Flash Fiction Online #62, November 2018

“Trinkets” by Joe Parker

Reviewed by Mike Wyant, Jr.

Joe Parker‘s “Trinkets” is a short piece, as you’d expect on Flash Fiction Online, but that doesn’t limit the quality of writing despite the weirdness threaded throughout. In “Trinkets,” the narrator gets little gifts from a seemingly bereaved woman. As he takes each one, his life starts to change for the better. Strokes of random good luck for him and his family. The ending, while somewhat expected, is an interesting and satisfying conclusion. Worth a read.

“Ivy” by Melissa Goodrich is… interesting. I’ve re-read the story a few times now, but I feel like I’m still missing some integral metaphor that makes this story suddenly make sense. As it is, “Ivy” tells the story of a girl who literally sprouts ivy from her hands in the days (years?) following her mother’s miscarriage. There’s some deep hints of child abuse and emotional abuse throughout the story, though the only explicit piece is when the girl’s aunt arrives and forcibly trims the ivy from her hands with shears.

“Ivy” ends with a satisfactory bit of revenge, though I feel like the missing metaphor connection really muffled the impact for me. It’s a shame because Goodrich writes quite beautifully, I wish I could see what the author is trying to show me.

Mike Wyant, Jr. is an ex-IT guy, who has finally committed to a writing life out in the Middle of Nowhere, New York.