Matt McAvoy Book Review

If you like flash fiction with an edge, I think you’ll really like this collection, like I did.  A fun and creative, if at times sardonic play on mainstream and utterly obscure headlines, compiled during the lockdown of the pandemic.  For the most part, as you might expect, there is a lot of left-wing, anti-Trump, anti-Brexit vitriol in some of these 150-word or so vignettes – thankfully, that’s not all the book is about, though.  All in all, the authors are good quality, and the cause that sales of this book are aimed to contribute toward is an extremely worthy one.  From the Mexican wall to a drunk pig picking a fight with a cow, there’s pretty much every tone of news story you can think of here, right down to the obscure and the comical.  In the main, they are humorous, usually cynical and occasionally downright, thinly-veiled anger at mainly political news.

I read the book in one sitting, which perhaps wasn’t the best way to enjoy it, particularly given the poetic style of prose many of the authors write with.  But I enjoyed it a great deal. I won’t share a favourite, even though I did have one or two, I admit, because this composition is all about the sum of its parts – parts every bit as varied as the authors who created them.  Some are professional flash fiction authors, others dipping their toe for the first time, but all are very good.  The variations in the accomplishment and writing experience of some over others only adds to the complement and each provides a unique ingredient to the mix.  It is a good selection in terms of both quality and entertainment, and I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn’t be entertained by at least some of it.  A little bit heavy on the Trump humour, which I’m not a fan of, to tell the truth – don’t get me wrong; I’m no fan of the man himself, I just find him a particularly unoriginal and tedious source of observational material.  And original is entirely what this book is all about, as are the components within it.  In fact, it is better fun generally when it focuses on the more fun and wacky new items (think of the source quality as like the contrast between Have I Got News For You? and Monty Python).

All in all, a good, original and enjoyable read, which I think is better enjoyed as small snippets fitted into moments whenever you can find them.  The authors are multi-talented and multi-cultural, and the editors done a great job curating them, for a great charity objective.  Good luck to all involved in the project.