Title : The Cruelty of Boys

Author : Karen Snape-Williams

Genre : Short Story, Historical, Romance

Review Extract from Review By: rinkytink

Cruelty of Boys

It was quite hard to get through this without reaching for the tissues-it was very powerful and poignant and I think you carried the reader along with you all the way. The characters were well drawn & the dialogue was really good-very evokative of the era, at least to me. I do think you captured this strange era particularly well in the dialogue, behaviour & settings.

I enjoyed the straightforward, economical style, this helped the story along & painted just enough of a picture for us to do the rest as readers. It's not an easy subject matter to write about as WW1 has been captured very many times in many works but your focus on the individual details gave it real drama.

I've give this all 4's & 5's, the following observations are what would really round the story off for me. Munroe could be a bit nastier from the outset-Robert seems curiously non-judgemental about him but I think he would keep away from him given his reputation.

In one of the battle scens, Jones is described as having a "cynical houmour" the word cynical jars with me as it suggests sophistication & prejudice, would not "gallows humour" be closer to the mark? Again-just my observation.

A couple of possible typos would be "For above the village....the White House"- do you man FAR above the village?

Also you write about the Munroe's - don't need the apostrophe.

In the chapter after Brown has been to church there is a sentence about a missing umbrella which delays dinnner, it runs on from the umbrellla to Brown being disapointed by the meal & you might want to split it or re-word it as it doesn't read too fluently.

Anyway well done, a haunting mystical tale not easily forgotten.


Synopsis
A story about a school teacher, a hunter and a sniper. Robert Brown, returns home and reflects on his life before and during World War One.
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