Review of "Yellow Eyes," short story by Sayuri Yamada

Review:

**May contain spoilers**

This story is... odd.  Since there's no summary provided I will briefly recap.  It's from the viewpoint of a man suffering from depression.  His son died and the death caused him and his wife to drift apart.  Most of the story takes place during what appears to be some sort of party/convention for people with unusual eyes.  So the story switched back and forth between him talking to people at the party and flashbacks of the past.

It's odd for several reasons.  The first is the author's choice of second person tense.  Instead of saying "he did this" or "he did that" it was "you did this" or "you did that."  Personally, I found this made the story harder to get into.  Instead of the story coming across as me getting to know the characters as I would a friend it was it became "psychological."  The end result was that I felt more detached from the story than I probably would have had it been written in the third person.  The main character is a man leading a lifestyle totally different from mine.  As a woman, I found myself relating to very little of what was written.  I would have done none of that.

The next big thing for me was the ending.  Up until the last few paragraphs the story had a nice, albeit strange, flow to it.  Then the "twist" happens.  The entire story is all in the main character's head, including the party.  His pregnant wife died, the son was never born.  The implication is that it made the main character go insane?  I'm not really sure.  It's a little vague.

Honestly, I'm not really sure what to think about this story.  It was interesting, well-written and definitely made me think.  I think it was just a little too trippy for my taste, however I could definitely see this author forming a following for her work.

4/5 stars
Reviewed by Alain Gomez

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