading descriptions of the baby lying in a box, and falling out onto the floor made me feel physically ill. In general, there is a lot of death in the stories, and it’s described in too much detail at times.

This book is clearly intended for an adult audience. Besides being gruesome, many stories also include adult language, sex, murder, and other serious topics. Children and even teenagers should not read this book. Sensitive adult readers should avoid some of the stories, as well. I would recommend this book to individuals who like to read about a wide variety of topics and aren’t easily upset.

I would rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I wouldn’t give it a 2 because I enjoyed most of the stories. Coles is a gifted author and tells stories beautifully. I can’t give it a 4, though, because unfortunately there were a few grammatical errors, and some stories were just too gruesome.

Overall, this was a fantastic book. I highly recommend it to adult readers who enjoy short stories. I can’t wait to read more stories by William H. Coles in the future!

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Illustrated Short Fiction of William H. Coles: 2000-2016
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