I grabbed this as a NetGalley read now back in 2020. I blame the pandemic for my poor choices (that and I must not have read the blurb closely). I found nothing redeemable about this. You know those tweets about men writing women or sex scenes badly? This is that author. The book seems obsessed with sex, but not in an enjoyable romance or erotica novel, and with weird medical conditions. The prose reads like the author sat at a typewriter with a thesaurus nearby so he could pull out as many big words to elevate the story. Spoiler alert: he failed. The only good thing is that I can clear it from my NetGalley backlog.

When I started this book, I was concerned. I like an odd book, but the storyline in Corrupted Humours seemed winding at best. But it only took a chapter or two for me to become incredibly invested in Berk and all the things he wanted. I loved him acting as a detective even though he repeatedly talked about how he wasn't really a detective. I loved his search for love and stereotypical settling down even though he claims that it isn't for him. I loved the quirky, unique, and surprising nonsense that frequently slaps the reader across the face. I'm a fan!

I tried starting and restarting to read this book - multiple times, but didn't really get far.

The premise was interesting, I must point it out.
It's just that the writing is over-convoluted and the writing is not gripping enough to struggle through.

Disappointed.

What was I thinking! This book has to be the worst ever written in the history of books. The writing seemed immature. I didn't like the MC. I read for maybe 30 mins, before I decided that there are too many good books out there to waste time on this one.

Thanks to Netgalley for the Kindle Version of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to the author, Donald Friedman, the publisher, BookBaby and Netgalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for my candid review.

Ughhh....where to start. It had a somewhat interesting storyline about an investigative reporter that is asked to investigate the untimely death of a psychologist that dies on the operating table when he explodes from methane buildup in the colon while having a polyp removed.

The book presents two disparate views....one supposedly reality where the author investigates the death, and the other a fictionalized version of the behind the story.....which I suppose we are to believe is what really happened? I found the shifting POVs difficult to navigate and very annoying.

The story seems to be less a story about solving a mystery and more about exposing a sexually abusive sexual sadist who takes advantage of women who suffer from masochistic sexual dysfunction problems.

But this story really is a prurient expose of sexual s and m practices that seeks to, somehow, justify and support the practices.

It is a fairly dark story and I find it difficult to like or even empathize with any of the characters. I only finished reading this book due to my hatred to DNF and in support of my commitment to NetGalley.

I will not be recommending this book.

This book was pretty much what I expected of a sarcastic satirical fiction. You could pretty much guess the book’s atmosphere by the opening scene where a person died from his own fart exploding during a surgical procedure.

Yes, it was funny, quirky, mindboggling in some areas, and went on a tangent in some places. It was quite enjoyable, although at the end of the book, I wondered what it was all about - que sera sera I guess?

From this point of view, the book did deliver on its promises and meet my expectation. It was an experience.

I'm sorry, but I couldn't get past the first quarter. This book just wasn't for me, I didn't like the style, the humor or the topic.

I found this to be an odd book. I wasn't sure what to make of it. I didn't love it, yet I didn't hate it either. It really didn't have any impact on me. I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

This story alternates between the life of Owen Berk, investigative reporter and the novel being written by Owen Berk. This a weird story. I found this book to be not very thrilling and somewhat humorous.

I found this to be an ok read. A bit plodding but interesting to power through. Will probably try it again soon. Thanks for the ARC!

Readers will want to strap themselves in for this fast-paced weirdly wonderful tale of an exploding body and the investigation (and related novel) behind it.

This novel was quirky and weird. It just wasn’t for me. I sure there are some who will find it enjoyable.
Many thanks to Bottom Turtle Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I had hoped this book would be somehow witty and compelling...instead it is confusing and jumbled. I do not care for the writing style or humor.
Had to really work at finishing but honestly it was not worth the effort for me.

I sadly did not finish this book. It made me so confused. It actually gave me a headache. I hardly ever not finish a book but this one was bad.

Let me start by saying that I did not finish this book. In fact, I didn't get very far into it.

I found the author's writing to be purposely pompous. At the same time, it was poorly written/editrd. The book consisted of sentences that were a paragraph in length with prepositional phrase after prepositional phrase. This made it extremely difficult to read and distracted from the actual story. I also thought that way way the two alternating chapters were introduced, or lack thereof, made it initially confusing. On top of this, the book was sprinkled with perverse and creepy analogies in describing sex.

I will not be recommending this book.

The excerpt I read for this book was probably the best part. It seemed like it would be a cute funny mystery that would quickly pass the time between some of the more serious books on my shelf. Unfortunately that was not the case. I found it hard to get into the story line, rolling my eyes on more than one occasion. I ultimately had to DNF because I could not take it anymore.

I never give up on a book. I read them straight through. However, after 20% of this work, I put it aside, never to return. The plot structure of a novel within a novel made no sense. The narrator of the novel, a reviewer who is writing about Christo's "Gates" in New York, beds a much younger volunteer at the sight and nothing happens. The novel within the novel The Chatelaine is just fluff. If this is a mystery, try getting to it earlier. Stay away from Corrupted Humours. Find a better waste of time.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book...

and saving me from spending my money. I wanted to love this book. I think in my head it was going to be a cross between a phenomenal whodunnit and a Christopher Moore novel. Instead, I felt like I was dropped into a very deep, dark hole at the end of which was a frigid, cold lake.

This book felt either very, very forced with its attempt at dark, sick humor, or very telling of who the author is in his darkest of hearts, and either way it made me sick to read and disturbed to consider this book out in the hands of the general public, but...whatever.

I mean, it is a whodunnit, kind of, insomuch as you can "whodunnit" what appears to be spontaneous combustion on an operating table, but everyone in this whole book from Owen to...I mean, well, everyone... makes you question humanity and the author and yourself as a reader and wonder if we aren't all just crap after all. No redeeming qualities ever.

The humor, such as it was, was disturbing. The back and forth between "real life" and the book that the main character is writing was interesting, but there is just so much going on. He's investigating the explosion on the table. He's sleeping with a college student. He has maybe some psychological stuff amiss.

It was hard to keep swiping pages and I have to be honest, when I did, maybe sometimes I swiped past a few pages in the process instead of going to the next page.

I got this book because it sounded interesting. But it was just OK, and barely. It meandered a lot of covered way too many genres, or at least tried to be a romance, a mystery, and even a little thriller. It felt a little schizophrenic and I just had a hard time following it. Look there are some good jokes and it really had potential but lost its way somewhere along the way. I'll give it 3 stars for effort and because I can't give it 2.5 due to the way NetGalley lets us rate.

Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me. I found I was getting bored quite easily by the story line. I know that someone knew to this genre would really enjoy it.