This is a collection of short stories about love, loss, grief, and moving on, in a variety of forms.
"Spirit Song" is about an elderly woman playing her lute for dying residents in the...hospice?..old age home?...where she lives herself. (My uncertainty is due to having listened to the audio, not read the print edition, where I could more easily have checked little details.) She knows when a person is dying, and insists on "playing them out" even when the nurses are worried she's overexerting herself. And she wonders, what is really on the other side? It's a really sweet story.
"Goodbye Forever" features an abused wife, with her young son, trying to escape her abusive husband. Her timing is just a little off, and what should have been calmly driving away and disappearing from his life turns into a truly scary car chase through the New Forest. It's an entirely different sort of confrontation with death than in "Spirit Song," giving the first hint of the range of ways this collection addresses its unifying themes.
"Catalyst" is the darkest story here, with Seth waking up to find himself in a frightening and confusing situation. As he works out where he is and why, things get darker and more terrible, as he searches for the way out of the trap.
"A Cat-Shaped Hole" is a sweet story of a cat who makes someone's day brighter, while "Not Just For Christmas" is a story of a family grieving their departed dog deciding it's time to welcome a new dog into their family. Both brightened my day.
"A Mermaid's Tail" is a sad yet lovely story of a little girl losing her mother, and finding a way to cope with grief.
Most of these stories involve an element of the paranormal, and they range from grim to joyful.
I really liked this collection, and the narrator does a good job of reading it.
I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author via Rachel's Random Resources.
Thanks for taking part in the blog tour. I'm glad you enjoyed the collection.
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