ON THE EDGE OF A RAINDROP by Sarah Brentyn @SarahBrentyn

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book:  I noticed it was on free promotion, via a tweet.

Genre: Flash and micro fiction, psychological

This collection of pieces was a good choice to read when I woke up today; just right for an hour in bed on Sunday morning.

From the blurb:

These are stories of lives on the edge.

A girl tortured by the world within her. A boy powerless to escape his home. A mother doomed to live with her greatest mistake. A man lost in a maze of grief.

Each raindrop provides a microscopic mirror of ourselves and those around us. But we can’t always trust what we see. The distorted images disorientate the mind, altering our view of reality.

(Please note: I had to change 'disorient' to 'disorientate', because I am English!)

I think I liked the first section, Mindscapes, the best; there are some beautiful and haunting snapshots of subjects' lives, perfectly written and evocative. The metaphors used are well chosen, without over-playing them.  All pieces are on the dark side, which I like. 

As with all collections I had my favourites, but I liked all of them.  Sometimes, I could see a whole life in a paragraph, so insightful and artfully captured are they. I think the collection would be enjoyed by anyone who likes to read poetry, or just admires the well drawn sentence.  It's the first I've read of Sarah Brentyn, and I'd most definitely recommend.  99p or available on Kindle Unlimited.