Check out my 2 Pros + 1 Con video review.

Reviews seem to be pretty polarized for this book and truly, I believe it will come down to how you perceive Matt Summell's incredibly unlikable character Alby.

In this collection, we see a very maladjusted man trying to deal with the loss of his mother and kind of railing against all of the other people in his life. It's well written and effective and the moments when it shined for me were moments that grasped the nature and helplessness and hopelessness of grief. There was something gripping about reading about Alby's mishandling of grief, because it spoke to grief.

Matt Summell, then, does well creating this crude and crass character but to me it came to at the detriment of my overall enjoyment of the story. I don't always need likable characters, but here it ended up leaving me cold. Alby treats women horribly and there was a scene of sexual assault that soured my experience with the collection.

I'm not sure who, if anyone, I'd recommend this to. It is a very short read at 200 pages and it was interesting to read and think about, but my own feelings are unresolved.