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A review by garlinds
Lying and Making a Living: Fiction with Footnotes by William Dunlap, William Dunlap
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
1.5
I received a free audiobook from NetGalley and Books Forward Audiobooks in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
Lying and Making a Living is a collection of shocking and often jarring short stories. From a presidential debate gone wrong to a dog/man in a dream state getting hit by a dump truck, these stories are unique offer a wide variety of social commentary. Some of the stories left me cringing, while others had me laughing, and I particularly enjoyed the footnotes.
All that being said, I didn't like this short story collection. It seems well-received, so this is likely a case of me being from the wrong audience or the audiobook formatting not working for me. Dunlap was definitely trying to push the envelope and make the reader feel discomfort, but that discomfort was sustained for nearly the entire collection which made it difficult for me to immerse myself in the stories but still intrigued enough to finish listening. I also found some of the content quite triggering, so a list of content warnings probably would have deterred me altogether.
CW: Sexual violence, animal death/cruelty, toxic relationship, blood, bullying, child abuse, death, gore, gun violence, mass shooting, hate crime, misogyny, racial slurs, medical content
Lying and Making a Living is a collection of shocking and often jarring short stories. From a presidential debate gone wrong to a dog/man in a dream state getting hit by a dump truck, these stories are unique offer a wide variety of social commentary. Some of the stories left me cringing, while others had me laughing, and I particularly enjoyed the footnotes.
All that being said, I didn't like this short story collection. It seems well-received, so this is likely a case of me being from the wrong audience or the audiobook formatting not working for me. Dunlap was definitely trying to push the envelope and make the reader feel discomfort, but that discomfort was sustained for nearly the entire collection which made it difficult for me to immerse myself in the stories but still intrigued enough to finish listening. I also found some of the content quite triggering, so a list of content warnings probably would have deterred me altogether.
CW: Sexual violence, animal death/cruelty, toxic relationship, blood, bullying, child abuse, death, gore, gun violence, mass shooting, hate crime, misogyny, racial slurs, medical content
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Toxic relationship