Yak by Lois Cloarec HartYak by Lois Cloarec Hart is a fun little short story.

Leni is starting her new job at The Jesters Court. Every lunch hour when most of the night shift employees go to lunch they all gather around one table in easy comradery. Everyone except one employee they call Yak. Out of curiosity Leni begins to ask around about Yak but no one is forthcoming with information. Everyone’s answer is practically the same, “stay away.”

Having enough of all the mysteriousness Leni decides it’s time to find out why everyone is so afraid of this girl.

The Characters

Leni is just so gung-ho for life. She reminds me of me at her age. Instead of being tactful about situations she just barrels ahead. I found her endearing and also she is a bit of a horn dog. You can’t blame her though being 23 and still a virgin.

Yak *sigh* Yak, Yak, Yak. Poor Yak. She is an enigma and she likes books. That is all I can say without ruining the story.

The Writing Style

This is a short story for Halloween. It has a bit of action, a dark side, and a bit of comedy, and romance. It’s constructed very well.

The Pros

It was a cute short story. I enjoyed the bit of comedy that was worked in.

The Cons

I didn’t have anything to complain about.

The Conclusion

What a fun short story to add to you Halloween collection! Looking for a light Halloween read you should give Yak a try.

Excerpt from Yak by Lois Cloarec Hart

Now I’m not the most subtle person in the world. If you ask Yvonne or Herman or Aunt Helene or… well, pretty much anyone who’s known me for longer than five minutes, they’ll tell you I’m the bull in the china shop, the Jack Russell in the chicken coop, the queer at the Baptist convention. No finesse, no tiptoeing about, just full speed ahead and damn the consequences.

After a month of containing my curiosity and getting nowhere with my crafty inquiries, I decided to take the bull by the horns on my next shift. I stayed at the normal lunch break table long enough for Elliot to introduce the new cook, Ed, to everyone, then I quietly picked up my tray and walked over to Yak’s table.

I could just about hear the collective gasp behind me, but Yak seemed oblivious to my approach. She always took off her hairnet during our lunch breaks, and let her straight, dark, shoulder length hair dangle like a curtain hiding her face. Her empty soup bowl was pushed to the side and she was reading… as always.

I sat down across from her. “Mind if I join you?”

Yak looked up with such an expression of shock, you’d have thought I’d just done a striptease in front of her. The thing that really got my attention was her eyes. I’d never really looked Yak directly in the face, even though we’d worked in the same kitchen for over a month.

It wasn’t so much the colour, though they were a nice shade of brown. It was that even though her mouth wasn’t saying a word, her eyes were speaking volumes. Shock, disbelief, consternation, fear… That last one really brought me up short.

She was afraid of me? Me? Nobody had ever been afraid of me. Even my baby sister walks all over me.

Yak lowered her head again, but I could see her fingers trembling where they held her page down. It made me feel oddly protective of her, and for an instant I second guessed myself. Maybe I should just leave her alone. It was pretty obvious that no one in this restaurant, aside maybe from the new guy, thought my being at Yak’s table was a good idea.

But I knew my intentions were good…weren’t they? I certainly didn’t want to hurt her. I just wanted to understand what was going on—why this perfectly ordinary, if extremely quiet woman inspired such apprehension and ostracism.

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Bits and Bobs

  • ISBN number: 9783955331146
  • Publisher: Ylva Publishing

Lois Cloarec Hart Online 

Note: I received a free review copy of Yak by Lois Cloarec Hart. No money was exchanged for this review. I will always review books as honestly as possible and on occasion I refuse to review books.