GlitterBee (Janet)'s Reviews > Tender Cuts

Wow, what a huge experience this little book was. Just... wow! The way Jayne Martin presents these 38 stories, the words she uses, the words she doesn't, it's all crafted with skillful intention. I had expected to breeze through Tender Cuts, the individual stories being so short (this is a collection of Flash Fiction), but I ended up reading each story several times, every reading building on the previous. I only approached a few stories in a sitting, needing some extra time to process my emotional response. Flash Fiction turned out to be much more consuming than I anticipated. You know how when reading you rely on your imagination to fill in what the author's words don't/can't say? And how your imagination references your own past, your biases, your hopes and dreams, etc., making your experience with a book unique to you? That all happened here, but with so few words, Tender Cuts asks for a stronger partnership. I needed to give even more of myself to these stories, making them feel all the more real. The loss, the regret, the love, all the honesty. Those wounds. It hit so HARD. I'm sure I'll reread this little book again and again, probably feeling it in new ways every time. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐