Jeremy Hare "Casting Shadows"

This piece focuses on a young girl, Itami, who finds herself in the afterlife following a fire that burned down her home. At first, she is simply becoming acquainted with the strangeness of the hereafter, but she soon overhears a conversation between Kain and someone named Midoriko that reveals the fact that her death was not so accidental after all. Kain reveals that Itani was chosen for the strength of her soul to serve as a Shinigami, a protector of souls from earth to the afterlife. I thought this story was interesting in the way it described the afterlife and set up the main character. Though dead, Itami seems very much alive in the way she talks, interacts, and moves about. Though interesting, I thought there needed to be some more detail about why this is. In addition, I found myself being confused about how Imati could die in the afterlife. A couple of times throughout the piece, Itami says things like “I remember everything now,” which would indicate that she is alive or at least conscious in some sense after this story takes place. Again, I was confused about this and thought it needed some explanation if it is to stay in this story.

            In reading this, I did not get the feeling that much effort was put into constructing a “literary” piece. I got a sense that the characters were invented for a specific purpose rather than being organic. Some of the descriptions of “long silver hair down to the hips” and “red eyes” made me picture the characters as cartoon characters rather than real people. I am not saying anything is wrong with this in and of itself, but at least for this class and our attempts to construct literary short stories, this seemed like it needed some tweaking to reach that point. This writing obviously shows a lot of creativity, and I enjoyed it for its entertainment value.