Reviewed by Claire

The Appeasement of Our God


A sad comment on the state of society today, The Appeasement Of Our God is a story of greed and the worship of false idols. The story takes place in a convenience store late one night and speaks poignantly of two lives that meet and change each other dramatically, without changing anything at all really. That is the sadness of this 'biblical' type tale/fable.

The heavy language works well sometimes, but unfortunately not always. There are some lovely moments of description, and, at times, a biting sense of irony in the method of storytelling. Reading this piece made me wonder if the author had done any screenwriting, because to me, it had a very filmic quality in the way scenes were described.

For a short story, I think there was perhaps a little too much information thrown at us, and the old adage to 'show not tell' would be well heeded. I felt certain aspects of the characters' lives (their past) did not require explaining, or indeed could have been explained more briefly or simply shown by their actions. This story would have grabbed me more, had it been just the encounter of the two main characters and perhaps some verbal exchange between them.

Story by © Brandon Cossel

Reviewed by © Claire

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