Today's book talk is the final one of the series - there are a few more days of profiles and other fun things but this is the final review type post! It's a crazy one to go out on...
UnAmerican Activities is a collection of short stories and please be warned that it is entirely mad. I mean that in a very good way, but if you don't like stories that are quite graphic and have a fair amount of violence and a lot of sex then this isn't the collection for you. However if you do then it's one you should definitely pick up.
The collection is an interlinked one which I personally like,so each story has a connection to one or some of the previous ones. I love the idea of short story collections but also often find it difficult to get into them so interlinked stories work much better for me because they read like a novel.
"UnAmerican Activities explores the conspiracy theories and violence that define the American everyday through a series of interlocking stories told by deranged and desperate narrators." There are vampires, drug addicts, academics and many many people who are generally struggling with their lives. The writing is brilliant. I don't read a lot of this kind of more graphic fiction but nothing in this collection felt gratuitous - it was all very well placed and the stories were really immersive (sometimes a little disturbingly so).
Although you shouldn't judge a book by its cover this one does have an especially great one that you can see below. It's been fun walking to and from my sons school reading it! I have to say though that UnAmerican Activities did one of the things that I most love about reading independently published books - it pushed me out of my comfort zone and threw me headfirst into a genre I wouldn't usually pick up for myself and the experience was a great one. If you like fast paced, action packed stories with a cast of incredible, supersized characters then you should definitely pick this up!
Alternatively keep reading for how you can win a signed proof!
Announcing another raffle prize... Author James Miller and publisher Dodo Ink have very kindly donated a signed proof of UnAmerican Activities to our raffle prize bundles! You've only got a few days left to enter for your chance to win a phenomenal bundle of bookish greatness, and all of the proceeds go to literacy charity Give a Book.
Check back tomorrow for another excellent business, or catch up with the series so far here.