Have you ever had something that was really small, but terribly annoying to you? Like something creeping across your skin, a watermark on the wall, or a minor mystery you just seem to obsess about? Well here is one that all starts innocently enough with a dirty stain on the Wallpaper of a house. Just a stupid stain except--it moves. No, not while you are looking at it, but when you are asleep. All proofs to document who did it, or why, come up nil. Until one night, a chopped off foot from well-set traps changed everything.

This story idea starts out with a first person point of view and carries it to the end; one that one can see from the first paragraph. It's not that the idea is a bad one or that it cannot be written into a suspenseful story, or one of satire, or even dark humor. The problem is that it rants and raves and goes basically nowhere. You get right away that the guy is losing his mind and loves the word "f**k" more than any other. You feel a bit sorry for the guy but by the third paragraph, have cease caring for him and I am really just reading to the end as if it were a high school assignment I had to finished.

So what is so bad about it? First of all, cussing can be used to bring out strong scenes and show powerful emotions like anger. But when it becomes a part of conversation, even if the character is someone who does it on a regular basis, it becomes a distraction. I find myself wondering if I should count the cuss words just for the fun of it. Then there is the time when the writer does include conversation that is not from the character, breaking the one-person point of view, which is the only strong point of the story. It's the one reason I gave this at least a two because first person is terribly difficult to carry through out an entire story. Instead of having the other characters that are after him speak, there should have been a continuing of the main and only speaking voice to describe what was being heard.

Wallpaper could have been a very well crafted story, if it were crafted enough. My vote: take it back, go over it with a good editor, and then try again.

Reviewed by Nancy Louise
© July 2007