Talk:The Dress and Cat Mask/@comment-25052433-20150629234631

Well, this story is easily in the top 5 best pastas that I have read this month, and that is saying something, because I read a lot of these things.

The setting, pace, tempo and descriptions were all perfectly executed. This story did a great job of digging down into the roots of horror, rather than terror, and really creating a psychological joy ride that started off rather tame and quickly flipped into high gear.

The imagery was deliciously disturbing and certainly did an awesome job at delivering a nice chilling effect. This story was brutal in all the right ways, and didn't hold back. There is a lot to admire in the sheer grit of it all.

The twist was superb. You did a nice job of leading the reader into a false concept, thinking that this was a family of backwood christian types. Honestly I really couldn't tell what the father's intentions were at first, all I knew for sure was that something was very, very wrong with him. The daughter's heartless murder of the baby and cavalier attitude towards death and human mutilation delivered a wonderful view into the demented world that they lived in.

The ending, with the sister pregnant by the brother, knowing that the next generation would be raised into this cult, for a lack of better words, was a perfect way to close out a great pasta.

My only real critique here would be that some of the dialogue felt a bit artificial. The scene where the woman is crying for her son Timothy felt a bit flat. Perhaps more description on her physical reactions, like crying, face contorting...etc, would help make that whole scene feel a bit more organic. I also felt that the reactions of the cabin residents when the man walked in holding a knife was a bit downplayed and rushed. They didn't seem as alert or concerned about the situation as I would imagine a group of adults being in that particular case. Perhaps if you were to write in that they were all blasted on pain killers or something, that might explain why they seemed so lethargic about the whole thing.

Either way though, I love this one as it is, and just mentioned a couple things that I felt were a bit lacking. You should certainly write more, this showcased a wonderful flurry of talent for the graphic and extreme, and I would love to see what else you could come up with.