Title: A Mother's ChoiceAuthor: Angel Van Atta
First Published: January 1, 2024
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages: 32
Genre: Horror, Short Stories
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
Rating:
Synopsis:
Betty awakens suddenly one night to find her whole world has been turned into a real-life nightmare.
With time running out and her children's lives at stake, Betty must make a horrible choice. A choice that will haunt her for the rest of her days.
Review
Angel Van Atta writes stories that hit close to home, dealing with the difficult sacrifices of mothers and the horrors that children are subjected to because people are cruel. I picked up A Mother’s Choice after falling in love with In The Tall Trees and yet again, Angel presented another absolute nightmare for any parent.
As a woman that grew up in a broken, abusive household and now a mother of two wonderful children, I find myself waking up at night to check all the doors and windows to make sure I didn’t forget to lock them. The idea of a home invasion is one of my worst fears, and I’ve gone over in my head so many times how to handle every possible scenario, a hundred fold when my children were still very little, and established plans with my oldest on how to navigate every scenario. This short story was that very fear come to life. An excellent short story, I look forward to seeing how Angel’s writing evolves.
Quote
“She knew then she was almost out of time and she needed to do something quickly to save her babies. Something smart and wise and brave. But Betty had never felt like she was smart or wise or brave.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Angel Van Atta
Angel Van Atta was born to an abusive father and a mother who would soon fall victim to cancer’s ugly fist. After the death of her mother, when Angel was just four years old, she was separated from her half-brother who had shared the same mom, and bounced around from family members to friends of her father. Because of her curious and sometimes terrifying childhood, Angel soon turned to horror as a way to feel safe. She found that horror on the page or on the screen was often worse than what she was going through in real life, and in these stories there was hope as well as redemption and the coming together of the oppressed and terrified. But, most importantly, she found that good could triumph over evil. These were great comforts to the scared and lonely little girl.
Angel is now a mother of two who was lucky enough to find a husband who was everything her father was not. Kind and trustworthy and good. She writes horror as a way to spread the same kind of hope that she so needed as a little girl and outside of the world of fiction only really ever found as an adult. Her stories are vivid and chilling as well as heartwarming and fast paced. She invites you to walk with her in her imagination. A place that can be just as dark as it is light.
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