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  • Stained Glass Lives

  • A Collection of Flash Fiction Short Stories
  • By: Louise Worthington
  • Narrated by: Oshun Aje'
  • Length: 2 hrs and 6 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

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Stained Glass Lives cover art

Stained Glass Lives

By: Louise Worthington
Narrated by: Oshun Aje'
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Summary

In Stained Glass Lives, Louise Worthington’s writing fuses poetry and prose, beauty, and violence. Sometimes, tender, sometimes harsh, she explores loss, female power, and the power of distorted thought, as well as creating stark portraits of family, violence, and revenge. 

The characters are flawed and visceral, from ghosts, daughters, mothers, wives, to taxi drivers, teachers, a frail widow, and a mercenary shop assistant. 

From the delightful insight into aging in "Visitors", gently humorous at the same time as pulling at the heart strings, to the unexpected gruesome climax in Humming, the hilarious yet humiliating embarrassment in Red Swimsuit, the sumptuous words to complement the themes in Reflections from an Epicure, to Beauty, brief but beautiful in its poignancy, reminiscent in some ways, of The Velveteen Rabbit, we are taken on a journey of words, phrases, and themes which make up our diverse, varied, chaotic, and changeable lives.

©2020 Louise Worthington (P)2021 Louise Worthington

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What listeners say about Stained Glass Lives

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Listener received this title free

ometimes depressing is what you want

Normally I devour anything by Louise Worthington but this time, as mentioned by another reviewer, the stories just seemed to run into each other. I could have done with a header break for example, just to reset my mind.

The stories however were interesting a tad depressing but sometimes you want that.

I was given a free copy by the author but the review is entirely my own.

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Listener received this title free

Not my cup of tea....

I really struggled to finish listening to this. I found it very depressing, and there were no real pauses between chapters/stories so they all ran into each other which lead to extra confusion. The narrator did not help separate the stories. Im unsure what I was expecting but this task of review was very hard to write as I don't like to be a negative critic.

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Listener received this title free

Good book

Loved the book. Loved the stories, kept me entertained.well written by the author and well read by the narrator I found it easy to listen to. All in all it was a pleasant way to pass a couple of hours.I would definitely recommend to some one who likes short stories.

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  • Blackeagle
  • 09-07-21

A Menagerie of Stories

I must admit some of these short stories broke my heart because they hit home. The stories are graphic and well written and some are truly on point of things that can and do happen. I truly enjoyed most of the stories there were some that bothered me to my core but all in all they all held power in their own way. I highly recommend this book if you love short stories and flash fiction. I am voluntarily leaving my honest unbiased review of Stained Glass Lives.

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  • RJ Wiechecki
  • 18-06-21

Great Prose. I liken it to a confessional booth.

Louise Worthington has excellent prose. These shorts are full of vivid visceral concrete images. I enjoyed indulging in that richness while listening.

I will note to other readers, I found these stories serve more as psychological milieu than a driving plot. It has the same feel as sitting within a cathedral having access into the mind of others while they stare into the stain glass. I liken it to what a catholic priest might receive if all his sinners were poets. It itches that I'm wondering what she's thinking pulsation. They're ephemeral yet pleasing.

Now onto the audio. The narrator had a solid performance. Yet as the listener I needed a longer pause between each short. One short jumping into another caused an effect similar to a poetic enjambment. However, in this case, I found this lack of negative audio space made the story hard to follow. I wished the audio engineer on this had added 4-5 second after each chapter segment narration to help distinguish one story from another.

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  • Linda L.
  • 13-04-21
Listener received this title free

Just not my cup of tea

This style of writing just isn't what interests me. I had a tough time following any of the stories because they just didn't get or keep my attention.