Rating: ⭐⭐
Publication Date: June 10th

A Short Synopsis 📑
Four Tales of the Unpredictable contains stories born at different times and places but brought together in one volume. These stories gradually reveal their connections and invite readers to delve deeper into their intricate narratives.

My Thoughts 💭
"Resolution" by David Ellis promised interlinking spooky short stories but fell short. The writing style was off-putting, and the characters lacked depth. The stories lacked tension and pacing, and the Kindle ARC had formatting issues. Overall, the book has potential but needs editorial attention.

Thanks to Netgalley for the EARC in exchange for an honest review.

Atmospheric and creepy short stories. I particularly enjoyed the first one about a vision of a burning child.

I love a creepy short story so I went into Resolution hoping for an unusual read.

Of the four stories I thought the last story was the best, it got straight into the story and instantly felt weird and surreal. The way that this story built up tension by describing things that were slightly different to their real world counterparts was really quite entertaining. I wouldn't say it created a sense of dread but it was definitely unsettling at times.

The first story was also quite good and had a couple of genuinely creepy moments although I felt the conclusion, though quite shocking, felt a little rushed.

Unfortunately the other stories in this collection fell a bit flat, my main criticism is the pacing of the stories, each story seems to take forever to get going and then all of a sudden you reach the final act of the tale and it ends so abruptly. It's such a shame as there are some genuinely good ideas in this book. I found that the writing focussed on detail that adds nothing to the the story far too often, sometimes information was repeated in the same paragraph or the prose described things that you would assume anyway (for example that a bedroom had a window).

While the author goes to great lengths to give his protagonists character and personality it doesn't always work, for me the main reason was it was difficult to discern the age of characters as they all spoke the same, teenagers seemed to talk in the same way as older characters, it just dragged me out of the story a little as all the characters felt a bit similar.

I think with some editing and addressing the pacing issues this book would be much better, overall I enjoyed two of the stories but the other two didn't quite connect with me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy of this book. It’s such a interesting book. Honestly this book wasn’t for me but I really enjoyed reading it xxx

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy of this book.

A short book of interesting ideas, but the writing wasn't to my personal taste.

I was not able to finish this book. I struggled with the perspective and dialogue. For short stories it is important to keep things concise and paint the backdrop quickly in order to progress the story.

Thank you for allowing me access to this book NetGalley and publisher.

Unfortunately this book was not for me.
Off of the description alone, it had such promise of being spooky, but sadly fell short for me.
The formatting was also clunky.
The storytelling of the book felt very "tell a lot but show very little"

Resolution" by David Ellis promised to deliver interlinking spooky short stories, but unfortunately, it fell short of its promises. From the outset, I found the writing style to be off-putting and choppy, filled with unnecessary details that did little to enhance the mechanics of the story. Characters were introduced without purpose or meaningful development, leaving them feeling like mere placeholders in the narrative.

In addition to the issues with writing style, character development, and narrative structure, I was particularly put off by the author's use of an LGBTQ stereotype in the first story. The character description felt tacky, awkward, and out of place contributing to the overall lack of sensitivity and depth in the storytelling. This choice only added to my disappointment with "Resolution," as it highlighted a lack of nuance and thoughtful representation within the narrative.

The stories themselves meandered endlessly, lacking the tension and pacing necessary to hold my interest. This aimless wandering became exhausting, making it difficult to stay engaged with the book.

Adding to my frustration was the formatting disaster of the Kindle ARC. It was riddled with errors and inconsistencies, further detracting from the reading experience.

In summary, "Resolution" is a book in serious need of editorial attention. While it had the potential to be a collection of gripping tales, the execution ultimately fell flat, leaving me disappointed and unsatisfied as a reader..

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC In exchange for an honest review.

4 short spooky-ish stories. I have never read this author. His writing is quirky and it took me a bit to get into it but I really did like it once I got used to it… the kindle alignment was off so that distracted quite a bit. My favorite was the first short story but it dropped off quite suddenly at the end. It wasn’t what I was expecting but I did have a good time and the stories were short.

I liked the concept of this book and the idea of separate storied intersecting, that being said it was not a favorite of mine. In some parts the story lulled due to the play by play nature of the story. I also encountered several formatting issues within kindle which also made it harder to read.