Book Review: 13 Acorns

Collection of short stories by G. Edward Martin, published 2022

292 pages

Dark and insightful, each short story provides the reader with a unique journey to traverse

With a dozen short stories to enjoy, 13 Acorns was a pleasant ride all the way to the last one. The variety of stories, genres and voices kept my attention without ever becoming too stale or overdone. While each story is unique in it's plotline and delivery, Martin ties them all together with deeper and thought-provoking questions. I absolutely loved how Martin's conversational tone in both the epilogue and prologue, and how he gives the reader tremendous faith and insight into his writing process.

Traditional thinking would recommend that I not group together such a large spread of ideas. It is believed that the average reader does not have a broad range of interests, and it would be wise to keep my work narrow. Normally this would be wise, but you are not an average reader. I have no reason to believe that your mind and interests are narrow. Why should I assume you are any less curious than I am?

Of the dozen stories, my favorite was The Nobody who Fought a Dragon, which was also the only comedy of the bunch. Set in a small town hundreds of years ago, main character Bill is the town potter. Bill actually doesn't enjoy making pottery, nor is he any good at it, but this business had been in his family for generations. Due to his general unhappiness at his lot in life, he has also become an alcoholic and dubbed "the Town Drunk." At night he sneaks away to a nearby cave and works on both brewing his own beer and whiskey, and also painting nature scenes.

One day a dragon swoops down on Bill's little town and wreaks havoc, causing the Prince to be sent to slay the beast. The King wants the townspeople to send in another man to assist his son, and they vote that Bill be that man. While Bill is most certainly a terrible potter and a drunk, he is not a coward.

Bill accompanies the Prince on his beast-slaying mission and it just so happens that the dragon has made itself at home in Bill's hidden cave. Some comical interesting events unfurl from this point forward, which I really enjoyed.

4 out of 5 Stars

Ultimately each story was on the darker side, but were generally well-written, entertaining and attention grabbing. I'd recommend to anyone looking for something different than the normal novel or nonfiction book on your shelves.

*Thanks to Discovery for the ARC: https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/13-acorns-modern-short-stories-for-thoughtful-adults-g-edward-martin#review