Should I tell him about Sushing or play dumb?
Sticking in my comfort zone, I played dumb.
Writer Marco Ocram has a secret superpower—whatever he writes actually happens, there and then. Hoping to win the million-dollar Sushing Prize, he uses his powers to write a true-crime thriller, quickly discovering a freakish murder. But Marco has a major problem—he's a total idiot who can't see beyond his next sentence. Losing control of his plot and his characters, and breaking all the rules of fiction, Marco writes himself into every kind of trouble, until only the world's most incredible ending can save his bacon.
Fast, funny, and utterly different, welcome to the weird world of The Awful Truth.
Well I can definitely say that I've never read a book quite like this before! It's a story that is being written as if in real time so there are plot holes and dead ends that the author must find his way out of in often very amusing ways. This is book two in The Awful Truth series and it works really well as a standalone but I do think I would have benefitted from reading book one beforehand.
The author (the real one, Denis Shaughnessy not the fictional Marco Ocram) is very astute and has highlighted several writing habits that I had never even noticed before. Of course the next book I read after this one just had to mention that the vehicle had tinted windows and I nearly fell off my seat laughing.
I think this is a book that deserves a second reading as I probably missed a lot of the more subtle nods at writing styles and crime fiction tropes. I say 'nods' as although it might seem like a dig at first, it's not done nastily and it's all true anyway. After the tinted windows thing, I'm sure to spot many more things that Marco Ocram has pointed out.
Sharp, witty and totally bonkers, The Awful Truth About the Sushing Prize is a unique and imaginative crime spoof that is incredibly entertaining and completely unforgettable. It's well worth a read.
I received a digital ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
My rating:
Purchase link: https://mybook.to/sushingprize-zbt
About the author:
Denis Shaughnessy is the author of the mold-breaking Awful Truth series, published under the name Marco Ocram. His books, which break all of the rules of fiction, have been described as ‘a dazzling tour de force', 'mind-bending’, 'wildly inventive', 'an entirely new type of narrative' and 'utterly unique’. He has won two CIBA first prizes for Humor and Satire and was shortlisted for the prestigious Thurber Prize. He has a PhD in quantum theory and lives on a small-holding in the New Forest. He is currently working on a middle-grade novel featuring a junior Marco Ocram.
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Thank you so much for being a part of the tour x
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