Official Review: When Disconnected by Christine Jayne Vann
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Michelle-lit
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Official Review: When Disconnected by Christine Jayne Vann
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "When Disconnected" by Christine Jayne Vann.]
3 out of 4 stars
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Christine Vann's When Disconnected is a collection of eight beautifully, decscriptive short stories which explore feelings of loss, loneliness, aging, otherness, and the inexcapable emotion of fear. As the reader travels through Vann's intricate worlds, he or she will discover characters who, in one way or another, experience a state or feeling of disconnect. Through these stories, the author invites the reader to contemplate emotions which make us human and discover how these emotions affect us specifically in isolation.
I gave When Disconnected a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed myself while reading this collection of stories. They were thought provoking with unique storylines which captured my attention and provided imagery which successfully transported me to other worlds. When it comes to short stories, I feel it is most important not to give the reader every piece of information. It is a difficult balance between telling a story and allowing the reader to think about what they are reading and piece together its core theme. I feel that Vann, for the most part, succeeds in this. She has created a piece of work which deserves to be read over more than once. In regards to criticism, there are a few stories which need a bit more information and end a bit too early. My attention was captured and my curiosity aroused, but the endings were sometimes less than satisfying. I also feel that When Disconnected relies too heavily on adjectives. At points, adjectives can create dazzling images for the reader, but when used excessively they can leave the reader lost. I found myself somewhat lost in Left for Dust and Startorn, which I will discuss later. The amount of descriptive writing had me rereading frequently, while Shaded and Mingle seemed to have a balance between description, dialogue, and action.
Because When Disconneted is a collection of eight separate stories, my review will now focus on each story individually. Because of the ambiguity of short stories, they are liable to have multiple interpretations. The following are my personal interpretations of Vann's work and what they mean.
The first story in Vann's collection is Emotive. Emotive features our main character Johan who is fighting with the emotion of fear. The story is set in a dark room surrounded by mirrors where Johan is joined by three other characters who represent the feelings of hate, envy, and pain. Although they are all in the same room, each character seems to focus on his or her own personal emotion, introducing the feeling of disconnect which the stories are named after. Vann hooked me into the story by the line "But then, fear paid well." This is where the science fiction kicks in and throughout the story I am wondering, "Why are these emotions being paid for?" "Who is paying them?" "Who is watching them?" it becomes a compelling story of dark science fiction which becomes even more interesting when a fifth character is introduced. Unfortunately, I feel that this story could have used five or more pages. A lot of my questions were left unanswered and not in a satisfying way. Just a little more information and I feel that this would have been a most intriguing and stimulating story.
The next story in this series of science fiction is Shill and Shadows which involves a young girl who loses her cat in a forbidden forest. There, she encounters a being that is both tantalizingly beautiful and dreadfully fearful. Here, the forest represents our form of disconnect from the real world and, in my opinion, the young girl explores both the fear and dread and the beauty and peace which can come with death. In this specific story, the use of a plethora of adjectives was actually successful. The stream of adjectives creates a lullaby effect which matches the storyline as the young girl falls into a trance. I felt, as the reader, that I was falling under a similar spell and yet still experienced the beautiful imagery which Vann writes with so well. This was one of my favorites, but I did feel that the beginning paragraphs about the cat were a bit too long and could be shortened to expedite the beginning of the actual story.
Left for Dust, a story which definitely paints a world of science fiction, is set in a land which has been ravaged by the sun leaving it to be a hostile environment for human life. Our heroine, Harren, has disconnected herself from her community in search of a life that has something more to offer. During her trek through the desert, Harren faces her own individuality and questions why she cannot conform to the same mentality held by others in her community. She also faces her own fear (a common theme in all eight stories) as she faces the dangers which confront her on her journey. At first, this story seems to have a predictable plot: girl fights through formidable desert to reach mythical oasis, but Vann puts in a little twist at the end which leaves the reader something to chew on. Unlike Emotive I feel Left for Dust has a clearer beginning, middle, and end and I did not need the story to continue to feel that it was complete. I did occasionally get a little lost while reading Left for Dust because the majority of the story only contains one character it is sometimes difficult to hold the reader's attention without dialogue or interaction with other characters, and I did find that the obstacles faced by Harrren were so similar in nature that the middle of the story was not as fresh as the beginning or ending.
Shaded is a new creative look at death and the grieving process and how the death of a child can both disconnect and bring a couple back together. Both haunting and touching, the couple deal with the shadow of their son and its inability to convey the soul of their once living child. Shaded addresses the hardship of letting go and how holding on for too long can give some short term relief, but only causes more harm in the long run. The only criticism I have is that Vann tells the reader exactly what the shade represents. I feel the story speaks for itself, and she should have allowed the reader to come to his or her own conclusion.
The fifth book in this series of eight is Affinities. It was my least favorite of the eight. It left me the most confused, did not hold my attention, and was somewhat unmemorable. The story features two brothers in a sort of failed coming of age story, which is interesting since most coming of age stories do not end in failure. The older brother, Jalin, takes his younger brother, Kainen, into a storm trying to get him to feel something. What that something is, I am uncertain. In this world, do these people have some connection to storms, or did Jalin just want his little brother to feel strength and power? Either way, Kainen shows his disconnect, by feeling only his inadequacy in comparison with his brother. The story explores how we can feel worthlessness and isolation solely because we are unlike everyone else. This story is very similar in theme to Mingle, but is different in the fact that the character in Mingle finds some place where he fits in while Kainen, although loved by his family, is still left in his isolation. In addition, there is some sort of science fiction aspect to this story, but it is left entirely unexplained. I cannot tell you who these people are, what planet they are from, or what their connection is to these storms. At one point, the storm is personified as Jalin says, "They are angry." I would have liked to know more about who "they" are and about this test which Kainen fails. A few more pages in this story might have made it a bit more comprehensible.
Timely Journey involves a group of unrelated people going to unrelated places who come together on a train. Unbeknownst to them, one passenger has a sinister plan which will affect all on board. This is a story about defying age, and although it has been done before, I feel it was original enough to keep my attention and at the end of the day, I enjoyed the story. Problems that I did have with it: the characters figure out too quickly who the culprit is. If it were me, I would not have jumped to a conclusion so quickly. The characters seem to be from this world and the old lady (the culprit) seems to be from another. To think that she was able to lock all the train doors and change the speed and destination of the train without leaving her seat would take some convincing. There is also a conversation between Jill (one of the passengers) and the old lady. It is quite short and I feel an opportunity was missed to explain what Jill was feeling about what was happening (some people would have been delighted. Why was she horrified?). I also would have liked to know what the old lady's motivation was and where she came from. With this left out, the story ends a bit too fast and leaves me wanting a bit more from an otherwise interesting story.
How would I describe the work Mingle? Simply adorable. Although this story does follow the theme of disconnect, it seems to have the least science fiction of the eight. Nevertheless, I found it undeniably charming and touching. With its comical ending, I found myself laughing at this captivating child who just does not seem to fit in. Mingle is told from the view point of a teacher, Miss Grail, and discusses her concern for one of her students, Tony, who is constantly picked on. Much like Harren in Left for Dust, Tony is disconnected from the rest of the children because he is different. He is different both in his appearance and his mentality. Yet, what makes this character intriguing is his indifference to the fact that he is unusual. As Miss Grail delves into the life of Tony and his father, she comes to find a family which is just peculiar and a bit misunderstood. Mingle is refreshingly ordinary showing an unstated friendship between a teacher and her student and her wish to let him just fit in, even if the end result is unexpected.
I went back and forth on whether or not I enjoyed Startorn. The story follows Treela who lives in a village where a star-like object crashes near her home. Treela, through her curiosity, is abducted by the star where she feels fear of being disconnected from her family, but also experiences a connection when she must soothe the fears of another abductee. This story explores the fear of the unknown, the uncontrollable, and the future since Treela's future is left ambiguous by the end of the story. Again, it is sometimes difficult to keep the attention of the reader when only one character is really involved in the story since the author must depend on descriptive language to push the story forward, but the addition of the second abductee regained my interest, and I was overall satisfied with the story; although, it was not my favorite.
Vann's ideas are truly creative, and unique. Her writing style is both beautiful and eerily thought provoking in its themes. Is there room for improvement? Yes, but I feel Vann's goal written in her forward was achieved. "I hope, those of you on the periphery especially, will find something in here to make you think." This she achieved.
******
When Disconnected
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3 out of 4 stars
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Christine Vann's When Disconnected is a collection of eight beautifully, decscriptive short stories which explore feelings of loss, loneliness, aging, otherness, and the inexcapable emotion of fear. As the reader travels through Vann's intricate worlds, he or she will discover characters who, in one way or another, experience a state or feeling of disconnect. Through these stories, the author invites the reader to contemplate emotions which make us human and discover how these emotions affect us specifically in isolation.
I gave When Disconnected a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed myself while reading this collection of stories. They were thought provoking with unique storylines which captured my attention and provided imagery which successfully transported me to other worlds. When it comes to short stories, I feel it is most important not to give the reader every piece of information. It is a difficult balance between telling a story and allowing the reader to think about what they are reading and piece together its core theme. I feel that Vann, for the most part, succeeds in this. She has created a piece of work which deserves to be read over more than once. In regards to criticism, there are a few stories which need a bit more information and end a bit too early. My attention was captured and my curiosity aroused, but the endings were sometimes less than satisfying. I also feel that When Disconnected relies too heavily on adjectives. At points, adjectives can create dazzling images for the reader, but when used excessively they can leave the reader lost. I found myself somewhat lost in Left for Dust and Startorn, which I will discuss later. The amount of descriptive writing had me rereading frequently, while Shaded and Mingle seemed to have a balance between description, dialogue, and action.
Because When Disconneted is a collection of eight separate stories, my review will now focus on each story individually. Because of the ambiguity of short stories, they are liable to have multiple interpretations. The following are my personal interpretations of Vann's work and what they mean.
The first story in Vann's collection is Emotive. Emotive features our main character Johan who is fighting with the emotion of fear. The story is set in a dark room surrounded by mirrors where Johan is joined by three other characters who represent the feelings of hate, envy, and pain. Although they are all in the same room, each character seems to focus on his or her own personal emotion, introducing the feeling of disconnect which the stories are named after. Vann hooked me into the story by the line "But then, fear paid well." This is where the science fiction kicks in and throughout the story I am wondering, "Why are these emotions being paid for?" "Who is paying them?" "Who is watching them?" it becomes a compelling story of dark science fiction which becomes even more interesting when a fifth character is introduced. Unfortunately, I feel that this story could have used five or more pages. A lot of my questions were left unanswered and not in a satisfying way. Just a little more information and I feel that this would have been a most intriguing and stimulating story.
The next story in this series of science fiction is Shill and Shadows which involves a young girl who loses her cat in a forbidden forest. There, she encounters a being that is both tantalizingly beautiful and dreadfully fearful. Here, the forest represents our form of disconnect from the real world and, in my opinion, the young girl explores both the fear and dread and the beauty and peace which can come with death. In this specific story, the use of a plethora of adjectives was actually successful. The stream of adjectives creates a lullaby effect which matches the storyline as the young girl falls into a trance. I felt, as the reader, that I was falling under a similar spell and yet still experienced the beautiful imagery which Vann writes with so well. This was one of my favorites, but I did feel that the beginning paragraphs about the cat were a bit too long and could be shortened to expedite the beginning of the actual story.
Left for Dust, a story which definitely paints a world of science fiction, is set in a land which has been ravaged by the sun leaving it to be a hostile environment for human life. Our heroine, Harren, has disconnected herself from her community in search of a life that has something more to offer. During her trek through the desert, Harren faces her own individuality and questions why she cannot conform to the same mentality held by others in her community. She also faces her own fear (a common theme in all eight stories) as she faces the dangers which confront her on her journey. At first, this story seems to have a predictable plot: girl fights through formidable desert to reach mythical oasis, but Vann puts in a little twist at the end which leaves the reader something to chew on. Unlike Emotive I feel Left for Dust has a clearer beginning, middle, and end and I did not need the story to continue to feel that it was complete. I did occasionally get a little lost while reading Left for Dust because the majority of the story only contains one character it is sometimes difficult to hold the reader's attention without dialogue or interaction with other characters, and I did find that the obstacles faced by Harrren were so similar in nature that the middle of the story was not as fresh as the beginning or ending.
Shaded is a new creative look at death and the grieving process and how the death of a child can both disconnect and bring a couple back together. Both haunting and touching, the couple deal with the shadow of their son and its inability to convey the soul of their once living child. Shaded addresses the hardship of letting go and how holding on for too long can give some short term relief, but only causes more harm in the long run. The only criticism I have is that Vann tells the reader exactly what the shade represents. I feel the story speaks for itself, and she should have allowed the reader to come to his or her own conclusion.
The fifth book in this series of eight is Affinities. It was my least favorite of the eight. It left me the most confused, did not hold my attention, and was somewhat unmemorable. The story features two brothers in a sort of failed coming of age story, which is interesting since most coming of age stories do not end in failure. The older brother, Jalin, takes his younger brother, Kainen, into a storm trying to get him to feel something. What that something is, I am uncertain. In this world, do these people have some connection to storms, or did Jalin just want his little brother to feel strength and power? Either way, Kainen shows his disconnect, by feeling only his inadequacy in comparison with his brother. The story explores how we can feel worthlessness and isolation solely because we are unlike everyone else. This story is very similar in theme to Mingle, but is different in the fact that the character in Mingle finds some place where he fits in while Kainen, although loved by his family, is still left in his isolation. In addition, there is some sort of science fiction aspect to this story, but it is left entirely unexplained. I cannot tell you who these people are, what planet they are from, or what their connection is to these storms. At one point, the storm is personified as Jalin says, "They are angry." I would have liked to know more about who "they" are and about this test which Kainen fails. A few more pages in this story might have made it a bit more comprehensible.
Timely Journey involves a group of unrelated people going to unrelated places who come together on a train. Unbeknownst to them, one passenger has a sinister plan which will affect all on board. This is a story about defying age, and although it has been done before, I feel it was original enough to keep my attention and at the end of the day, I enjoyed the story. Problems that I did have with it: the characters figure out too quickly who the culprit is. If it were me, I would not have jumped to a conclusion so quickly. The characters seem to be from this world and the old lady (the culprit) seems to be from another. To think that she was able to lock all the train doors and change the speed and destination of the train without leaving her seat would take some convincing. There is also a conversation between Jill (one of the passengers) and the old lady. It is quite short and I feel an opportunity was missed to explain what Jill was feeling about what was happening (some people would have been delighted. Why was she horrified?). I also would have liked to know what the old lady's motivation was and where she came from. With this left out, the story ends a bit too fast and leaves me wanting a bit more from an otherwise interesting story.
How would I describe the work Mingle? Simply adorable. Although this story does follow the theme of disconnect, it seems to have the least science fiction of the eight. Nevertheless, I found it undeniably charming and touching. With its comical ending, I found myself laughing at this captivating child who just does not seem to fit in. Mingle is told from the view point of a teacher, Miss Grail, and discusses her concern for one of her students, Tony, who is constantly picked on. Much like Harren in Left for Dust, Tony is disconnected from the rest of the children because he is different. He is different both in his appearance and his mentality. Yet, what makes this character intriguing is his indifference to the fact that he is unusual. As Miss Grail delves into the life of Tony and his father, she comes to find a family which is just peculiar and a bit misunderstood. Mingle is refreshingly ordinary showing an unstated friendship between a teacher and her student and her wish to let him just fit in, even if the end result is unexpected.
I went back and forth on whether or not I enjoyed Startorn. The story follows Treela who lives in a village where a star-like object crashes near her home. Treela, through her curiosity, is abducted by the star where she feels fear of being disconnected from her family, but also experiences a connection when she must soothe the fears of another abductee. This story explores the fear of the unknown, the uncontrollable, and the future since Treela's future is left ambiguous by the end of the story. Again, it is sometimes difficult to keep the attention of the reader when only one character is really involved in the story since the author must depend on descriptive language to push the story forward, but the addition of the second abductee regained my interest, and I was overall satisfied with the story; although, it was not my favorite.
Vann's ideas are truly creative, and unique. Her writing style is both beautiful and eerily thought provoking in its themes. Is there room for improvement? Yes, but I feel Vann's goal written in her forward was achieved. "I hope, those of you on the periphery especially, will find something in here to make you think." This she achieved.
******
When Disconnected
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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PresqueVu
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I would like to sincerely thank you for this review. It's brilliant to get such an honest, in-depth summary and I agree with you on several points. The sad thing about Emotive is there was a second part to the story, but was unfortuneately lost in a hard disc crash and I was unable to pick up the story again.
I'll certainly be working on the points you've mentioned, you've given me a lot to think about and work on. I think we always have new things to learn, and others to improve on and I'm pleased you enjoyed the book overall. My first novel, a sci-fi book called Tacenda will be available later this year.
Thank you again
I'll certainly be working on the points you've mentioned, you've given me a lot to think about and work on. I think we always have new things to learn, and others to improve on and I'm pleased you enjoyed the book overall. My first novel, a sci-fi book called Tacenda will be available later this year.
Thank you again
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Rachaelamb1
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Very detailed review. I enjoyed reading what the individual stories were about. They sound very creative!
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Michelle-lit
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I'm very happy my review was of some help to you, and I will definitely be reading Tacenda once it is available. Keep writing!PresqueVu wrote:I would like to sincerely thank you for this review. It's brilliant to get such an honest, in-depth summary and I agree with you on several points. The sad thing about Emotive is there was a second part to the story, but was unfortuneately lost in a hard disc crash and I was unable to pick up the story again.
I'll certainly be working on the points you've mentioned, you've given me a lot to think about and work on. I think we always have new things to learn, and others to improve on and I'm pleased you enjoyed the book overall. My first novel, a sci-fi book called Tacenda will be available later this year.
Thank you again
-- 12 May 2015, 03:06 --
Thank youRachaelamb1 wrote:Very detailed review. I enjoyed reading what the individual stories were about. They sound very creative!
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ananya92
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Wow! This sure is quite a detailed and well written review. The stories seem thought provoking in a certain way.
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debo9967
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The review is indeed very well detailed and the stories quite different and emotional. Great review!
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Kappy
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Good review. It sounds like the author has been heavily influenced by Ray Bradbury.
Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds
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Michelle-lit
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Thank you. And yes, the stories do make you think. The author really had some great ideas; I look forward to reading her next book.ananya92 wrote:Wow! This sure is quite a detailed and well written review. The stories seem thought provoking in a certain way.
Latest Review: "Take Her" by Midnight Taylor
