Six Stories is a mystery/thriller novel written by Matt Wesolowski. It is a novel told as though it is being done on a podcast where an investigative journalist, Scott King, details the death of a teenage boy; the teen's death was never really solved by the police. Scott King interviews six people who had connections to the dead teen and through these interviews he tries to piece together what might have really happened.
The novel is 225 pages and I was a bit nervous that the author wouldn't be able to tell a good story in such a short number of pages. However, I was blown away at how well the author did and the ending of this novel was pretty spectacular and unexpected.
The thing I liked about this novel was that Scott King interviews six people and so there were only six chapters which focused on the interviews. There were a few other chapters thrown in that were told from the perspective of the person who found the teen's body which were interesting but I was really confused how those chapters really played into the overall story. I feel like those added chapters told from that particular person's point of view actually took away from the story and added a bit of confusion.
One of the things I really liked about the novel was that there were some elements that made the novel feel kind of creepy. I was not expecting those creepy bits because I was under the impression that the book was a mystery/thriller and usually mystery/thrillers aren't overly creepy. If I had known that the novel was going to incorporate some creepier elements I probably would have waited to read it until October seeing as I always like to incorporate creepy reads during that month.
I thought the novel did a really good job of showing how teens can change and make mistakes. A large portion of the interviews were done with people who were friends of the teen boy. All of the teens interviewed detailed how different they were as teens and how they look back on some of the things they did and can't believe they acted that way. I think the theme of teens being easily influenced and changing as they grow was really important to cover.
The novel did mention some drug and alcohol use as well as a bit of bullying. So, if those things are triggering to you it might be best to skip the novel.
The chapters in this book were quite long and usually longer chapters take me a while to get through but I found myself speeding through them because I was enjoying the novel so much and wanted to see what would happen next. In a way, I suppose there were certain parts of the story that were repetitive because a lot of the people being interviewed had the same experiences. Every single person interviewed was there when the teen boy went missing and they were all able to detail the events that led up to it. A lot of those details were quite similar but there were minor variations. However, for me, those minor variations made the story worthwhile and it also made the story seem a bit more realistic because, in my opinion, it would have seemed odd if all six people had detailed major differences.
I think that the ending is what made this novel so amazing to me. While I was reading it I was thinking that the ending was going to be mediocre and predictable. In my opinion it was not. The only thing is that the ending does leave you wondering if certain things that were revealed actually happened or if they were just the product of some overactive imaginations. Sometimes ambiguous endings, such as this one, are an awesome way to end a story. I think that due to the length of this novel, the author made a really great choice to use an ambiguous ending.
I think that this novel could be a perfect read for someone who wants to read a mystery book that has some creepy scenes thrown in. It might be the perfect read for someone who wants to try and read a scarier book in October but doesn't want to venture into horror.
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