All Comments on 'Talisman of Hate'

The dialogue was way too self-indulgent, trying to parade itself as if penned by a Regency era playwright. It made for a tedious read, requiring a Herculean effort to meander through.

Another brilliant story from a master storyteller. Easy to read, difficult to put down. Loved it. Once again, perfect interaction with the characters

Good story!

5

A delightful love story. Well done.

Superb story. Brilliantly constructed and penned

This was a wonderful and thoughtful piece of writing. Excellent. Thank you for sharing this talent.

Wow!!!!! Very well written. Very insightful. One of the very best stories I have ever read. Even as an editor. You touched on so many important things regarding hatred, love and loss. Harry and Julie were completely believable. Their fears and their challenges were well developed. Thank you for this wonderful gift. K

May be the best story I have ever read.absolutely brilliant

Wow. Lots of ups and downs. Loved every minuet of the story. Thank You.

Whew, a lot went on there! Very well done, you ran the gamut of emotions!! Happiness and love prevailed, thank you!

Managed to get to page 3 before I had enough of Saint Peter the wise and the other perfect characters.

Well done

Such a good story! 5*

Great and insightful. Thank you.

Good. Very, very good.

Wow

Not sure I’ve voted 5 before; I would have given 6 out of 5 if it would let me

I struggle to understand why this story was rated so highly. After struggling to make it to the end I was left with a really bad taste for the whole thing. Perhaps I'm just not a nice enough person, but I don't think Harry deserved the outcome he got from this story. It was all just a little too nice and neat that somehow he could overcome the fact that he made Julie's life (and lives of others) a living hell all during school. He certainly didn't deserve his happy ending. I especially didn't like the comment that Julie made about her kicking the little house they build made her a monster too. That was like equating jaywalking with murder. One other note, the character of Peter was just a little too neat, convenient, and good to be believed. Totally disappointing outcome in many ways.

Lovely story. Thank you

Excellent story!

Out. Fucking. Standing! It's been a while on this site since I've seen this complex of a story arc, with overlapping character plot lines, so expertly told. The part of Peter was overplayed at times, but I loved his role as mediator. I'm guessing Julie never figured out that he knew who she was when they met in the library...LOL! 5+*

Very nice, thank you.

Wow , great story . Had me crying at the end .

Tanks for sharing

Very lovely story, 5 stars and even more if possible !

Very nicely done. I could easily see that you could expand this to a novel. Keep up the great storytelling!

What a beautiful, beautiful story. You had a 60 year old dude in tears. Well done!

So emotional and a story filled with powerful life lessons and regeneration. I looked at my own life, as I read this novel. As Mr. Spock once, said, there are always possibilities in this stage of humanity. Hope, patience, and love, understanding will rise with the sunrise of new beginnings. Thank you. I just loved your efforts here.

Absolutely lovely story. Got me to reflect on some of my anger. BTW, opera arias (not areas)

Absolutely fantastic. Brought tears several times

That was a voyage and a half - and I’m not talking about the length of the story, but the breadth of emotion conveyed within it, utterly wonderful! Yes, one or two minor typos, but they’re isolated, which in a long text is completely forgivable. You did a grand job firstly with the story arc, but secondly, weaving and then disentangling the complex characters with their entrenched hatred of one another, my one regret is that we didn’t get to “see” Peggy except in retrospect, however, her spirit loomed large over the tale and in many ways her legacy *was* the story. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story, many thanks for writing and posting it here on Lit, cheers, Ppfzz. 5⭐️

Opera Areas aot Opera Arias. Thanks for that. I missed it. Spell checker of course was happyy...

The thing with Peter. The story needed a strong backbone to hold it together and that job fell on Peter. Yes, he featured a bit much but without him the story would have fallen flat on its face. Somebody needed to kick these jerk into motion. Once again I say. I play the music. You paint the picture....

Thanks for the wonderful comments. It makes the days spent hammering words into a keyboard worth it.

What an amazing story, well worth the 5 stars.

Oh yes, there are a few spelling mishaps, but really who cares? This is a transcendent piece of writing, and as an author of 8 novels and many short stories, I find myself struggling with jealousy! It is a deliciously wonderful story and as someone already noted it really should be expanded into a full novel and published. In the years I have habituated this site I have not read anything better, nor anything that touched me as deeply. There are not enough stars to do this writing justice. This dragon is slain!

One of the best i ever read her . A real feelgood story where love overcomes everything

What a emotional loving story. After reading it I would have been very sad if I would have missed it. This was on par with the best I have read on this site ... maybe a cut above.

Wow, absolutely amazing!

Don't worry about the few who criticized the effort. This story was a masterpiece! It reminds ua that love can conquer all. 5 is too low a ranking for this. Thank You

Don't worry about the few who criticized the effort. This story was a masterpiece! It reminds ua that love can conquer all. 5 is too low a ranking for this. Thank You

Well that was an insanely adorable story. Quite the journey at 16 pages but an emotional and lovely one. 5 stars easy and faved.

What can be said that hasn't been said. Damn great story.

Simply amazing, I loved the story. Thanks a lot for writing and posting it!

Superb!

This is a great story. My only complaint is your fire event is called a flashover not a fire ball and only because it’s my job lol. Real talk, great story!

Wow! What an entertaining read. I had put it aside due to the length. Then as I started to read it, I couldn't stop. Thank you.

OK. Somebody had a gripe with "Saint Peter" and also admitted to not being a nice enough person. Peter was the backbone of a story with so much feeling that it left me looking at myself.

Mainboy, this is a remarkable work. No sex needed.

Anything but perfect. It was superb. An absolute joyride of love.

Exceptional writing by a born storyteller who does it for the love of storytelling.

Thank you.

This may be the best short story I've ever read...anywhere. Thank you for taking us on an emotional roller coaster.

Great writing but such a weak ending ruined it for me. What's the point of all that emotional buildup, around 16 pages of it, if just to tie it up so poorly? For this kind of story, a reasonably fleshed out 'Happy ending' with proper and detailed reciprocation of feelings is what makes all the preceding drama meaningful, isn't it?

And what even is the point of Harry's facial disfiguration? to show that he paid for his sins? to add weight to Julie's character for wanting him despite that? Just feels so unnecessary and in poor taste, to me.

Great start and buildup, I was excited reading through, but at the end very disappointed.

Wow, what an emotional roller coaster, I can't believe I even cried a few times. A beautiful story! Thank you so much. I couldn't stop reading from the get-go, and had to finish it in one read.

Really good tale. I think my allergies were playing up whilst reading that, my eyes were watering at certain parts of the story. Well done!

I cannot remember having cried so much while reading a story. I was shattered and then joyfully repaired. A remarkable piece of writing dealing with just about every human emotion, bringing an interesting group of characters together, each contributing just that 'something' to make the story so beautifully believable.

Salaam great sir.

Wow! Just wow!

A masterpiece. Should be expanded and taken to print. No master has to step aside but they should take note.

Oh wow. I started reading and then simply could not stop. The comments made me read it, the story made me sit up till late to read the beautiful end. Masterfully told and I agree that it should be expanded and taken to print. It won't win the Pulitzer prize. Instead it would make a great many people happy and that is what writing romantic fiction is all about.

Superb storytelling. Wow!

The most moving story I have ever read.

Not the first time I have cried over a story but this one kept me crying. One of the best stories I have read and if any story needs a film this is it. Hallmark where are you?

Excellent, I enjoyed it immensely. Thank you for a couple of evenings of enjoyment.

Couple issues.

1. No sex. This isn't make or break, I enjoy a sappy romance as much as the next person, but still a bit disappointing.

2. My main issue I guess is that after the fire, there's about 4 or 5 pages that are very repetitive going on and on about hatred and forgiveness. If new revelations were occurring or something was happening then go for it. But it just didn't feel like anything of value would have been lost if it was trimmed by AT LEAST 3 pages.

3. Related to 1 and 2, the sex was obviously lacking... but so was the romance? Julie is constantly talking about her hatred to him and constantly saying "you can't imagine my amount of hurt" and "I don't know if I'll ever forgive you" and then kind of out of no where she kisses him and is then telling people and everyone seems to know they are going to deeply entangled forever now. They're relationship starts at -100 and gradually works up to maybe better than neutral, and then bam! 100, "we're in love."

4. This one's less criticism more personal preference, but burn scars can be truly disgusting. And while it's a bummer to judge someone due their appearance, I just find it unsettling to think their romance begins after his head (and back) have been disfigured. Julie really is a Saint a I guess.

One of the best I have read.

Utterly confusing. The attempt to use Victorian language didn't help. Having to back up and re-read to figure out who was doing what had my eyes crossing. Too bad, a good idea gone awful.

Fantastic story. Twice in the comments I came upon a complaint about the 'Victorian' language and I made a thorough search. It was used TWICE, once in a single sentence and once in a very short conversation and both times it was used to convey a specific mood. Once as playful in a possibly stressful situation and the other to convey a feeling of joy and hope.

I assume 'Anonymous' (both of them) find it difficult to understand how a mood is conveyed in writing and as such will not even 'get' it. 'Having to back up and re-read' says a lot about 'Anonymous' ability to read.

Anybody out there who may happen upon this story, read it. It is not a masterpiece. I have read those. This is simply brilliant and if it was spoiled by sex, it may have attained a much higher score. Pity about that.

Oh, and by the way.

"Utterly confusing". Dear commenter. May I introduce you to Red Riding Hood? THAT is confusing. What with a talking wolf and a little girl finding herself in a forest, all alone.

From time to time, amongst the many stories and styles, a gem appears. Thank for sharing this one and providing a beautiful hour with your characters, now mine as well. Thank you.

Fantastic!

Fantastic. Worth more than 5 gold stars.Looking forward to the next read by this author.!

I was getting bored and tired of the frequent reiteration of the persecution of Julie by Harry. It was tiresome. Often the Romance stories get trapped in a cycle of pleasant happening's and need a jolt to create a break in the flow and put some tension in the plot. The fire and its aftermath certainly did that. It was clear from page 2 or 3 that Julie and Harry would end up together, but the author couldn't get this done without an excess of 16 pages. Too many without having enough real plot to sustain it. The creation of the hotel and restaurant at Rushing Streams injected a note of finality to the story which ended in a tidy fashion. I really wish authors would avoid using names that look and sound alike. Harry and Henry blend together and at first it was hard to differentiate them. The whole family situation was complicated enough. There were too many named characters in the story as it was. I was torn between a 4* and a 2* rating, but all in all it wasn't bad so I gave it the 4*. I do agree that this had almost no romance let alone sex. I do wonder if the author had a little twinge of revenge in mind in disfiguring Harry so badly. Payment for the years of bullying Julie. But then he does get the girl in the end so maybe that's not his motive. I can't imagine anyone being so cruel to a childhood friend as Harry was to Julie. Maybe 2* would have been more deserved.

'Overcritical' - YES, you definitely are!!

Well written, wonderfully spun story.

great story, only 1 fuck in 16 pages and no clit tickling or chewing. Ignore the comments of "Overcritical" they think they are an English Lit Professor.