Shorty Favorites January 2016: Horrible Characters and Funny Circumstance

The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell 
* First Impressions: I fell in love with Sanger!
* The Horrible Character: General Zaroff, of course. I'd like to compare him to Jumanji's Van Pelt.
* The Funny Circumstance: The end.
* What Makes This a Reread: I laughed at the funny circumstance towards the end. I love how Connell was able to show what came of Sanger without actually stating it. It was clever writing.

2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut
* First Impressions: I initially downloaded this for free on my Kindle. I was drawn to it from its odd title, but I trapped myself into this world so hard, I took a minute to collect my wits before I went about my day.
* The Horrible Character: Dr. Benjamin Hitz. The chirpy ones always scare me.
* The Funny Circumstance: Leora Duncan and her mustache!
* What Makes This a Reread: The ending to this story was so powerful, yet simple. It opens your mind to the concepts of life and death and their relation to society and population.

The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
* First Impressions: I actually enjoyed 'watching' Montresor lure Fortunato to his doom.
* The Horrible Character: Fortunato.
* The Funny Circumstance: Just how easy it was to lure someone into their own grave. And Montresor was so courteous about it too.
* What Makes This a Reread: Just recalling my initial feelings for the narrator/ main character, and reviewing the reason behind this choice of POV, makes me rethink my sanity. But it is still funny.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway
* First Impressions: I wanted to slap the young waiter. Effin' prick!
* The Horrible Character: The effin' prick.
* The Funny Circumstance: The deaf man knew he was being a prick.
* What Makes This a Reread: After I read this, I held a deep respect for the old waiter. Hemingway usually earns my respect for at least one of his characters in every one of his stories.

The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
* First Impressions: I laughed so hard! I was 15, in my room, and my parents thought I was insane.
* The Horrible Character: Mathilde Losiel.
* The Funny Circumstance: The real worth of the borrowed necklace, and Mathilde's reaction.
* What Makes This a Reread: Just how horrible Mathilde is, how loving her husband is, and the horrible consequences for one night of pretending to be something you're not.

These stories were so short, I reread each one of them while writing this post. It was a very nostalgic experience, because these stories opened the world of literature for me during high school. Please leave me suggestions for more shorties. Stay Sane, folks!