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Our Lives in These Empty Spaces Aside
Bitter adolescent rivals reconnect as adults. One is a teacher now, married to the girl who was the cause of their rivalry; the other has struggled with addiction and become an artist. But the distance between their past and present selves might not be as far as it appears to be.
- GenresM M Romance
ebook
First published December 22, 2014
8 people want to read
About the author
Shukyou
44 books85 followersI'm W2 (pronounced 'whit-two'), also known as ladysisyphus, shukyou, and Whitney Bishop.
You can find all my stories written as 'shukyou' at http://www.shousetsubangbang.com/mirr..., and you can find most of those same stories (without illustrations) plus some fanfic at http://archiveofourown.org/users/lady....
I'm also the editor-in-chief of http://shousetsubangbang.com/ , where we put out nine delightfully dirty issues of short stories and art a year! We're always looking for new participants, so if you're interested, check out the website.
I also do other things in my real life, hence the pseudonymity. But I promise I'm friendly!
You can find all my stories written as 'shukyou' at http://www.shousetsubangbang.com/mirr..., and you can find most of those same stories (without illustrations) plus some fanfic at http://archiveofourown.org/users/lady....
I'm also the editor-in-chief of http://shousetsubangbang.com/ , where we put out nine delightfully dirty issues of short stories and art a year! We're always looking for new participants, so if you're interested, check out the website.
I also do other things in my real life, hence the pseudonymity. But I promise I'm friendly!
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 1, 2015
My first read of the New Year and it’s a good one.
Two messed up men, who have lived different paths but are ultimately very alike. There’s a lot of talking in this rather than things happening, they discuss past behaviour while skirting around what they feel until it explodes.
There’s magic to the writing; deceptively simple delivering only basic facts but behind that is a whole storm of complicated experience and emotion. Shukyou claims writing was struggle and it fits because their story is a struggle. The Seascapes make for good analogy.
The relationships here are interesting, one of the characters is married and how everything resolves is left up to the reader while still being a satisfying conclusion –nothing behind anyone’s back-.
Wife Lydia is perhaps my favourite character in this and I can’t help feeling she must have her own story to tell, that she can see and understand so instinctively. A snippet from her pov would make a fascinating extra but as it is she shines from the page her nature and humour endearing.
It’s weather fronts and ripping away facades, I got a very strong image of the characters and loved the story. Very well done, go read it!
Two messed up men, who have lived different paths but are ultimately very alike. There’s a lot of talking in this rather than things happening, they discuss past behaviour while skirting around what they feel until it explodes.
There’s magic to the writing; deceptively simple delivering only basic facts but behind that is a whole storm of complicated experience and emotion. Shukyou claims writing was struggle and it fits because their story is a struggle. The Seascapes make for good analogy.
The relationships here are interesting, one of the characters is married and how everything resolves is left up to the reader while still being a satisfying conclusion –nothing behind anyone’s back-.
Wife Lydia is perhaps my favourite character in this and I can’t help feeling she must have her own story to tell, that she can see and understand so instinctively. A snippet from her pov would make a fascinating extra but as it is she shines from the page her nature and humour endearing.
It’s weather fronts and ripping away facades, I got a very strong image of the characters and loved the story. Very well done, go read it!
January 29, 2015
3.5 stars
Tender and curious poly love story. Will have to think more about it but I did love the writing style - beautiful in its simplicity and honesty
Tender and curious poly love story. Will have to think more about it but I did love the writing style - beautiful in its simplicity and honesty
May 22, 2018
4.5
The alcoholism theme is just part of the story. I liked the gradual discovery of how all the MCs were the past, at the beginning one would think that only Rainer was the black sheep. Lydia was a great character as well. At times it was painful to read, but it is important that both Galen and Rainer realised . Great art by Tamago, the animated ''broken glass handshake'' is a genius strike.
Warning: violent fights, parental abuse, homophobic insults (all in the past).
The alcoholism theme is just part of the story. I liked the gradual discovery of how all the MCs were the past, at the beginning one would think that only Rainer was the black sheep. Lydia was a great character as well. At times it was painful to read, but it is important that both Galen and Rainer realised . Great art by Tamago, the animated ''broken glass handshake'' is a genius strike.
Warning: violent fights, parental abuse, homophobic insults (all in the past).
February 24, 2017
Very interesting characters and their struggles with the past to the present.
August 29, 2016
1.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews