Reviews of 3 of K.C. Silkwood’s Short Stories
Naked at Work
Swing and a miss. 1 star.
The reason why I stuck with the ENF stories is because I like to see people use their wit and intelligence to get out of or get through situations. Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of those stories; this wasn’t even comical shenanigans. Though the reality show concept was interesting, the entire situation from beginning to end was one long sexual assault. It was cruel, and cruelty is not something that I am looking for.
Naked at Work 2
Much better than its predecessor. 3 stars.
This story is a sequel in that it uses the same reality show and producer; otherwise the setting, circumstances, and outcomes are completely different. It feels more realistic, especially because there are naked reality shows already (Naked and Afraid, Dating Naked, etc) and because there’s actual interpersonal conflict outside of the leering and jeering that was in the first one.
There is also racism in this story, which is part of the interpersonal conflict - Puerto Rican vs Mexican, however, which is something that I personally haven’t seen in books and movies, but have read academic papers about. There is also a character who is a lesbian, and the writing appears to be taking a male character and doing a gender swap but keeping all the characteristics the same.
Not the worst I’ve read, but also not the best. Middle of the road. 3 stars.
Naked at Church
This book reminds me of the adage “there’s no hate like Christian love.”
When I purchased this book, I was hoping for a continuation of the Naked at Work series; at least a spiritual continuation, if not an actual continuation. However, what we got was the misadventure of someone who was trying to fit in at her local church and was so overwhelmed by the cruelty of the local congregation where she ended up making one bad choice after another. The entirety of the situation that the protagonist, Ashley Greer, found herself in could have been avoided if only the congregation was kind and loving - instead, she was so focused on fitting in and appeasing a hostile community that she lived in constant fear and was unable to even consider asking for help. The one person she asked for help from proved to her that she was right to not trust the community.
The writing started to come apart towards the end of the story; the entirety of the book was from the perspective of Ashley Greer, and then suddenly we were reading from Chad Mayfield’s perspective without any sort of break to indicate the change of perspective. The same thing happened again a few pages later, when we suddenly slipped into Missy Mayfield’s perspective without any sort of transition. With a little more time and editing, I think that this would have been rectified.
Ultimately, I felt sad for Ashley Greer. She tried so hard to fit in, and was met with thinly veiled hostility until it turned into open abuse. Would I call it erotic? No. Would I call it a criticism of modern christianity? Yes.
4 stars.
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