Vera Mont

Nor did I, until it was brought to my attention.

It's possible, but I don't think most of us would rate any these efforts so low, let alone so many of them, all at the same time.

I didn't know that. Just seen some communications from young people that didn't bother with niceties of grammar. Perhaps that's what the author was ev...

Except for health-care workers, of course and a few store-clerks here and there, I mostly just see old people wearing masks. Some of us have particula...

I see what you mean. Someone's been hyper-critical. But the low marks are distributed fairly evenly, so they won't really affect the outcome.

I only wish we could have discussed the actual OP question, and with less of the cultural drum-beating.

I could not really engage with any of the characters, nor make sense of the story. Maybe I'm just dense, but there it is.

typed with two thumbs on tiny keys; no available extra finger for shift key. at least he didn't use abbreviations and emoticons.

You seem to feel quite strongly about this. Perhaps next time propose that the right to vote is contingent on having submitted a critique. I'm not sur...

I don't see much point in emphasizing that the entire Middle-eastern population is designated 'semites' by their one-time conquerors Even if the term ...

It's not a story or letter, so much as a record of an introspective young man's reflection in the very real shadow of death - many other people's and ...

The lowest rating I gave was a 2, for the reasons I stated. Originally, I didn't rate it or comment on it. In hindsight, I probably should have stuck ...

I did. It wasn't mood. I know it was well constructed and well written, hated it on both readings, for the reasons stated, and also because I thought ...

I actually thought the rape - if that's what happened - was handled with great tact, understated rather than exploited. I thought the story was about ...

Vote points are not necessarily a response to the quality of writing, they may reflect the reader's own reaction to a story. One may like something th...

Yes. Only, I thought you were talking about the United States, which handled it very badly at the political level (All my sympathies to the medical co...

I have been urged to own up to prejudice. I have a low tolerance for over-the-top parody and scatological humour. Plus, it was foreshadowed in the dis...

Not really: he has them on display, yet they're incongruous in his house: But a police detective has access to all manner of weapons seized in raids. ...

Oh, thanks a bunch! The earworm I finally replaced with Red Sails in the Sunset is back.

He doesn't start out as a monster; he only becomes menacing near the end, when his hand has disappeared. I wonder if the game Simon Says plays a part ...

My guess is, he's come across some abusive parents during the year and saves up their punishment until Christmas to commemorate his own liberation. An...

Eleven other murders: there are twelve different weapons in the display. He always does it at Christmas, like a tradition.

Generally, yes, with local exceptions, such as the periodic resurgence of systemic discrimination in South Africa. However, many western Jews consider...

Yes!

No, I mean is there nothing you can actually do? Just asking for help and rejecting it won't get you very far. You need to get off your ass and go out...

That's if I read it correctly. She hasn't died yet, and won't until the men with chainsaws arrive. (And maybe not then, since willows regrow from stum...

They start as ordinary suburbanites and end in a vegetative state - that is, lose their conscious life in a dream-state, which devolves from modernity...

Uh-hu

I'm asking you, since you introduced both subjects and have not, as far as I can tell, given comprehensible answers to questions about either.

But how is it related to the OP?

I've read them all and rated them - as rationally and fairly as I'm able. A couple I could not comment on and some didn't seem to require extensive co...

What makes you think any one culture has more or less truth than any other? Chinese chroniclers can't embellish, exaggerate, concentrate on one aspect...

I think Larry did all the murders. The first one was to stop his parents fighting. Nick arrived first on the scene and protected him by taking the gun...

One time, I saw the severed arm of someone who jumped under a subway train. There were several injuries, including skinned knuckles. My immediate reac...

It feels disjointed - at least three different stories, all centered on a hypothesis to which I cannot relate. The writing is good; the characters are...

Very nicely developed; very well written.

A melancholy tale of Average Man in any century, simply and skillfully told, from an objective POV. From Jack's own POV, the daily encounters and occu...

Well, it wasn't my vote! While not my genre, I think it's a good solid action story: has suspense, credible characters, mystery, ingenious plotting, a...

Unfortunately, this stopped in my tracks before I was properly started. How does solar activity get to the moon's vicinity? If the moon had been smash...

He was making a point. In order to understand the trial, you first have to understand his life and principles, as well as the tenor of his times. http...

On second reading, I still think it's a very strong story. I particularly appreciate the juxtaposition of a desire for glamour and luxury against clan...

I didn't have any sense of a gender issue. Pink walls with big flowers would have driven me mad at any time of life; pale blue is far preferable. Ther...

Your constitution is formidable!

It wasn't about teaching. It was about integrity. The accusations against him were bogus - politically, not morally motivated. He might have been gran...

Very 50's Hollywood and very stylish... I even get a subtle whiff of Raymond Chandler. I liked the protagonist: smart, ambitious, defiant and young en...

That was not clear to me. Okay, it's a woman. In which case, the story just a lost a rank on psychology.

I'm not familiar enough with steam punk to comment.

It's a cartel or corporation of some kind - mercenaries, assassins, saboteurs? - organized and professional. The exact nature of the job is left unspe...

I believe you. Only, they're not Spanish. In the Phillipines, it is a common surname, just like Domingo - but not a popular girl's given name. I didn'...

Good! Then you'll be informed of approaching danger before people who live in states where it's illegal to tell the truth. Canada. Does that make a di...