BlindingLoud.com

Looking at my “To Read” pile is like looking at a heap of snow in a shopping center parking lot somewhere in South Jersey these days. It’s an awe inspiring feat to pick out one thing worth reading, and then to go on and finish reading a book without wanting to start something else is a different exercise in patience all together. With a blurb from Stephen Graham Jones saying, “These stories change you,” it was rather difficult to ignore the small collection of short stories Caleb J. Ross has put together from various releases throughout the world wide web’s various homes for fiction. But with the length, the blurb, and the fact that Caleb J. Ross is such a cool dude, Charactered Pieces could no longer go ignored.

What was found inside were eight short stories about eight very different, very real people suffering through their lives just like anyone else. The fact that these stories stem from actual events in the author’s life is certain, both in that he says so at the end of the collection, but ultimately because the writing, the dialogue, and the plots sit in front of you and tell themselves without batting an eye. The blunt and realistic nature of these stories doesn’t try to knock you over either with some crazy plot twist or surprise attempting to cause wet underpants. They are what they are, whether they have an extra appendage from a twin sibling gone wrong or are drinking the blood of a camel, and they don’t try to apologize for themselves. These people have accepted who they are and here’s their story.

The stories don’t change you because they cause you to rethink how you’re living in some great respect. You’re not forced on with issues that want you to decide whether or not to have an abortion, or pick a side when it comes to same sex marriage. They don’t beat down your door demanding that you give all of your belongings to charity. You’re presented with life and the ability to deal with what you’re dealt. Now put down what you’re doing, read, and start to live. Really live. Because if these people can, so can you, we all have Charactered Pieces in us.

Release Date: November 16th, 2009
Order: HERE
Official Website: HERE

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