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Connection by G.S. Wiley

 

Blurb:
Healing takes a long time after Bryan loses Max to a freak car accident. Bryan’s one connection to Max is via text message, and he sends long letters to Max’s disconnected number, the way he never did when Max was alive.

Then even that connection is lost when Max’s phone number is assigned to Sarah, a single mom with a habit of losing her phones. It’s Christmas, Bryan is alone, and he can’t even text Max to tell Max how he feels. Maybe it’s Christmas magic, or maybe it’s one last present from Max, but Bryan finds a human connection to help him start over, in the most unexpected way.

Review:

G.S. Wiley is offering a “Good Karma Giveaway” for the month of January; just head over to her site HERE for more details. As part of that, I received her short story “Connection”. It’s very short, 15 pages, but the blurb sounded sweet and a little angst, which a little angst done right is always good to read. I sent my email with my good deed (which just about killed me!) and her short story honestly made the stress and horror that I went through worth it.

Bryan met Max on his first day of university and they were inseparable from that day on. Imagine meeting your soul mate within the space of an hour and never wanting to leave them. Then imagine the void that’s left when that person suddenly and unexpectedly is killed. Bryan is struggling with that emptiness in his life which was once filled by Max. The usual outlets don’t seem to help, support groups, counselor, and he’s slowly losing interest in his world and the things around him.

Bryan is lost in his grief one night when he picks up his phone and texts Max’s old number, offering a long rambling letter filled with things he needs to say. It’s a link to Max and one Bryan clings to right now. Bryan slowly begins to come out of his grief as he texts to Max, lost letters into the nether that are filled with daily tidbits and emotion. However, months and months later, on Christmas Eve his text to Max is returned with a message that someone else now has that number, a woman named Sarah.

This is a story filled with sweet, bitter emotion and the pain of recovering from losing someone so integral to your life; you struggle to live without them. It’s about connecting to another person when you need it most and how that seemingly random connection can help shape your future. The characters are just given life, Bryan was the central character so his grief and emotion had more depth but Sarah and Joel are subtle, intriguing characters given just enough that they’re more than simple place makers. This story had the potential to be longer and develop the characters, the situation more fully and I’m slightly disappointed it was shortened to the size it was. However, it was a heartfelt, emotional read that showed how a great author can convey, even in a short piece, one man’s pain in losing his partner and how he moves on.

Pick up CONNECTION, it wont disappoint.

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