On the HahaFiction shelf
The Awful Truth About the Sushing Prize
Marco Ocram can make anything happen by writing it down. Unfortunately, planning ahead is beyond him. His attempt to win a million-dollar prize with a true-crime thriller leaves him trapped in the trouble he keeps creating. The author shares his name with the protagonist in this crime parody, where the person telling the story is also responsible for its disasters.
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What makes it funny?
Marco complains about an opinionated cab driver, then remembers he chose the driver’s character himself. When Como uses brutal police tactics, Marco is relieved there are no witnesses to the behavior he has just written.
The comedy at work
The narrator keeps exposing his own decisions as a writer while living with their consequences. Hard-boiled dialogue and sudden action share the page with complaints about agents, literary success and the difficulty of inventing the next sentence.
Try this if…
Crime-fiction readers with an appetite for jokes about writing can follow a police case while watching its creator improvise. The pleasure depends on enjoying interruptions and a narrator who openly points out his own shortcuts.
Good to know
The narration repeatedly draws attention to tense, wording and invented characters. Pumpjack’s reviewer needed a few chapters to settle into that deliberately disruptive style.
More funny mystery
Sources & further reading
- Pumpjack Press review
Review
- The Awful Author
Author commentary
- Tiny Fox Press: The Awful Truth About the Sushing Prize
Publisher
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