I don't often give books one star. I really disliked this collection of short stories. There are so many issues I have in the 20 stories contained within this book...I could probably write my own book about it.
To put it simply, this is the kind of book that could put me into a reading slump.


Things I liked:


Things I hated:

1. No context for story or characters or actions. Just thrown into a story as if we're in the middle of a book.

2. No transitions in stories. Characters jump in and out with no intro to who the hell they are.

3. Stories are abrupt in every way. Sometimes that works, but I don't like it here. It's impossible to connect to any of these characters because everything is so abrupt. Speaking of abrupt, the stories have little to no resolution. They usually end on a completely random note.

4. The author makes several references to people with dark skin in a way that is ignorant at best, and racist at worst.

"There was a dark, thuggish fellow. He probably had a taste for porn."

"Brilliant blackie in a coat of fake lizard."

"But there was a third language, Bella noticed, probably some sort of indigenous Indian dialect. The darker the person and the more menial his task, the more likely he was to use this tongue with coworkers."

"I'm a patient darky."

That is just a small sample of some of the thinly-veiled racist remarks in this book.

5. Cheating/inappropriate intimate relationships is an aspect of nearly every story in this book. And it's treated in a very casual way in every case.

6. One story has a man talking about his granddaughters. We are told that they are both on the curvy side. He calls them sweet girls, and then: "He liked a little flesh on a female, yes sir!" Um...WTF?! That's your granddaughter, PERVERT! That same story has a large passage talking about a character's smelly bowel movement. Just...no. Stop.

I could really go on and on. This was disgusting, and I won't pick up anything from this author in the future.