The Bleeder

By: J.R. Rain

Narrated by: Alexander Cendese

Length: 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Leo Dershowitz gave up hope of artistic glory long ago. A mediocre painter at best, he relies on the generosity of women to pay the bills. One day, Leo stumbles across a grisly means of inspiration and - in a flash - his fate changes forever. Before long, nothing can stop Leo from creating masterpieces, but at what cost?

The Bleeder is a dark, edgy tale from best-selling author J.R. Rain about how far one man will go to appease the macabre demands of his muse.

©2013 J. R. Rain (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

I'd hoped for more, honestly.

Any additional comments?

I very much liked the artistic ideas this story had. The idea that artists need to more or less be willing to let their blood flow, even in a metaphorical sense, is one I find to be VERY true. I live by it (I’m a photographer, painter and writer). Everything you do should show signs of the artist having “bled,” I think. This story takes this concept to a literal place, and, frankly, comes off a little bit silly for my tastes. What starts as an interesting idea very quickly disintegrates to a discount Twilight Zone offering. Worst of all the writer gives little impression that he actually knows the art world at all or how things are done. That’s the worst part about this story and why, I think, it ends up not working. The writer doesn’t have a metaphorical sense of what he’s talking about at all. Instead, the story asks, “what if a crap artist suddenly became very good because he started using his blood for paint material?”

Which I believe was a Criminal Minds episode from a few seasons ago. In his story’s case, it’s a deal with the devil kind of situation.

This is not interesting. I don’t know what the point of it could possibly be.

Although just 45mins, this story felt a lot longer. I’d love for there to be a contest with the premise of this story given to several writers to see what they come up with. I bet everybody would do more with it than a self mutilation with an inexplicable dash of the magical thrown in for no real purpose other than to make it seem like the story has a point where it doesn’t.

Over all, I rated the story low. The performance was good -- good reader. The IDEA is likewise something I could get ino. So both those things I rating somewhat well.