The Unfinished World and Other Stories, by Amber Sparks

Amber Sparks

The Unfinished World and Other Stories

Janitor in Space - B

The Lizzie Borden Jazz Babies - C

The Cemetery for Lost Faces - A+

The Logic of the Loaded Heart - C

Thirteen Ways of Destroying a Painting - C

Lancelot in the Lost Places of the World - D

And the World Was Crowded with Things That Meant Love - C

Birds with Teeth - A

For These Humans Who Cannot Fly - B

Take Your Daughter to the Slaughter - D-

We Were Holy Once - A

La Belle de Nuit, La Belle de Jour - B+

The Men and Women Like Him - C

Things You Should Know About Cassandra Dee - D-

The Fires of Western Heaven - C

The Process of Human Decay - D

The Fever Librarian - C

The Unfinished World - A

The Sleepers - B

“We Were Holy Once” (A)

An interesting read, this story is told in first person point of view by an unnamed member of a murderous family of con-artists and “actors.” This story pulled me in immediately with the first sentence, “We Benders got headaches in our blood, the way some people got brains or beauty.” I wanted to know what the narrator meant by this sentence because it was such a unique, intriguing statement. I was reeled in by Katie Bender, the “actress” and seance conductor as her character is completely unraveled within the first two pages.

The tone and speaking style of the narrator feels extremely fluent even though the grammar is intentionally incorrect. The dialect, and the repetition of the line “How it works is this:” sets the mood; quiet, shifty, maybe even diabolical. The entire time, I felt like I was being told a giant secret that the narrator would kill me for exposing, which was a perfect way to keep my eyes glued to the pages. I also like how the tension is built by the narrator talking through, step-by-step, how they set up the murder. It makes the reader know that something is going to result in all of this setup, but it makes the reader what to see it executed.

My only issue with this story is that it is a summary, and there is no detailed scenes, dialogue between characters, and no true high event. The characters remain mostly flat, save for the purpose, the role, for each family member. It is as if the family, altogether, is one single character. This makes the story lack depth. This makes the ending of the story feel too open-ended because there were no loose ends to tie, nothing to circle back to. Otherwise, an interesting concept and the execution of tone and style are very well done.

“The Unfinished World” (A+)

This is by far the longest story in the book, set in an unremarked time period and split into two different storylines. I found myself more drawn to Set’s storyline because the fantastic and haunting imagery given throughout his part of the story sticks with me much more than Inge and Albert. Inge’s part had a calmer, more mysterious mood, which, by itself, does well, but not so much side-by-side with Set’s life.

I enjoyed the details between sections, descriptions of items on Oliver’s “Cabinet of Curiosities.” They add details and create an overall portrait of the story by using a single image, which I think is a genius way to have a story stick in the reader’s mind. By building one grand image with items that coincide with the events throughout the story.

The characters, and relationship between them all are fully realized, unlike in many other stories in this collection. The main two characters are brought to life mainly through thoughts and experiences, even though this story is in third person. Nearly every scene, there is a deep dive into either Inge’s or Set’s feelings and inner reactions. For example there is an entire section dedicated to Set’s depressive, empty state after the “bear incident” that seems to echo throughout the entire story. It is also very well done how the surrounding characters are made whole through their interactions with the main two. The dialogue does not feel as raw as natural conversation, but it is clean and poignant.

This story does seem to drag on at some points, particularly on Inge-focused sections, the ones that detail her relationship to other characters or her history. There were a few details within her parts that seemed less necessary than others. On the other hand, Set’s sections were all more capturing. This may be because it is anchored by the “Bear Story”. This may have been my only issue with this one. Otherwise, it is an overall well-developed, capturing story.

“Things You Should Know About Cassandra Dee” (D-)

This story is where Sparks’ tendency to choose summary over dialogue and detail becomes a fault. The opening, describing in gruesome detail all of Cassandra Dee’s gross imperfections in detail, interested me. I got to see every single part of Cassandra Dee, head to toe and envision her, and feel her pain. That amount of detail is a connecting element. However, after this, the story seems to be gliding over the action, summarizing important events. I could imagine some priceless dialogue between the very shady plastic surgeon and the gullible Cassandra, but because these intricacies are glossed over by summary, it is harder to see the subtext, the motivations, the clues.

We learn that the doctor is handsome, opinionated, and kind to Cassie. Beyond that, we know nothing. This makes the ending a shock, but in a bad way. The ending feels blurry. There is no feeling of satisfaction. No “I saw it coming!”, or ruffling back through the pages to see what led to this ending.

The characters, in general, feel slightly flat, and characters are the meat of a story. This is why I did not enjoy “Things You Should Know About Cassandra Dee.”

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