The Scent and Other Stories: The Dark Side of Love

A collection of short stories about love, relationships, and romance that are all dark, uncomfortable, and/or violent.

Most of the stories seemed more concerned with catching the mood and emotions of the characters than having much plot, but since they are very well written I still enjoyed them. The Scent does this the best, the main character is just longing to know what happened to the woman he was once with, and what would have become of them if they had stayed together.

Several of the others feature darker characters, whether it is hidden or not. Infidelity, violent acts, manipulation... The author's love of dark and twisted characters is all here, with a bit more subtlety to it.

The story Decision deals with some language that made me feel pretty uncomfortable, as one character's racism was on full display. It's a good tale of forbidden love although it pretty much goes how anyone reading it will think it goes.

The stories sometimes end abruptly so that may annoy some. Also, they aren't big on plot but focus instead on the character's thoughts and desires. But I feel they accomplish what the author set out to do.