Title: How Things Disappear
Author: Anna James
In: I Am Heathcliff (Kate Mosse)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary
Dates read: 27th April 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Borough Press
Year: 2018
5th sentence, 74th page: By the time the answer was written, the rib was back, and she assumed she had been mistaken that it ever went away.

When did you realise that you were slowly disappearing? When did part of you return? How do you make your heart beat in an empty chest again?

I’ve always believed that in almost every meaningful interaction we have with people, we give them a small part of ourselves. That, if they are able, they in turn give something back to us. But what happens when the people we surround ourselves with just take, take, take? What happens when parts of you begin to disappear as people refuse to return your gifts?

This story is incredibly disjointed, it hints at everything, but tells you nothing. And I think that this visceral reality that you just can’t quite grasp works perfectly. That maybe it’s the idea of giving and taking in turn that is really what indicates love. That maybe, just maybe, we are all slowly disappearing until we find someone to help us put ourselves back together again.

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Image source: Harper Collins Publishers