Murder at Moonlight Cafe and Other Stories is a collection of 11 fictional tales that are unique and offer us a variety of perspectives. Each of them narrate the story of characters who have almost nothing in common except for the very human emotions that are elicited from their experiences. There are stories about mythological figures, contemporary characters, fantastical beings etc.
To try and pick a few titles that were my favorite from the collection seems like a herculean task because they were all equally engaging and the storylines were unlike anything I’d read so far. Nevertheless, I highly recommend that you get to these stories first – Mariam’s Tears, Kalika, It Watched Me, Murder at Moonlight Cafe and Ace of Hearts.
Some of the themes you are bound to encounter are mythology, addiction, faith, paranoia, social media, asexuality and coping mechanisms. The author’s writing style strikes a good balance between the descriptive and the dialogue-driven. I couldn’t believe how mesmerized I was by the worlds she had created and how intriguing these plot points were.
A couple of times I was skeptical as to whether the author would be able to do justice to a certain plot because of the short story format. But every time, I was impressed by how she was able to pay sufficient attention to all the major aspects of storytelling in order to neatly wrap up a story in as little pages as required.
If you’re someone who likes a lot of continuity or fluidity in narrative styles, then you might find a couple of stories in this collection a little too fragmented. But I didn’t mind that at all; instead, I feel that it bound all the scenes, imperative to the story, together in a smooth fashion.
I know for a fact that I will not be forgetting these tales anytime soon, simply because of how refreshing and new they were. Highly recommend this collection to everyone!
★ ★ ★ ★.5
The Life Stories 