Best of the Best of 2014 - A Place Without Monuments or Endings
We've reached the end of our Best of 2014 retrospective, and it's time to reveal the story that we've chosen as our favorite. We loved so many stories last year, far more than appeared on our list, but one in particular had such an impact on us that it was an easy pick for Best of the Best.
We take you back to August 2014 for A Place Without Monuments and Endings, by Elliott Langley.
Monuments takes us to the edge of the apocalypse and leaves us hanging in a way that could easily feel boring, or overwrought. But Langley gives us a progressively deeper look into the lives of a couple and the troubles they've had preceding the arrival of ... whatever it is that's going to end it all. At first, the story seems pretty clear-cut, and while the narrator is interesting, the story doesn't seem truly impressive until near the end. It's not quite a twist, but there is a reveal that changes the way you perceive the bits you've already read. That's the truly masterful stroke, in our opinion. A twist, or reveal, or whatever you want to call it, isn't about pulling the rug out from under the reader, but instead helping them see a bigger picture.
Even if you've read A Place Without Monuments or Endings a dozen times, you owe it to yourselves to read it one more time. And if you haven't read the rest of our Best of 2014 list, fix your deficiency.