Review – What Was Never There by Elizabeth Maria Naranjo
Synopsis
A mother and daughter lost in the woods must overcome their worst fears to find their way back. A father going through a divorce witnesses a seemingly impossible motorcycle accident, which forces him to question the truth of his own perceptions. A little boy with a terrible secret routinely steals away at night to meet a girl beneath a willow tree—only to discover she has a secret of her own.
What Was Never There is a collection of short stories with the common theme of memory, or rather, the way memory haunts us.
Includes Pushcart Prize nominated stories “We Never Get to Talk Anymore” and “The Dinosaur Graveyard” and the award-winning “Windows,” selected for Best Microfiction 2023.
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Review
This collection of short stories varies in length, topic, and intensity. Each story took me to a new world, and some made me even wonder if we really knew the truth about the circumstances or if there was more to the story.
I enjoyed each story. I didn’t find a theme that tied them all together, and that is ok. There didn’t have to be a common thread tying these stories together. However, many stories dealt with family, loss, love, and forgiveness. Despite the length of the stories, I felt that most of them had a satisfying ending. The really short ones did leave me wanting more.
These stories are filled with wonder, too. There was really nothing off the table for this author. I really enjoyed how she wrote her stories to engage the reader (ok, me!), and this is an author that I wouldn’t mind reading more from in the future.
We give this book 4 paws up.
About the Author
Elizabeth Maria Naranjo is the author of The Fourth Wall and The House on Linden Way. She lives in Tempe, Arizona, with her husband and two children.
Elizabeth’s short stories and creative nonfiction have been published in Brevity Magazine, Superstition Review, Fractured Lit, Hunger Mountain, The Portland Review, Hospital Drive, Literary Mama, Motherwell, Reservoir Road, and a few other places. Her work has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize, Best American Essay, and Best of the Net.
