Boss is in a meeting about synergy or whatever, so I'm alt-tabbing through this collection of short stories. It's called Family Friction. Right to the point, no grinding for stats or weird puzzle minigames. Just click and read. My kind of lunch break material. The whole thing is a bunch of kinetic incest tales, which, you know, is exactly what it says on the tin. No surprises there.
The writing has this unpolished, direct feel. Like someone's messy fantasy doc they were too embarrassed to edit properly. One story about a brother and sister stuck in a cabin during a storm. The dialogue is so blunt it almost loops back around to being realistic. "I can't stop thinking about your body." Okay, sure, no poetry there. But then a paragraph later there's this oddly specific description of how her wet hair sticks to the back of her neck and suddenly I'm, like, invested. The tension isn't built with clever metaphors. It's built with heavy breathing and guilty glances described in the most basic words possible. It works. Mostly. There's a mom/son one that tries to be emotionally deep but just ends up feeling like a rushed porno script with a sad piano playing in the background. I wish the text speed was adjustable. You click and the whole block of text appears instantly. Kills the slow burn. But that's a tiny thing.
Top 3 Moments You'll Want to Screenshot. One, the first time the sister in the cabin story just grabs his hand and puts it on her tit. No lead up, just action. Two, a line from the aunt/nephew story: "Guilt is just another spice." Cheesy as hell but I thought about it for a weirdly long time. Three, the final paragraph of the whole collection that ends on a completely unresolved, quiet note that made me say "wait, that's it?" out loud. My coworker glanced over. I had to pretend I was looking at a very confusing spreadsheet. The art is static, just a single image per story that changes slightly. It's fine. Does the job. Don't expect animation. It's a one-handed read, they say. My hand was mostly on the mouse clicking through, honestly. The taboo stuff is all in the text, not the visuals. Makes it feel dirtier, somehow. Like finding a secret diary. I'll probably forget half the plots by tomorrow but that cabin scene will stick. The way the rain was described against the window. Simple. Effective. Back to my actual work now.