Contains the short story "Abandon Changes" plus a preview for the novel, "Girl Parts".
The short story, "Abandon Changes", has a cyberpunk feel that is enjoyable. It follows the main character, Rei, on one of her courier runs and highlights her interaction with Rose, one of the characters we will see in the preview of "Girl Parts". Cusick does a wonderful job of giving the main character, Rei, a unique voice. The near-future world Cusick builds is believable and well crafted. The story stands on its own and I was left wanting to know more about Rei and her world.
The preview for "Girl Parts" was a bit less to my liking. Set in the same universe as "Abandoned Changes", we see the beginning of Rose's story and are introduced to some new characters as well. With Rose's introduction, suddenly some things with regard to her mannerisms in the short story make more sense. David who is supposed to be Rose's love interest is introduced and we see that he is a complete and utter jackass, unworthy of even the affection of a lovebot. I did not like David and not in a good "oh I can't wait to see this guy get what's coming to him" way.
Cusick does do an OK job of drawing an awkward and cringe-worthy first date between two characters, Charlie and Rebecca. I'm far enough removed from the angst of the teen dating scene that I needed to forcefully suspend disbelief when it came to how incredibly clueless these two were on the date. I'm not a fan of the "Big Misunderstanding (BM)" writing technique and this date was just one BM after another. Charlie was a likable character, though, I'd be interested in reading more of his story. I'm just not sure I want to tolerate reading about the David character while doing it.
Cusick demonstrates some decent world-building and character-creation talent and because of that I picked up Girl Parts at a Kindle sale price of $2.01. I figure at that price, it could be worth seeing how Charlie's story and Rose's story flesh out.
