I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher BooksGoSocial in exchange for an honest review.

In terms of premise, this is one of the strongest anthology collections I have ever read. This book contains four short stories, all of which center around crime or punishment with a futuristic horror twist. The shortness of the anthology allows for a really tight premise and every story feels like it fits with the others because of that.

I also really liked the plots of the stories themselves. Each one has something unique to say and they manage to avoid treading on each other's toes. I think my favourite was 'Early Release', a story about a world where murderers get the chance to fight for their freedom if they can avoid being hunted down by their victim's families for 24 hours. 'Dummy' was really intriguing and had a surprise factor that the others lacked somewhat which was great. I enjoyed the plots of all four of them though and would be interested in reading more of a similar vein.

Sadly, what lets this collection down is the writing. Every character speaks so flatly and it was incredibly distracting. They will just state their motivations or feelings in a way that humans never actually talk like. At one point a character self-identifies as a 'millennial' and uses it as a reason he doesn't watch the news in a way which is definitely not a joke that character is making. It was the only real problem of the anthology but it was a big one which makes it hard to overlook.

Having said that, I think there is real growth possible for this author. The stories are solid as I said and there's definitely talent in the plotting and execution (no pun intended). If the dialogue was fixed and the characters felt more real, I can see them really going places.

Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

Review for 'Crueler and more unusual' by Erik Dean

Read and reviewed via NetGalley

STORYLINE

Read four more stories of judicial horror from the award-winning author of Cryptic, Erik Dean.

DUMMY

Robert Holman failed to heed the warnings and an innocent night out turns into a nightmare. What punishment is fitting for this Dummy? He realizes too late that being sorry is not enough, and that there's no hiding from the vengeful hand of fate.

EARLY RELEASE

An amendment to the US Constitution allows for grieving families to apply for Early Release for the prisoners who murdered their loved ones. The prisoner is set loose and the family has twenty-four hours to exact their revenge. If they don't kill the prisoner within 24 hours, they're awarded their freedom.
Kelvin Heyer, a bank robber, is the lucky winner this time. Will he outrun his victim’s vengeful family long enough with a little help from a Friend?

PUBLIC POOL

Best friends and business partners Carlos and Luis are thrilled when their swimming pool design company wins the lucrative bid to build new public pools in Phoenix, Arizona. Their delight is spoiled by a business rival and Carlos’s growing—and mutual—attraction to Maria, Luis’s wife. Lust, passion, and greed quickly build up to murder and betrayal.

BROKEN JUSTICE

In the future, trials take place in small pods instead of courtrooms and most cars are driverless. Holly Barlow is one of the few people who still prefers to drive her own car, but she is caught speeding and must pay a fine. She quickly learns that the court pods do more than simply accept payments for fines—they can also vaporize lawbreakers, carrying out executions instantly... and automated systems are known to break down from time to time.

From courtrooms of the present and into the future, you'll enjoy these ironic and horrific tales with a twist.


REVIEW

This book is comprised of 4 short stories so I shall review each short story individually..

THE DUMMY

A drunk driver kills his friend and a stranger and gets sentenced but his sentence is a new one. This short story was OK. Writing wasn't brilliant but I managed to read it OK and very quickly. I didn't really like the main character and he annoyed me on several occasions. The ending was not quite what I expected. I give this short story 3/5 stars

EARLY RELEASE

This short story had an excellent concept. Decide to release the murderer of your family member which gives you 24 hours to kill them. I unique storyline whdih I really enjoyed and couldn't stop reading. The writing was much better in this story and the characters more more likeable. I definitely didn't see the shocking twist at the end coning. This story deserves a rating of 5/5

PUBLIC POOL

This short story is about 2 long term friends who got the contract for a larg public pool to be built after trying for years to get their business rising. However things quickly start to go wrong. This story was an easy read which I was enjoying until the disappointing end which I found just didn't make sense. Up until then I found it had some suspense but it's a shame I was let down. I struggled to decide what to rate this one from a 2 or 3 as I enjoyed the story but bit the ending. I came to the conclusion that as 80% of the story was quite interesting to give it a 3/5

BROKEN JUSTICE

A futuristic look at how the judicial system works. This story started off quite slow but built up very quickly and put me at the edge of my seat and flying through the pages when it became suspenseful. This story was well written with realistic characters. It is a scary thought thay this could well happen in the not so distant future and really made me think. I would rate this story 4/5

So to summarise 2 of the stories I rated 3/5 and 2 I rated 4/5. I decided to give this book an end rating of 4/5 as I enjoyed the foreword, descriptions and explanations by the author at the beginning of the book and each story and at the end.

My rating system is:

🌟 Did not finish/hated it
🌟 🌟 Did not like
🌟 🌟 🌟 It was OK
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 It was good
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 I loved it

I would recommend this book to fans of crime, suspense, short stories and anyone looking for a good read.

Rated 4/5 on Goodreads and Amazon

£2.27 to purchase for kindle

Feel free to add me on Goodreads for more reviews

#CruelerAndMoreUnusual #NetGalley

This is an excellent collection of four stories that centers on a possible future American criminal justice system and its distressing consequences. The characters are complexed. I found the stories to make me think about capital punishment. His use of technology in the stories make me think that texting can be a dangerous tool in what you “write” to others. It’s excellent in that it makes me rethink about our justice system could be.

I was fascinated by the description of this book. Looking at the summaries of each story encouraged me even more to try this book.

Crueler And More Unusual is a collection of short stories about judicial horror. I can just hear you all wondering what exactly constitutes judicial horror. The stories are based on different scenarios which can happen in the justice system. The stories are all based in fantasy so we have some rather odd consequences for crime within these pages.

The first story, Dummy, deals with drunk driving, an issue which we should be all familiar with. The end result was rather fitting here. Anybody who can drive knowing that he/she is drunk is a dummy as the ad campaign in this story kept mentioning. Robert Holman was the dummy in question here.

Early Release was a story about something many victims of crime would empathise with. Imagine getting the chance to have revenge on the person who killed your relative. What would you do if you had a day for you and your family to find him and kill him?

Public Pool is a story about greed and betrayal. Two best friends have won a fantastic bid. For them, this is the chance of a lifetime. However, due to personal and business conflicts, a murder occurs.

My favorite story would have to be Broken Justice. In this story, justice is dealt with using artificial intelligence. However, as with anything mechanical, there can be breakdowns. This may seem minor but the same system which is responsible for fining jaywalkers and traffic violators is also responsible for vaporizing murderers.

The flow of the stories was excellent, although, I did find that the author went a little too much into detail sometimes. The character development was well done and each story was engaging. I can safely say I would not mind reading some more of this author’s work.

Violence: Very graphic descriptions of blood and gore
Sexual Content: Mild
Profanity: Mild
Religious Themes: None
Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: One of the stories is written about a drunk driver

This was a very up and down read for me. A bit hit or miss as to whether I enjoyed the stories. The first story I felt the writing was a bit basic and the twist wasn't that great. I'm glad I persevered as the second story was much better. Overall this is an ok passing read. It's not brilliant writing but it's easy to read and follow.