Synopsis:
KD Rye's short story 'Henry's Departure' tells the tragic tale of three sisters left to fend for themselves in the wilderness of their own home. Sue, Miley and Joyce find themselves abandoned by adults and left without food, they will need to rely on their wits to survive. But when hunger sets in, will the sisters be able to cling to their humanity?
Review:
So this story follows 3 sisters, Sue the oldest, Miley the child in the middle and Joyce, the youngest. Their mother never worked so money was non existent so after the tragic death of their mother, the girls are left to survive on what Henry can give them but it comes with a price. When Henry leaves for a while, the three children are left with no food, which he would always bring each week, they are left with absolutely nothing, their towels are unusable, their stockpile of food is non existent and they're hungry almost every second of the day.
Miley is the only child patient enough to go fishing each day and Joyce always goes with, pulling worms from the dirt to use at bait. It' hit and miss fishing. sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you're not. We do see the girls catch 2 fish, freezing one and gutting, cutting and cooking the other. The detail drawn out from that encounter makes the book feel even more real to the reader.
I feel like this short story is all about the lengths people go to just to survive, about the level of dependence we have on others, really weirdly over thought deep things like that. It's a 5/5 from me without a doubt, it's deep and gnarly really. Not one for the kiddies really. I loved it from start to end, didn't see the end coming at all, pretty blindsided by it. I'll be keeping an eye out for more work by K D Rye, she's got something I cant quite describe when it comes to writing.
