Reviewed

My story "Garden Variety" was reviewed by Tina as part of her review of the anthology All the Boys. I find the review particularly interesting because the reviewer gets two pieces of information wrong but still grasps the overall emotional impact of the story.

For example, she wrote, "Kyle is the grandson of a wealthy customer Doug gardens for." Actually, Kyle's the young lover of the wealthy customer.

And the reviewer is disappointed by the short length in part because the story isn't a romance: "instead of making it a romance to making it just a scene from a romance story." The story was never intended to be a romance.

Though all the characters in the story are gay, the story has a classic noir set-up: The protagonist falls for and has a relationship with the beautiful lover of a powerful rich man. If you read enough noir, you know the story won't end well.

The review does note that "'Garden Variety' is a very bittersweet story." And that's exactly the emotional impact I intended.

Just to be clear, I'm not complaining about, nor am I arguing with the reviewer's assessment of the story. It is what it is.

What interests me is that either I failed to make certain details clear or the reviewer didn't pay close enough attention, yet the emotional weight of the story is strong enough that the details don't matter.

Anyhow, read the entire review of All the Boys here.