I thought you did a good job with using dialogue to move the story along. It helped develop the characters and kept the pacing tight. Nice work!

No specific suggestions for improvement.

Overall, I thought you did a good job coming up with a compelling take on the prompt. You included all the elements in a convincing and natural way. Good job!

The characterization and setting details in this story were great. The cabin by the lake is a vivid setting, and Arlynn's experience was well-articulated. It felt like an excerpt to a much larger story with a lot of potential. Nice work!

TYPO: When she could stand up, she wiped the tears from her eyes as she glanced...

The man's name isn't mentioned until very late in the story. For several mentions, he's "the man" or "he" or "the police officer" at first, then - toward the end of the story - it suddenly pivots to "The dog stayed until Ryan looked back and gave a whistle." I think the name "Ryan" needs to be introduced earlier in order for this casual reference to work.

For me, the last sentence (That had been a dramatic experience.) could have been better. It sort of blatantly tells the reader how to think about the encounter that occurred previously in the story, and I think it would be stronger if you led the reader to draw their own conclusions about how dramatic it was based on context clues as they read. I think the piece would be a little stronger with an ending line that either hinted at what was ahead, or even just left the reader with something to ponder.

Overall, I enjoyed the read. Well done!

I enjoyed the body horror element of this story. I thought you did a great job balancing the excitement of the initial results Barry was enjoying with the dangers of being too excessive about it. The story was a compelling, well-paced read.

"Barry's job as manager of the local supermarket... each aisle was a hundred yards long..." - This line caught me a little off-guard because I don't know any local supermarket with aisles that are the length of professional football fields.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story. Nice work!

I thought you did a good job with this story. The setting was well developed and the characters were engaging. In only a thousand words, you managed to tell a compelling narrative. Nice work!

No specific suggestions for improvement.

Overall, I really enjoyed this piece. Good job!

I thought you did a good job with this story. The themes of loss and love came through clearly, and the characters were engaging. The search for a puppy and the juxtaposition of adding to the family while also dealing with a loss of family was a great narrative choice.

No specific suggestions for improvement.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story. Well done!

I thought you did a great job with establishing the details of the setting in this story. I could definitely empathize with the excitement of Rahman and Amina hoping that they would settle somewhere warm or temperate, only to find themselves forced to adjust to an entirely different climate. Your characters were engaging and well-developed in comparatively few words. Nice work!

As I read, I found myself wanting a bit more substance to the narrative. It was a compelling vignette of a family's experience with snowy weather, but there wasn't much conflict or rising tension or resolution. At the end, it felt more like an excerpt of a larger narrative rather than a story that stands on its own.

Overall, I really enjoyed the read. It was well-written and compelling. Great job!

I thought this was a good take on the prompt, and an effective piece of flash fiction. The characters were well established for an item with so few words, and the use of dialogue to move the story along at a good pace was an excellent choice. Nice work!

With 200 words to spare, I think there was some room to expand the detail and description and give the reader a bit more insight into the world of the story. Even some simple setting description or character details would make the setup and payoff of the humor all the more effective.

Overall, this was a fun flash fiction story and a good take on the contest prompt. Well done!

For me, the central conflict seemed a little unnecessarily complicated. Once they got locked outside, breaking a window to get back inside seemed like the more sensible, logical choice, especially compared to going to visit a neighbor who was known to be paranoid. It would have been a more understandable choice if the neighbor were reliable (for example, a friend who would surely let them in but turns out not to be home, or something along those lines) and it was assumed to be a way of salvaging the situation. But venturing out into a snowstorm into the unknown feels like the less practical choice than breaking a window in the first place.

Overall, this was a well-written and engaging story. The characters and their predicament was compelling and carried my interest throughout. Nice work!