Apple by Gill McKnight

I wasn’t sure what I’d be getting myself into by entering this story here. I kind of expected to dislike it.  That I was setting myself up for two ‘bad’ reads in a row.  So why’d I enter it?  Well, one – there’s a ton of people out there that like/love this author’s work (even if I hadn’t before now), and two, I like giving authors a lot of chances before just cutting them off. And this was a short story – free at that (there are 14 free short stories on the Dirt Road Books website).

I had a vague idea that this would be a fairy tale retelling and or that there would at least be a Snow White character and a huntsmen character (and that the huntsmen would be ’different’ than normal).  Otherwise, I didn’t know what the story would be about.

So, I plunged in.  To find Snow White, Snowie, talking to someone named ‘Red Cap’ (yeah, stupid me, took me forever to realize who that was, and for too long moment thought maybe Red Cap was a bird, since there were some Black Caps that turned up that were, in fact, birds (ETA: the animals, including the birds, had the ability to talk in this story, which I failed to mention when I initially released this review) – I won’t mention who the character is modeled on, there’s a tendency to play with names in this story, so I’ll leave it as something for the reader to find out (though they might know immediately just from ‘Red Cap’, but, meh). 

Where was I? Right.  Story opens with Snowie holding an apple while talking with Red Cap.  Red Cap is quite paranoid and believes Snowie shouldn’t eat the apple.  A bite is taken, Snowie falls to the floor, and the action is commenced – Red Cap must find help!  And the story unfolds from there.

There is one and only one POV in the story – Red Cap.  The story was quite interesting, and unexpectedly erotic.  Fun story.

So, my reading of this author has gone from: 1st story: DNF; 2nd story: barely 3 stars; 3rd story: 4.75 stars – I assume if I continue on this trajectory, I’ll read something that will get placed on my six star shelf despite that being closed to solo reads (only rereads can get there).

My first story from a publisher I didn’t really realize existed (I didn’t know they existed, but I’ve seen one of their two (or is it three?) novels that they’ve released – I’ve just not read it). 

Rating: 4.80
(yes, I overrated based on the fluffiness, and the erotic nature of the story *shrugs*)

March 25 2018