A review by jeffmauch
Beneath the Bonfire: Stories by Nickolas Butler

4.0

This is a solid short story collection for an author that shows an immense amount of promise. I enjoy collections like this a lot. They show me what an author is capable of while also giving me a variety of their thoughts all at once. With Butler you see an author who love the grit and somewhat darkness of rural Midwestern America. With abbreviated writing selections like this we get to see both where the writer excels and where they struggle. Butler seems to truly excel with complex, rough characters and hard, unforgiving descriptions of landscapes. This also shined through in the one novel of his I read. As for criticisms, He seems to lack succinct endings, though that just may be the genre. After all, what is a short story really, but a novel that's not quite there yet. Butler is a very bright talent to keep an eye on.