Short story review: Found Wanting (2020) by Douglas Stuart.

Welcome to my blog everyone. If you are new, I hope you enjoy reading my blog posts. If you have returned then I thank you. Today I am delving into Douglas Stuart's short story ‘Found Wanting’ from 2020. Douglas Stuart is my author of the month and this is his first piece of work. I will say that after I had read this I was left a little confused. I did not expect what happened to actually happen. I guess I found it odd. Not bad. No, I liked it.

The story takes place in 1990s Scotland, namely Glasgow and is told from the perspective of this seventeen-year-old. He is secretly gay because being gay was not widely accepted. As it was people within the LGBTQIA+ community were treated differently in the 1990s. This is unsurprising following the HIV/AIDs pandemic of the 1980s. What I liked about this story was the narrators quest to find someone like him. The narrator is innocent and has to make do with what he can. I notice how Doulas Stuart set up the story to give readers the opportunity to pity the narrator. This I think made him come across as likeable and as innocent as he is.

Something else that I liked about this short story was how I kept getting questions which were unanswered. I kept wanting to know what was happening and therefore continued to read until I got to the end. I could not stop! That for me is a sign you are reading a good short story. That is not to say it is the only sign! Regardless, this short story was nice and I am giving it an 8/10.


Until next time,


Thomas.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fictional book review: Cat's Eye (1988) by Margaret Atwood.

Image
It's me again... Your favourite book reviewer back with another Margaret Atwood book to review. This time I thought I would tuck into Atwood's 1988 novel Cat's Eye . This novel is gripped with spectral memories of the narrator's past, it is a bildungsroman. A bildungsroman is just a novel that goes through a character's life, from being a child, to growing up as a young person to becoming an adult. Great Expectations  (1861) by Charles Dickens is another example. Anyway, the narrator, Elaine is haunted by Cordelia who I will not give too much about her away. This novel threw me, many times. We had Elaine and her various friends. First we were introduced to Carol, then Grace and finally Cordelia. But it is Cordelia, who's presence is felt throughout the novel. The thing is, I cannot understand why. Without giving too much away, Cordelia was hardly being nice to Elaine and I just expected that as Elaine grew up that she would move on; that she would not have Corde...
Read more

Fictional book review: The Handmaid's Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood.

Image
Hello all, I wanted to post a review of the first ever Atwood text I read: The Handmaid's Tale  (1985). I fell that this novel is very significant at the moment, considering events that are occurring in the USA. This novel challenged ideas namely about sex and the differences between both man and woman. I noticed this the first time I read this at college for my English literature A-Level. That was necessary but I since read it again for pleasure. Considering all that has happened in the past years , especially in the U.S.A, I can understand why they made a T.V series of this book. I have not seen that yet as I am struggling to find it on any service except Amazon. Considering Amazon's support for Israel and the thought of a extremely rich man, getting even richer because of me, I decided I was not that  desperate. But this is not a blog about social politics, you want my authentic and honest book review. It was the vivid descriptions that made this book stand out to me. Right...
Read more

Rain - a poem I wrote.

Hello and welcome back to my blog people. Today I wanted to give you something different. Quite a while ago I wrote a poem entitled 'Rain'. Well, I recently came across it and decided that it was a joy to read! I felt it needed to be shared with people. Therefore, I am giving you my poem 'Rain' to read. Enjoy! Rain The patters tap the window at night The watery splatters awake me from my sleep The clatter outside from the rattling rubbish BASHING against the big metal bins drags me out of bed and over to the window. Pitter-patter! Pitter-patter! The SHATTER of a glass bottle dropped by a drunk man drinking on the bench scares the black cat lurking besides so it scatters away. Pitter-patter! Pitter-patter! By Thomas - me! I hope you liked my poem people. It was only a short one, though I initially wrote it at around about half three in the morning when I was woken up. I could not get back to sleep and I find writing poetry to be therapeutic. Until next time, Thomas. 
Read more