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Review #4337489
Viewing a review of:
 The Hunt  [18+]
A contest entry for "Screams" January 2017
by Chris Breva
Review of The Hunt  
Review by Tobber
In affiliation with Fantasy and Science Fiction So...  
Rated: 18+ | (3.5)
Access:  Public | Hide Review (?)
Hey, Chris Beva, I am reviewing your story as part of the FSFS review process.

General impression
A nice story with good plot progression and an original premise. The setting descriptions; dialogue; and, in some places, the sentence level writing could be tweaked a bit though.


Idea/Premise
I liked the basic premise of the story. It would have been great to know more about the old woman, who she was and how come people get what they deserve if they visit her. But I guess that is always the case with flash fiction (and longer stories too, perhaps). If they have great I ideas we want them explored even further.


Characters
"Jimmy knew he had never told her his name and he was certain she'd never seen him before." - How can he be certain of that? He be sure he has never seen her but not the other way around.

"The door behind him abruptly closed." - It seems strange that he does not react to this, and generally we do not get much of Jimmy's emotions in the ending paragraph despite what is happening to him.


Plot
There was good plot progression. You had try-fail cycles by letting Jimmy go to different rooms and finding nothing, and there was no unnecessary dabbling in things not related to the story.


Setting
Even though it is a very short story, it could use a bit more setting description. We know we are in an old woman's home, but other than that we really do not get a sense of what it looks and feels like in there.


Writing Style
"The young man was desperate. He had heard that the old woman had drugs in this place and he needed some badly." - Saying he was desperate and that he needed the drugs badly tells us the same thing basic thing about the protagonist, and since mentioning him as "the young man" does not give us much info about him either, I would recommend scratching the first sentence.

"Now he was really mad!" - Even though it is a short story and not a novel, the old advice of show-don't-tell still holds true some times, and character emotions seems like the must important thing to "show". Otherwise we do not really feel with the character.
"Jimmy was really getting upset now." - Same thing here.

You use the exclamation marks a bit much. This can be a problem because it tends to undermine the few times when they are actually necessary. Besides, the words themselves should usually be enough to emphasis how they are spoken.

"How did the old lady know his name? Jimmy knew he had never told her his name..." - The second "his name" reads a bit jarring and could easily be removed.

"Perhaps she knew him from the neighborhood. After all they lived in the same part of town. Yes, that had to be it! Jimmy searched all through the kitchen cabinets. "You're nowhere near what you have coming," the old lady said."
- Here the narrative shifts quite abruptly from Jimmy thinking about he she knows his name to a description of him searching the kitchen to the old lady speaking. I would recommend splitting it up or making it more coherent.


Dialogue
"Enough of the games old woman," he said. "I know you have drugs here and I want some. If you don't give them to me I'll steal your whole stash when I find them." - The dialogue here feels a bit flat. First of, the "old woman" does not sound like a part of natural dialogue to me. Secondly, the dialogue does not bring new info since we already know he is looking for her stash. And finally, there is not much conflict in the dialogue, because the old woman does not seem to care that he is looking for her stash, and his threat is not really much of a threat (either he steals her stash or he steals her stash. That does not sound like a desperate drug addict to me).

"Go figure," he said to himself, "the old broad is pushing eighty and she's a drug dealer!" - It might a purely personal thing, but I have always found it weird when characters speaks to themselves in this way. Why not just have it as part of an inner monologue?

""Well then why don't you help me you old witch," he replied, "and tell me where you hid it."" - This is good dialogue, more aggressive and in line with what I would expect from someone in Jimmy's situation. The dialogue tag is unnecessary though, as we know who is speaking.
""Oh no," she responded." - Same thing goes for the tag here.


Minor mistakes
"Why she was old enough to be his grandmother's grandmother!" - Comma after "Why".
"Why the very thought disgusted him." - Same thing here.
I would recommend dropping the Whys though, since they sound like formal British instead, which is not what you would expect from a drug addict.

"How dare her believe he would want anything to do with her." - "How dared she..."

"Jimmy knew he had never told her his name and he was certain she'd never seen him before." - Comma before "and".
There are a few more places where you two independent clauses separated by coordinate conjunctions but missed the comma. Though, usually in the dialogue, so I did not point them out specifically.

""Finally," Jimmy thought. "If I'm getting hot the dope must be in this room."" - If he is thinking it, then drop the quotation marks since they denote spoken words. Also, comma after "hot".


Conclusions
- Good pacing and plot progression.
- Dialogue could be tweaked a bit.
- Lacking in setting description.
- A good premise.


This is of course just the opinion of one person who is by no means an expert. I hope the critique did not seem harsh since this was in no way intended. It was only meant as a help to further improve your writing, and you can, of course, always discard any comments you do not find helpful.
If you have any questions regarding my comment, then please do not hesitate to ask *Smile*


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
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