Official Review: Deep August: Short Stories from the Amer...

[Peace Odii]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Deep August: Short Stories from the American South" by James William Gardner.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Deep August: Short Stories from the American South was written by James William Gardner. This is a collection of short stories that reflects all genres of fiction. We met Randal Whitley and the whore from the first story, who demanded a lift from Randal. Randal Whitley was a driver, and he had complicated issues in his past relationships, but his experience with this whore would open him up to other life issues. Subsequent stories were also interesting, like the one above.

The positive thing about this collection of stories was that it involved several genres. In other words, it has crime stories, children's stories, romance stories, and fantasies. For this, the book will suit a variety of audiences. For example, the tale of "The Yellow Balloon" will be enjoyed mostly by children.

In my opinion, this book had intriguing stories that would get readers glued to the book, and they would be eager to read the following story after reading the first. Each tale had its unique style of introduction. It seemed that the characters were real, as they were imbued with real features. Some characters were comical. An example of such a funny character was the character of Bobby. He was obsessed with Captain Jack's hat.

However, there were some negative aspects of the novel. Firstly, some of the stories ended abruptly. I didn't particularly appreciate that some stories had unnecessary dialogues between the characters, especially the children's stories. Likewise, some stories were too concise. As a result, this affected the ability of the reader to comprehend where the plot was headed. An example of this point is the story of Edward Whitley. It was too short, and the ingredient of the story was almost lost.

The book has numerous grammar and punctuation problems. These problems distracted from the clarity of my reading. Another round of editing is required to bring this novel to perfection. Since I found many errors, I concluded that this book was not edited professionally. Hence, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I could not deduct another star from the book because I still enjoyed these stories, and I followed each of them to the end.

I recommend this book to those who appreciate books with a variety of stories. Also, I feel this novel will suit those who love "short stories from the American South." Most readers dislike a collection of tales. They prefer following a particular plot, and if you are such a reader, this book is not for you.

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Deep August: Short Stories from the American South
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[Becca Olsson]

I hope the author can fixing the editing errors because this sounds like a book for all people. I like that it’s a short story collection so it can be read in small snippets. Thanks for the great review