When Giraffes Flew


Fiction - Short Story/Novela
182 Pages
Reviewed on 11/02/2016
Buy on Amazon

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    Book Review

Reviewed by Melissa Tanaka for Readers' Favorite

When Giraffes Flew by Jeff Weddle is a collection of short stories that range from freaky to funny and will keep you entertained from beginning to end. Some of the stories are in the first person point of view, others in the third person, and there are even a few written in second person, which is a refreshing change of pace, being that it is a rarely utilized perspective. A few of the stories are of a darker nature, with broken families, ruined relationships, child predators, and different deaths of varying nature, all of which reflect on parts of life, asking you to delve deeper into your mind and continue thinking about them long after you’ve turned the page. In addition, many of the stories tend to focus on the nitty gritty parts of humanity — the times that we suffer, the words we wish we could take back, the seconds in which everything changes — for it is these moments that are what make us human.

Weddle’s rich descriptions of people and places help readers to vividly imagine scenes depicted throughout the stories, making it seem as though readers are right there alongside the characters themselves. In addition, his dialogue remains realistic and sounds as though actual people are talking or telling the story, while still continuing to advance the plot. Some of my favorites in the collection include “Swarm,” which is about a doctor on a battlefield who must take lives instead of saving them, and “Family Ties,” a chilling tale of a father, his daughter and her son whose story I am still trying to wrap my mind around.