Collier and Rylant

The Chaser is a short story about a young man named Alan who desires to have the girl he likes to love him back. In order to obtain this, he goes to this old man for a love potion. It is rather selfish of him to do so and the old man tries to warn him of what would happen, however, Alan is so blinded by his lust that he ignores the warnings. Overall I thought that this short story was good since it revealed a truth in life. As humans, we desire things; in this case it was love. However, we can’t take shortcuts to get what we want. There would always be consequences for our actions. For Alan, that consequence could be that he might fall out of love with Diana, yet she won’t let him go. So in order for him to get away, he would have to go back to the old man for a solution. Basically this story is saying that you have to be aware of the future and think before you act.

            Another thing I want to point out is that, although it is a short story, I feel as if there should be more to the story. It feels as if this is just the middle of a story. Details like who exactly Alan and Diana are, how Alan found out about the old man, and what was the outcome of his love potion purchase. It is a good story but I think with just more details it could be even better.

Checkouts is about a girl that was practically forced to move to Cincinnati, fell in love with a boy after a shopping incident, and at the end nothing happens. At first it was a bit confusing, but as the story progressed it was slightly humorous but later on kind of depressing and disappointing. When the story first started I thought that it was just going to be about the girl and the house. However, it suddenly jumps to how she likes to go grocery shopping. It was a bit random and could have had a better transition. But with the focus now on her grocery shopping “hobby”, the story basically starts. Although it is kind of realistic about how the boy drops the mayonnaise jar, the part about her instantly falling in love with him was a bit more fantasy. I really don’t think that a person could fall in love that easily and fast. The ending was also quite sad that they didn’t talk with each other and get to know each other.

            Overall, this story was decent. I really like how the author refers to how people act when they desire things. Stuff like this does happen, a person would want to talk to another person he/she might like but is too afraid of the outcome and in the end they end up how the characters ended up, separate lives and don’t even know who each other really is. You can’t just wish and wait all the time; sometimes you have to take the initiative to do it.