Sunday, April 7, 2013

Trilogy: A Collection by Prudence MacGregor

Review:
MacGregor presents to us a collection of three strange and wonderful tales about everyday people. This is a work of fiction. The events and characters described are imaginary and are not intended to refer to specific places or living persons. Although the characters are common, their conflicts are out of the ordinary. All of these stories have a lesson for not only the characters to learn, but for the reader as well. MacGregor takes us on a quest alongside the main characters as they find their way in unbelievable circumstances.

"Parallelograms"
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you had a twin or a double? What if finding this other you only created chaos? This is the first story that revolves around the protagonist Justine, a young girl who has an affinity for many things. She loves to read and questions everything. Her life is usually pretty organized and unfettered until she meets her double and things spiral out of control. Now she has to try to make sense of her life, and find her purpose in the world.

"Random"
Ulyssa Archer, Lyss to her friends and parents- was an only child and liked it that way. The story starts off when her Mother and Dad head off to a tropical resort in the Caribbean for the New Year. She is off from college for one more week before the next semester begins and has hatched a plan. Ulyssa is going to write a note, attach it to a balloon and see where it lands. The note read:
My name is Ulyssa Archer, but whoever finds this can call me Lyss. I sent this up not knowing where it would land. Please, if you find this, do call me on my cell phone number, and do leave a message if I'm not there. Just please let me know you got it and where you're from. I am doing this as a special project. Thanks very much. What seemed like an honest exercise in human contact, turns in to a wild ride that picture perfect Ulyssa may not be able to handle.

"Up There"
Often times we hear an airplane passing over head and wonder where the passengers are going and where did they come from. Gregory M., a simple office worker quite often engages in this activity and is fascinated by the jets that he notices in the sky. This begins to cause a problem for him, clouding his sense of reality and fantasy. He innocently meets an attractive motivational speaker, Sherry, who happens to have a connection to one of the planes and his nice, simple world begins to become interesting.

Overall, MacGregor's writing is similar to a great science fiction short story with normal everyday characters whose lives take a paranormal twist. I really enjoyed this book as I love books with paranormal themes and liked the last two stories in the trilogy slightly more than the first one.

Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the author and 'The Cadence Group' as I received a copy of this book for free from them.