Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town
by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
Pub Date 20 Apr 2021
read courtesy of http://www.netgalley.com
As in I wish I had written this. Or I wish I had the mind of Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock. These stories are brilliantly combined without being repetitive. Each story is complete within itself while implying the wholeness of the world in which it was created. Nothing left me questioning any of the characters, their motives, or their choices. I am completely impressed with Hitchcock's storytelling.
I'm hesitant to describe this as a book of short stories, and although some reviewers recommend reading these independently, I caution against it. Part of what made this engaging was experiencing the connections between seemingly independent characters and finding how intertwined our lives and experiences can be. With a bit of six-degrees-of-separation, we're all interconnected.
I absolutely loved the 9th story. SPOILER ALERT: It reminded me of the skillful storytelling of the movie "The Sixth Sense."
I think I had such a connection to the storytelling because I didn't know this was a collection of connected short stories, and the serendipity of discovering the existence of the connections myself was so enjoyable. This happened to me because I misinterpreted a description that said, "Each story is unique, yet universal," to mean the characters' stories, not literally separate short stories. I became so engaged with Hitchcock's adroitness in creating those connections that I took the time to map out all of the connections. This suited my personality, my skills, and my absorption with the stories. Do not look at this concept map if you want to figure out the connections on your own: https://www.mindmeister.com/1707227917?t=SEvUSMP5Sj
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