Raphael - Comments

I’m not a believer. I don’t think I ever truly was even when I was a child going to church every Sunday. And I don’t know if you are a believer or not, I can’t tell (honestly, it doesn’t feel like it matters) but if you are, I hope I don’t say anything in this comment that’s offensive. :)

What I liked about this story was not the religious feel to it – like I said, I’m not religious myself -, but the fact that the teller was a non-believer and that you didn’t make it a “you don’t believe in it, but it’s real” story. There’s nothing forcing the reader to agree on a certain idea, no forcing of a belief as a real thing on anyone, not even the main character. It’s just there, the fact that some things happen and there’s no factual justification and who knows? Seemingly unreal things can happen. I really like that thought. I also liked the message that you don’t have to pray to the same god everyone does, but you can pray to what feels right to you as long as your thoughts are good and you mean them. This makes me so happy because I live in a small community where you’re judged for not being religious yet the church is filled with fake prayers. It’s refreshing to be told it’s okay and that if some superior good actually exists you can count on it too.

One of my mottos when it comes to reading is that you’ll keep me coming back if you keep me guessing. You did that even though it was such a short piece. I was never sure what was actually going to happen; the summary was ambiguous enough and throughout the piece you don’t catch obvious clues about how it’s going to end. I like that a lot. The fact that you left the ending an open one supports what I said before about this story not forcing ideas on anyone, leaves you to interpret it the way you like just like I’m doing now. That’s exactly how I think religion should be – an open story. Kudos again.

And finally – your writing of course. We’ve already established you’re a brilliant writer, but I’ll never get tired of saying it. Everything is always so wonderful and honestly good, you deserve better praise than I can ever give you. That said, I missed reading something of yours a lot, so thank you for this, really. I hope to see a lot more in the future. :)

This was...well I feel like I'll somehow sound like a broken record if I say brilliant, but there's really no other word for this. It drew me in right from the first paragraph and kept me guessing. And when she was sitting in the chapel and the guy started talking to her, I was thinking to myself, "Who's this creep..." because seriously, people don't just talk to random strangers anymore. But when she went back to the room to find out Ryan's going to be okay - yay! - and heard that her friend "Raphael" told Ryan she was praying for him, it clicked. It was a legit lightbulb moment. And I'm assuming this is the kind of story where a reader can take what they want from it because what really happened wasn't obviously explained...but I'm going to assume that Raphael isn't a real person, but an angel of some kind? Maybe even the archangel? I don't know, but I do know that I absolutely loved this.

This was absolutely amazing! I loved it! I wish I could say more but I'm really at a loss for words. This is truly an awesome piece of work.