So This Is How I Go by Colin Wright

After staying up until 5am this morning playing ARK: Survival Evolved, naturally, I overslept. But when I woke, I woke to a number of exciting phone notifications. According to my Instagram feed, Colin Wright of Exile Lifestyle was moving to the Philippines for a few months. What?! I jumped out of bed I was so excited. You see, I had visited family there a year and a half ago with my mom. After nearly 20 years away from the island country, I got to fall in love with it all over again. And now Colin Wright would get to experience that magic.

Coincidentally, I just finished reading a collection of short stories written by Colin titled So This Is How I Go. So, without further ado, I’m excited to say that Wright’s short story collection will be my very first review.

So This Is How I Go by Colin Wright

I’m not saying I have some unhealthy fixation with death, but I do tend to linger on the subject and ponder its implications. The title is what compelled me to purchase this book.

The collection is comprised of eight short stories, each averaging about six pages in length. I’m a slow reader in that I like to ruminate on the ideas being presented to me, so I spent two consecutive nights reading the collection. I personally don’t appreciate spoilers so I won’t disclose too much here.

As I read each story, I was overcome by a sense of nostalgia. I grew up reading Stephen King and Goosebumps, and this collection was very reminiscent of those styles of stories. Wright’s writing is mature in nature, sometimes depicting graphic conflicts and language, but there’s always an underlying moral lesson to uncover.

As I read each short, I found myself dreaming up the backstories of each main character. My knack for empathy got me emotionally vested in them. Each story presented a starkly different death from the last, each death abrupt and final with the end scenes hanging resolutely in the air.

The first sentence of every story grabbed my attention and the point of view varied from third-, second-, and first-person with snappy dialogue and story pacing.

I typically read novels (like Chicken by Chase Night), but this collection of shorts was a solid change-of-tempo to my usual appetite. And I liked it.

Looking for another form of indie work? Consider poetry. Be sure to check out my review of A Lens Without a Face by Maddisen Alexandra.