Review - Death By Scrabble

Death By Scrabble
by Charlie Fish
Date: 2006
Publisher: East of the Web
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 4
Format: e-book
Source: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/

A game of Scrabble has serious consequences.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Hmm... okay. That was short and strange. I'm not sure whether to feel Schadenfreude, or whether I should be very, very concerned about the author's real-life marriage.

For what it is, this story is okay. I didn't much like the narrator. If he hates his wife so much, why doesn't he just leave? Why does he have to sit there willing her dead? There's not much reason given for his hatred, except that she sleeps well and makes tea when it's hot out... which are not exactly hangable offences.

The writing is okay for the most part, though it gets a little weird right toward the end with the first-person narration telling us something that the narrator wouldn't be able to see himself unless he were looking in a mirror. Other than that little slip-up, there aren't many other problems.

I felt uneasiness more than enjoyment for most of this... so I kind of hoped it would end the way it eventually did.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 4/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.14 out of 5 ladybugs