It is the time of the month for another spectacular review from our Review Team. This month @spike382 gave us the review.
 

Aunt May's Magic
by Mancunian

Reviewer: spike382
Status: Complete
Word Count: 3,008

I was actually having quite a debate with myself about which story I would read for my last review of 2023. There were a couple of classic stories, that I wanted to draw new readers to, and a few newer stories that I thought would also be fun to take a look at  Yet my mind kept going back to a writer I had the opportunity to get to know a little better the past couple of months: Mancunian.  He's been a writer on GA for a few years now, and yet I don’t believe he’s ever had the opportunity to have one of his stories put forth by our Review Team.   So, let’s change that!

Mancunian actually writes all his stories in a shard literary universe, the man theme of these stories is “Lost Souls.”  That is, people from various walks of life who end up homeless, and in the world of The Boot, those lost souls converge in the named homeless shelter.  “Auntie May’s Magic” is a simple, short story, less than 3000 words actually, and yet it’s a great entry point to The Boot universe. 

The story can really be boiled down to its description “A young man is down on his luck, then he meets Aunt May.”   That is correct, we do see a young man walk into a diner, and by the description, his luck ran out a long time ago.  What happened to him?  We never find out, but he’s someone truly in need of a helping hand.  The diner is run by the kind of/sort of mysterious Aunt May.  This diner is not a normal place, and the people inside aren’t the sort the young man expects to find at all.  When he finally meets Aunt May, it soon becomes apparent why.  

I’ll leave it there, so as not to spoil too much of the story.  As I said it’s a quick read, but it’sdefinitelyworth the effort.  As one reader said in their personal  review , “Hard to imagine a short story of less than 3 thousand words could have such an impact.”  Yet it does leave such an impact and more importantly, it’s a great entry point into a  larger universe built by Mancunian.

 I invite everyone to read this story right away.   From there, he is currently posting new chapters of his latest story set in The Boot, “What Happened to the Baxter Boys,” which is much longer than 3000 words, but totally worth a read.  Check them both out!   

Category: Fiction  Genres:  Literary Fiction  Sub-genres: Contemporary Fiction  Tags:   young adult, europe, no sex, modern  Rating:  Everyone