The Unexpected New Best Friend by A.E. Radley

The Unexpected New Best Friend by A.E. Radley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A story starring Caroline who has, against her desires, become a part of the UK parcel delivery chain. Due to the new trend involving the drivers leaving parcels with neighbors instead . . . doing something else. I mostly included that parcel chain part so I could note that the story takes place in the UK.

Story opens with Caroline cooking a meal. Seven hours ago she accepted a parcel for a neighbor, and has waited those seven hours for an 'Alex Carlisle' to turn up for the parcel.

For reasons that escape my ability to comprehend, Caroline expected a man to be this 'Alex'. Is Alex a more genderfluid name in the USA than in the UK? I'd have had no expectations if I saw a name like 'Alex' on the label.

Right, got distracted. The story is about a woman battling delivery drivers who decide to leave random packages with her, thereby forcing her to interact with strangers. Or something like that.

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I sometimes wonder if people understand the concept of what a short story consists of. On the other hand, I'm not sure if this was actually called a short story. Maybe it was called 'some scenes that end abruptly right before the story was about to begin in earnest'. That's what this work was - some scenes that ended abruptly. Right before the story seemed to be about to begin.

What's a short story, eh? Well that'd be something with a beginning, middle, and end. With . . . stuff in there like plot, characters, etc. It's just like a novel, just shorter. 'Scenes' and or 'story excerpts', which this story might have been called (I did not look to see what exactly I was being offered before I began to read), can just be that - scenes, excerpts.

I am, of course, coming at this story in a certain direction - that the goal was to get two people together. Everything I wrote has that in mind. But if the story was supposed to be some humorous slice of life type thing . . . *thinks* there are still a few things missing here or there to be a full short story, but it's a lot closer to being one if we call it a slice of life story.

I'm being overally critical, I know. Unfair of me. It's just that I see this way to often now-a-days - story excerpts being offered up as short stories. I grew up reading short stories, science fiction, mystery, etc. etc. - so I became used to what exactly a short story consists of, at least in the olden days of yore. I've no idea what I'm talking about. Let's just move on.

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Long and short - this was a cute-ish story about a woman of undeterminable looks, age, etc., who works from home. Is constantly bothered by delivery people, and constantly attempting to make meals when the neighbors come by for their parcels. The story is solo POV. The woman is quite hopeless with small talk, and because of that has no real outside connections (as far as the reader can tell).

There are two other characters in this story. A delivery driver who has a few lines; and that Alex person I'd mentioned before. The neighbor. Who is very talkative. And dresses funnily (there's reasons).

So, a three person story. That is short. That has a bit of humor in it, and that is located somewhere within the 'UK' (I assume the UK mentioned in the story is the United Kingdom, instead of, say, the University of Kansas delivery system). I mention because there are no detail to the setting - location wise. Vague idea of a dwelling that an author leaves in. Some wet weather, and the idea that there must be other houses nearby since the main character kept getting parcels for those individuals. I didn't want to have to create a UK shelf, but, alas . . ..

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Interesting enough story.

RAting: 3.3

June 3 2018



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