MASTERING STEFAN Review by Kiki Howell

From the beginning of Mastering Stefan, I was caught by J.M. Snyder’s mastery over our language to bring to life a story in a reader’s mind.   Not only, does she vividly create images through her use of analogies and metaphors, but she follows through with them until the entire scene is fully actualized.  For example, on the first page she writes, “But when he enters the bar, he’s just one more body in the crowded sea that undulates over the dance floor. Music pounds around him like the surf, washing him up to the bar with the rest of the driftwood.”  I just had to share that!

As an author, I was inspired by what I can only describe as her ‘word designs’ to better my own craft, to work harder.  Especially when I conceive that “bodies” can “meld” like a “primordial animal…gyrates obscenely… masturbating to the beat.” And, these phrases are all due to a little dim lighting and some dancing.   As a reader, I am simply swept away, not only seeing the scenes in my mind, but becoming lost in the movie itself.

This experience is heightened by the way Snyder crafts two very distinct characters each with different thoughts, mannerisms and voices.   Add in the erotic imagery shaped in her same style with appropriately fabricated language; and this story is too hot to read this summer!

Turning on the AC in May,

Kiki Howell

 

Read more about Mastering Stefan at eXcessica

Read more about J.M. Snyder at http://jmsnyder.net/