Story C - Kraken, My Love

This story is really good!

The writing is quite powerful. It's really visceral, and evokes a sense of tragedy.

It's quite poetic. After the tumultuous beginning, where the young woman surfaces to the water, she gets to choose between studying or sailing.

I really like how the story portrays the MC's obsession with the kraken. In the study path, it leads to her tragic death, with an almost Sherlock Holmes-ian ending of mysteriously tumbling to your death in a misty gorge.

I did like the Sailing Path better, that seems to be the main one.

I really liked the ending where the MC and her friend Peggy form a gang, it was pretty interesting and played off her obsession with the Kraken quite nicely.

The ending where she's hanged, and instead of despairing feels hopeful was so good. It showed her messed up mental state really well, and I loved this line: "The gulf set between you and the Kraken had come to feel like that between life and death, and maybe your god of the sea had always been waiting to embrace you, just on the other side."

This story was a really great take on the prompt. In 4000 words, it manages to do amazing things with characterization, world building, plot, and writing that many stories twice the length fail to achieve. It's a tour de force in flash fiction, and an example that I would point to if someone would ever ask me whether it's possible to write a large encompassing narrative with complex themes in 4000 words or less. I also really like the take it took on the prompt.

a well written story told in a small package with just enough choice to keep it interesting.

I loved the writing style in this one.