By H. M. Garber

Kyt Dotson’s fifth volume, Drum Circle, consists of three more chapters of her “Mill Avenue Vexations”: Chance Encounters, Street Preachers, and The Drum Circle.

In the first chapter of this volume, Chance Encounters, Kyt uses Melee, a street rat, to describe the strangeness that happened in previous chapters while giving the audience a new point of view. The perspective flows naturally into Vex’s voice by describing locations the characters visit. Similar to the way a movie will change points of view by focusing on different locations and characters.

Street Preachers, develops the relationships between Nathan, Patrick highlighting their distain for the preachers that use religion as a show full of empty promises. They spend some time heckling them before moving on to more truthful spiritual pursuits.

In The Drum Circle we meet the main members of a group that are more real than the false promises of the preachers. These are the people upon whom Vex relies on to back her up if any mystical crises crops up. Each person is an original in looks and manner leading the reader to believe that each person can lend their own individual talent to the catastrophic event Kyt has described in her prologue.

Kyt has the unique ability to immerse her reader into, not only her story, but the culture and flavor of her college town and its underbelly. It’s as though you are looking at a textual moving photograph. She uses her storytelling skills to draw the reader in and engross them in the fascinating world that exists on her Mill Avenue.

The fifth volume of Mill Avenue Vexations can be found at http://www.millvexations.com/read/index.php.