Pagan Book Reviews

Epona
Robin Whitten
Jupiter Gardens Press, 2013
25 pages

Reviewed by Ser

Epona is a short-story focused on Amelia, a woman at a critical point in her life. She struggles to rediscover herself in the face of a heart-breaking loss and a devastating accident.

While short, this story runs a gamut of emotions as we travel with Amelia through her memories. From sadness, to safety, to the embarrassing first conversations of a new relationship, to frustration and loss and fear, it’s no hard task to relate with the narrator and understand where she is coming from. Some moments it is difficult to tell whether we are in the past or the present, but I feel this works well with the storyline.

There were some sticky points in the narration that could use refinement – two sentences in particular, “After cooling off, they walked over to a small spring to cool off” (pg 16), and “she was afraid they would over to rescue her” (pg 23). A bit of revision would serve these areas well. There are also a few areas with unnecessary capitalization that could be reviewed.

Amelia’s life revolves around horses, and it’s beautiful to see how they are woven into the story. There is a brief mention of the Preakness which isn’t integral to the story, yet detracted from it for me as I had to look it up (I’m not knowledgeable about horses). The pagan elements are light and non-pervasive, yet essential and lovely.

Overall, while there are a few spots that could be improved upon, I thoroughly enjoyed this story and what it offers the reader. It does much with the short story format; I’m pleased the author recognized this and kept it at current length. The ending warmed me and is alone worth the read.

Four and a half pawprints out of five.

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