Lauren Van Schaik has an innovative style which is reminiscent of the “southern gothic” literary genre. This short story has a sinister tone, through which certain elements of the plot never become entirely clear. Van Schaik does hint at themes of sorrow and loss, although the main character of this short story has learned to fend for herself despite the difficulties of her existence. What these difficulties are exactly, is never fully explained; the total setting of the short story is subjectively represented through the thoughts of the main character. This subjectivity also creates ambiguity, which has the effect that you never fully understand exactly what is happening. This aspect of the text, in combination with beautiful figures of speech and an interesting build-up of sentences and structure, makes for “Stormtij” to be a short story which you will not easily forget.

Van Schaik is yet to be officially represented by a literary agent or publisher, though she has won several awards in the field of literary fiction. She is currently working on her first novel. Should this short story be representative of her talent and capabilities, we may expect much more from this young author in the future.