At the Going Down of Sun by Eleanor O’Keeffe

Word Count: 5628 words

Critique type preference: Online

Author Email: el************@**.com

Content warnings:

• Blood
• Child death
• Combat
• Death/Dying
• None

Author Notes:

This is my first completed piece of fiction. I’ve written a lot of bits and pieces, but this is the first thing I’ve ever got into a first full draft – I just wanted to finish something (for once) and see if I could do that. It’s also the first time I’ve shared fiction for critique. I’d welcome any reactions to be honest, but these are things that I’ve been mulling over:

• The writing itself and the narrative voice. I write more in the first person, so I’m wondering whether the voice here feels too strong, intrusive, or otherwise affects your experience of the story.
• The story’s themes reflect long standing interests for me – particularly around memory, cultural memory, and the ways the past shapes and influences individuals and societies, rather than just being ‘reflective’.
• I’d be interested in hearing what resonated, what felt unclear, and what questions or tensions the story raised for you and whether they worked against your expectations or was it just all super predictable.
• It’s very grounded in British cultures of war remembrance, and it’s useful for me to have a more internationalist view on whether that translates for others or is weird at all, whether it’s too laden and heavy, for UK/British citizens.
• Whether the central characters and relationships feel at all believable/emotionally convincing, and whether the protagonist’s predicament remains human and grounded despite the story’s somewhat speculative/magical realist elements.
• The story includes some sensitive material, and it has its own political perspective I guess, but I’m not looking for readers to see whether to “agree” so much as to understand how those elements are working within the story.

and any tips for making it better! 🙂

Notes to organisers:

I am autistic. Usually fine wth everything online on voice discord, not sure why I mention it, but just thought it might be helpful.

Submitted: 5 June 2026

Status: New

Last updated: 11 June 2026 at 12:43 by Kat Kourbeti