Short Monday: Jane Austen's Nightmare.

Welcome to short monday. Where I work my way through short story books, poetry books, and whatever else that can be qualified for a short monday.

Short Monday #8: Jane Austen's Nightmare, by Syrie James. Part of Jane Austen Made Me Do It.

To Miss Jane Austen's horrific surprise, she has a nightmare in which her characters tell her they are unhappy with the way she has written them, except for four of them, that is.

I sort of wish I had waited to get this book from the library until after I had read the rest of her novels. But even though I didn't know all of the characters in this first story and didn't feel familiar enough to know what they were speaking about, there was enough of a background to keep this a short story, and not feel completely lost in it. This was an okay story. Though, at first, it seemed as though Ms. James was criticizing the characters Jane Austen had created. It turned out to be harmless enough in that light, as I got further into this short story. I began to wonder what they would say to her next and who she would meet. I also wondered more about the characters I haven't "met" yet, I am a little more anxious to get to their books and get to know them.
The story comes to a shocking climax and just as things look really bad for Miss Austen, it is over just like that. She wakes from her nightmare and confides in her sister Cassandra the horrible things she dreamt. Goodness, can you imagine? To be an author and have your beloved characters (and some not so beloved characters) come to you in a dream and say that they are upset with you for the choices you made for them? I used to write a little bit and I know that would simply horrify me.
Not a bad start for this book, but I still wish I had read her novels previously.