Response to "Brotherly Love"

     I loved how family oriented everyone seemed to be in this story. I liked how we were presented with the idea of  two brothers living together and the "uncle" is actually the caretaker of the kids. We learn that their whole family had pretty much grown up in that one house and it seemed that everything fell apart at the start of William wanting to move because of a job offer. I thought the tension created from that worked well and even more considering we aren't dealing with a husband and wife, we're dealing with brothers.

         One of my favorite points in the story was the dialogue between William and Sam when she throws his the box of band-aids and they refer to each other as "Samuel" and "Aunt Wilma." I thought you portrayed the kids "being kids" well especially with young Jacob playing Mario Kart and not wanting to stop, even for his own birthday dinner and later gifts. I thought it added to the tention nicely. 

     I thought your use of imagery was great especially with the very first line of the story showing how William sliced his finger. It really grabbed my attention and made me want to keep reading. There were some instances however where I wanted a bit more explanation. For example, I wanted to know more about why William kept the cigarette in his pocket if he didn't smoke it. I know he mentions something about having a friend who smoked, but I wanted to know if that friend died or something like that. I also thought the burglary scene could've shown or explained more. At first I wasn't sure if it was a prank by one of the brothers ( I think perhaps I wanted it to be) or what. However since it wasn't a prank, I think I wanted it to be scarier or more life threatening than it seemed. But overall enjoyed reading this story and I loved the sarcasm thrown in throughout as well.