The Scientist: Gruesome; Yet Intriguing
I’m starting to fall in love with short fiction.
For the longest time, I really hated short stories. I think it’s a residual feeling from the horrendous tales I was forced to read in my undergraduate creative writing course.
But as I’ve dived into writing short stories, and I’ve read more and more indie-authored stories, I’m really appreciating the art that goes into these tales.
And so I received, via email, a request to review “The Scientist” by Andres Cruciani. (It’s available on Kindle Unlimited, by the way).
Cruciani throws readers immediately into the life of a woman hell-bent on making a name for herself in the scientific world. What stands out to me as most significant about “The Scientist” is its use of . . . well, I was actually about to reveal a detail super important to the story, so I won’t drop that bomb! But let’s just say, Cruciani uses a particular literary device with utmost skill.
And more importantly, Cruciani forces readers to really hate and love the POV character at the same time. That’s hard to do.
On to the scores!
Writing: 8/10. Great writing. Nothing stood out to me as spectacularly impressive; yet nothing was bad about it either. Clear writing is great writing.
Character: 10/10. The POV character leads readers on a tragic whirlwind of emotions.
Setting:. 6/10. I didn’t really get a good feel for “place” in this story, though I did enjoy the setting established in her apartment.
Plot: 8/10. While “plot” is hard to ascribe to this story, given its brevity and its singular focus on the actions of one character, Cruciani still effectively pulls readers along that character’s internal conflicts in a powerful and unexpected fashion.
Overall: 8/10; four stars. Great job with “The Scientist,” Cruciani!
As mentioned above, you can find “The Scientist” on Amazon.