Rosie’s #BookReview Team #RBRT #ShortStories Penny Pinching For The Morally Bankrupt by @LibraryMarshall

Today’s team review is from Georgia. She blogs here https://www.georgiarosebooks.com

Georgia has been reading Penny Pinching For The Morally Bankrupt by Libby Marshall.

Goodness… where to start with my review of Penny Pinching Tips for the Morally Bankrupt. This is probably the most diverse book of short stories I’ve come across, and with such a range of eclectic stories, among the 43 in this volume, there’s bound to be something in there for everyone. There are some longer pieces while others are very short, only a page or two.

I loved Libby Marshalls writing style, it’s lean, punchy and very good, and her sense of humour, which is quick and darkly mischievous. Her ideas are highly original and Marshall writes what many of us may think but hesitate to express.

Did I love every story? No. But I loved, or liked, the majority, and certainly enough that when I finished I went to Marshall’s website to see what else I could find to read on there.

Despite what the title, and cover, may have you believe this is most definitely a work of fiction. If you’re looking to save money, look elsewhere, this is not for you, unless, of course, you happen to be morally bankrupt, in which case…

Addictive page turning has meant I got through this book of unique gems quickly and I don’t hesitate to recommend it to all those who don’t mind the occasional sexual reference and F word and who long to read something that little bit different.

Penny Pinching Tips for the Morally Bankrupt is a fantastically funny, wonderfully weird, and surprisingly sincere collection of short stories, humor pieces, and miscellaneous bits.

Debra, an unhappy billionaire’s wife, decides to resurrect the 18th-century trend of hiring a man to live on their property as an ornamental garden hermit. An elderly serial killer, bored by her dull nursing home existence, finds a deadly new purpose when her high school nemesis ends up living down the hall. In 1953 a young couple drives to Makeout Point where instead of an evening of heavy petting, they find mountain lions, a man with no gaps in his teeth, and the opportunity to kill Henry Kissinger. Within these pages, a man tries to date after losing his wife to The Salem Witch Trials, a Wi-Fi router gains sentience, a series of cardboard boxes oozing with smoky-sweet baked beans mysteriously appear at a woman’s front door, and a Chuck E. Cheese is haunted by the spirit of Princess Diana.

Boldly strange, deliciously satirical, and laugh-out-loud hilarious, Penny Pinching Tips for the Morally Bankrupt swings from the grim and ghastly to the exquisite and lovely. This one-of-a-kind book takes the reader on a surreal journey through the compulsory despair of daily life and concludes that the only sensible reaction to that much pain is laughter. 

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