The Bitter Kind

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What to expect

In this spare novelette, acclaimed flash fiction writers James Claffey and Tara Lynn Masih collaboratively create an original tale of loss and love, as The Bitter Kind deftly alternates between Stela, the daughter of a ship’s captain, burdened by her family secrets, and Brandy, a Chippewa orphan, haunted by ghost wolves and spirits. The authors cross genres and borders between historical and contemporary, speculative and realistic, presenting two unforgettable characters on a journey toward their inevitable, fateful destination.

Critics Review

  • The Bitter Kind functions as a lightning rod for catharsis.”

    Bookend Reviews
  • “The supernatural is ingrained in the realism of the landscape, and Masih and Claffey somehow make the ghosts feel as natural as the Montana mountains or the Alabama waterways.”

    SmokeLong Quarterly
  • “Masih and Claffey blend their styles so seamlessly that, aside from a very few turns of phrase, it’s nearly impossible to tell the difference between their voices…A novelette with the scope and sense of fulfillment one would expect of a much longer work.”

    Tupelo Quarterly
  • The Bitter Kind is an alchemy, a duet, a gorgeous melding of two of our most treasured literary voices.”

    Kathy Fish, author of Wild Life
  • “A story, human and soulful, of place, mysticism, and the hard-won ground we all struggle toward.”

    Robert Scotellaro, author of Nothing Is Ever One Thing
  • “Touching in its examination of broken things and masterful in its prose.”

    Kimberly Lojewski, author of Worm Fiddling Nocturne in the Key of a Broken Heart

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