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Road Like a River
Not everything is as it seems when one dies. Kharon Kharapas, otherwise known as Charlie, is a man who is not a man. This is not a time to be thinking of angels. He is dead though not dead. Charlie drives a black eighteen-wheeler picking up deliveries to deliver to a roadhouse that isn't a roadhouse. Think of an afterlife weigh station. Charlie's deliveries are the souls of the dead given a ride for the price of a penny. These souls are also dead but not really dead. Rosie is the one delivery that brings the story a semblance of purpose.
Smith's story is a constant verbiage of opposites. The scenes consist of one dark setting after another. The characters speak in a trucker/ redneck language that some might find grating. With the most memorable of all being the three-headed dog. The plot is convoluted and very confusing with only an brief moments of a coherent tale. The language is raw, the twists and turns jarring as they run around in circles while folding into one another. Reader caution is a must for language and subject content. The author obviously has great talent and a wild imagination for the weird but his vision just didn't come through for the average reader in this story. Maybe those who love dark fantasy, ancient mythology, with a redneck lifestyle will better understand it.
Erin Murdock