I saw a review of this story on IG, looked at the author’s account, and followed for future reference. Just look at that cover! How could I not be drawn in? Later that evening, I received a follow notification and a message from the author. Since I’d already earmarked it to be read, it’s short, and it’s available on KU, I moved it up the list and got to reading.

I was immediately impressed by the writing. It is refined and polished without being too flowery. It begins with the narrator talking about how he sees Death everywhere. Not the concept of death, but a physical manifestation of Death. The cover artist did a fantastic job of capturing Death’s visage. It began with the death of one family member and progressed through the deaths of everyone close to him until he was left alone. Death is his constant companion. I feel like the story itself takes a back seat to the description of our narrator’s depression and grief and it works. It illustrates how our lives can sometimes come secondary to our grieving process, especially when the hits just keep coming and you never really get a chance to recover. The ending is not a surprise, but it is fitting. A natural progression. This story is very short, so I don’t want to give away everything, but I will say that there is a lot of emotion packed into those 13 pages. Read it if you want to feel anxious and sad for half an hour. I’m glad I did and I look forward to reading more of Lawler’s work, should he continue writing. And he should.