GoodReads: Best Short Stories 2019
The Collected works of
Beatrice Williams, Catherine Habbie, Simon Bradley, Sandra Black, Alexis Harding, Jason Branson, Anna Halabi, Bernard Smith, Bruce Hanslow, Oliver Baer, Aiman Sabir, and Candace Lott
2020
Reviewed by Angie Mangino
Rating: 4 stars

Entries into their “500 words and more” annual competition in 2019 make up this assembly of short stories from the “New Authors” group at GoodReads. In it are a variety of tales that fluctuate from horror to holidays to comedy, offering something to everyone’s preferred taste.

The top three prize winning stories begin the collection with first place Beatrice Williams’ “The Monster Baby” drawing readers in with a crying baby on a train.

“The shrill loud pitched wail wafted through the entire coach and filled each compartment. In those few seconds people revisited their personal hell.”

“The Mighty Wurlitzer” by Catherine Habbie, second prize winner, tells the story of David O’Toole and a pipe organ from “an era gone by.”

“David O’Toole watched the eyes of the visitors, show emotions ranging from morbid curiosity, to that of sheer terror in a matter of seconds. He prided himself on having procured it in under 5 minutes of entry to the museum.”

Third prize winner Simon Bradley in “The Forgotten Soldier” shares a Halloween experience centered around a statue of the forgotten soldier in the village town square.

“People often wondered if they had imagined it all; the night that changed the face of the village from a dreary idyll, to what it is now, a bustling place with pizzazz.”

Readers will find that the remaining fourteen stories round out this assortment keeping them mystified or laughing, depending on the author’s method in the writing. The creative approach to the story topics will keep readers involved, happy to have taken the time to indulge in each one. Together they make for an interesting total read.
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