While only eight stories, this collection was huge in content. At first it may appear that each short is separate and then you start to see the thin thread joining them together. That was half the fun of reading this, figuring out the when and where and how they all fit together.

There were a couple of stories that I read and, at first glance, considered light – until I stopped and started thinking about all the minute details that the author provided and the insight into the minds of the characters. And then I had that ‘wow’ moment, when you realize there is much more here than the first glance shows.

The author drops you into the world of Buddy with Snow, Houston, 1974 – told from a 6 year old boy. As I read the observations of the boy and then translated them through my adult experience, a whole other level appeared.

My favorite story was No One’s Trash. This is another one told by Buddy, now older with divorced parents. What presents as a Saturday with a storm, is instead layers and characters that materialized so that I felt like I was sitting in their living room watching this all play out.

When this reader was released into Hester, the world spun on its head. The idea that a tiny, no thought incident can lead to something intense was a perfect example of the butterfly effect.

The set ends with Little Deaths. And that story ends with a line that will stay with me – “knowing I had solved nothing, I had redeemed nothing; I knew it had nothing to do with me.”

These stories have nothing to do with me and yet, here I was, figuratively sitting in their living rooms and partaking in their lives.