I do not know what I just finished listening to. It's like the authors brain synapses went on the fritz and all that came out of his mouth was garbaldygook! I don't even know what it was actually about. Sorry, this book was just not for me and I cannot recommend. 1 star.

Many thanks to NetGalley & Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) for letting me read/listen to this ARC audio book.

A short book about an author is held hostage in his own home, dictating what he writes.

A short book which I listened to as an audiobook. A wild tale, just wish less foul language.

Thank you to Interactive Publications Pty Ltd, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Audiobooks, the author and NetGalley for an LRC in return for an honest review

Not a Story, But an Experience - Unreliable, Unhinged, and Unforgettable

Well, this is a highly contentious book isn't it? Most of the reviews I've read are split equally between those who love it and those who loathe it...or rather, those who marvel at the deeper meaning and those who just don't 'get' it. After listening to this audiobook, I myself am still none the wiser as to which camp I'm in!

I rather feel though that those readers who proclaim this to be a load of tosh are somewhat missing the point of the piece. As far as I can tell, the author WANTS you to feel discombobulated by this tale. It is intentionally disjointed. Allen completely messes with your head. That's the whole point. I'm choosing to look at it like this - It's basically a piece of performance art, read frantically by the author himself. Allen's background in performance and dance is there for all to see. It made me think of Tom Baker’s The Boy Who Kicked Pigs, (check it out, you won't be disappointed!). An equally surreal tale which I actually enjoyed more than this.

Listening to this book is like you've got front row seats to watch the author's descent into madness. The piece jumps so much from one thing to another with no obvious beginning or end. that you’re never quite sure what’s sincere and what’s parody. It's as though the author wants you to totally immerse yourself and just 'feel' rather than 'understand'.
At one point the Allen actually exclaims "Don't you know by now there is no story!" All I can say is bravo to Allen. That line alone is genius. This is pure archetypal Postmodern literature at its finest - There is a totally unreliable narrator who constantly breaks the fourth wall and asks more questions than it answers. It's Metafiction - It makes you question everything. It's fractured, fragmented and has a nonlinear structure. There's no plot and it constantly refers to the act of writing.

This book is either a masterpeice of postmodern literature or....maybe I'm completely wrong and it IS just tosh! What do I know? 🤷

#MoreLies #NetGalley

I feel like I walked into the middle of someone else's conversation (and it wasn't an interesting one).

If you want to know the plot(?), you can try the synopsis. The book isn't super useful on that front. I think this was...experimental? If I'm being generous, I'd say this was a meta-fictional satire of genre fiction and maybe books as a whole. But I'm not generous and this was just confusing. If you're planning to subvert the expectations of the reader, you have to establish them in the first place and 66 pages is just not enough space to do it in.

I'm struggling to think who might be the right audience for this book. The "referential" part of this "referential comedy thriller" feels like a "had to be there" situation and I don't think anyone besides the author was.

I’m so confused. I have no idea what this book is about other than just random thoughts with zero story or plot. One chapter ends and another starts mid-sentence. On a plus side it is a super short read.

Thank you to NetGalley & Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) for letting me read this ARC.

The story follows a character caught in deception, forced to type as part of an assassination plot.
Though the writing was often amusing, the shifting perspectives and unconventional structure make it a tricky read that I just didn't have the patience for.

I’ve listened to this twice and I still don’t know what this book is trying to do. Nothing in it is sensible or legible.

I have no idea what that was. Some of it was actually cool and fun in a very random way that I found hilarious and intriguing. But most of it was just baffling.

The author does a fantastic job narrating and bring some manic energy to the narration that perfectly suits the text., There are flashes of brilliance here, but I just couldn't hold on to the whole thing in my head long enough to find any threads to hold it all together... It felt more like excerpts of a story that was already in progress than a story in and of itself. While it was entertaining to listen to, I was pretty much confused throughout the whole thing - but not in a bad way, if that makes any sense.

I realize this review is all over the place and doesn't really cohere. That is how I felt listening to this one. I suspect most people are either going to love it or hate it, depending on your taste for the absurd. I myself fall somewhere in the middle - I enjoyed the absurdity even while I was baffled by it!