Review - Eternity Is 20 Seconds Long

Eternity Is 20 Seconds Long
by Paul Trembling
Date: 2013
Publisher: East of the Web
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 3
Format: e-book
Source: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/

They would have the time of their lives. A long time.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I've read a few stories from East of the Web now. Some are so short that they're really more flash fiction than short story, but a few have interesting premises.

This story concerns a guy named Kev who accidentally creates a time loop and traps himself in it. I'm okay with the premise, and any longer of a work would've just seemed redundant; as it is, we have to read the guts of the "story" almost three times. The repetition is effective for showing what happened... but when you're repeating things like this, you need to make sure that you don't have any mistakes that are going to be repeated. The phrase, "Kev adjusted his position in the hammock, just enough to look round," is repeated three times, and that last word bugged me three times. It should be "around" instead of "round"... otherwise it implies that Kev's position in the hammock is somehow making him look fat.

All in all, reading this story wasn't a terrible way to spend a few minutes. But I'm probably going to forget about it fairly quickly.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing & Editing: 2/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.43 out of 5 ladybugs