This was a short story I got into reading when I was looking for a sneak preview of a full length novel by this author - one I decided, after the preview, not to buy. This story is really short, only 16 screens on my phone, but I still couldn't finish it. If you wish, you can read it at: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/ladys-maid-sarah-gailey . It's described as "an original short story" and I don't know why! Shouldn't the assumption be that it's original as opposed to...what? A rip-off? A plagiarized story? A clone?! I sincerely doubt that! So why specify that it's original? I dunno. Maybe they mean it's not tied to a full length novel? Still it sounds like a stupid way to refer to it, to me.
It's described as a "Victorian comedy of manners," but to me it was so boring I could not get into it and quickly resorted to skimming. It immediately felt to me like it was going to be a sixteen page long whine that was served with its own cheese. I should say up front that the book description conflates oysters and clams. They're not the same. To be sure, they're all bivalve mollusks, but oysters and mussels do not behave like clams do. For me, this confusion is to be expected from your typical idiot book description writer. The author has little to no control over that unless the book is self-published, so I'm not sure in this case who wrote it.
I had to read outside the book to discover what it was actually about, since the opening few pages were completely confusing to me. Maybe it's just me, but I felt it ought to have been clearer what was going on, and given that it wasn't - at least to me - I had a hard time generating any kind of sustained interest in it, even for as short as it was. I gave up on it and skimmed bits here and there and was still unimpressed. I can't commend it based on my experience of it so I guess, after two strikes. I'm probably done with this author, which is sad because having seen an image of her online I was under the impression that she might write just the kind of a story that would interest me. I guess I was wrong!
