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OTHERLAND by DIDE

OTHERLAND

by DIDE

Publisher: Kurti Publishing

An unnamed boy and girl separated by worlds fall in love in this hybrid of a chapbook, novella and philosophical treatise.

A girl's life is changed by a chance encounter with a boy from another world. Upon meeting, they feel an immediate attraction, leading them to kiss. That one interaction catapults the girl into the boy's world, a foreign planet that is geographically similar to her own but full of strange new wonders that fill her with amazement at each discovery. As the girl experiences this new world at the boy's side, she makes great philosophical revelations about herself, the nature of humankind and love. But though each breakthrough seems as though it will be the one that changes her life and brings her enlightenment, she quickly reverts to her state of insecurity and doubt. Eventually, the boy returns her to her home, and both must face the consequences of their choices. The world DIDE creates is a utopia, where arguments are conducted only on bridges and people fly together to work out their differences. Her description of the colors and the physical aspects of the new world, which has an almost waterlike atmosphere, is vivid at times. At other times, her sentences circumnavigate their subjects, with prose too confused to be considered florid. Because the narrative it told almost entirely from the internal perspective, the emotions of the main characters and their thoughts on their life journeys are the main focus; thus, there is very little physical action and no dialogue. DIDE strives for poetic language, sometimes accomplishing it, and dabbles in philosophical musings about humanity, love and peace. Often these musings are offered as the thoughts of her main characters, but sometimes the tangents move away from relating to story to instead offer a grandiose perspective on the nature of humanity.

A novella with interesting ideas that fail to coalesce into a fully realized story.