"Sour Candy" (Burke)

That's not his child!

I never felt so adamant about saying something like that.

Sour Candy is as good as the cover art. It was the outline of a smokey-red background by massive antlers from a deer skull that caught my initial attention.

In that space is a nightmare that confronts only Phil, the main character. SMH: I couldn't help but feel for him.

​That thing is not his child.

Sour Candy is well-suited for the Kindle app it's hosted on (or e-readers in general). It's a short story. It's not bogged down with fleeting details. And the vocabulary level isn't rudimentary, but bite-size intervals of reading aren't hindered by persistent definition lookups.

I first learned about Burke's work through his story in the anthology Dark Cities (C. Golden). If you liked "The Dogs" (Scott Smith) in that anthology (and I did!), then give Sour Candy a try.

Sour Candy is one of, according to his bio at the end, Burke's works optioned for a movie. Optioning is no guarantee for movie production, but I hope it works out in his favor.

A book review of Sour Candy (Kealan Patrick Burke)

"Sour Candy" book cover (Amazon.com)

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Jubalyn ExWilliams lives in Pennsylvania (United States). You can find dozens of her reviews, including one for Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke, at landturn.com/reviews.

Commemorating 5 years of landturn.com​ (2019 - 2023)

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Related: "Dark Cities" anthology (2021)​
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