She Shits Bricks, Short Stories Review

She Shits Bricks by author Samson Tonauac

Thank you to author Samson Tonauac for providing me with a copy of She Shits Bricks in exchange for this honest review.

Tonauac also wrote the bizarre and entertaining Dreamsphere: The Day We Stopped Dreaming.

She Shits Bricks is a collection of short stories, inspired by and loosely tied to the Dreamsphere universe. It is not necessary to read Dreamsphere first but it would be a proper introduction to author Tonauac’s tone, sense of humor, and illustration style. Which all could be considered an aquired taste.

Just based on the title alone you may already realize that this is not a book for everybody. It is unusual, bold, and sometimes crass. But it is also creative, poignant, and funny. It was written from inside of covid lockdown throughout the year 2020 so there is a lot of social and political commentary as well as a bit of quarantine madness.

Tonauac’s personal beliefs and opinions seep through the allegories pretty strongly with this one and you may disagree with his stance. Tonauac makes it clear that he does not care. The book at times even comes off as a bit judgemental. But, once again, he does not care. His brand is unapologetic.

My favorite of the stories was the title story She Shits Bricks. An elegantly crafted metaphor for capitalism under extreme duress portrayed through the unsettling image of literally shitting bricks. I just realized I will have to heavily censor this review for Amazon to accept it, yay bending to the will of the machine! (note: since the writing of this review I have been banned from posting reviews there because they are so heavily censored and do not allow you to contest it in any way, literally 1984).

I’ve come to realize what I find to be a major flaw with many short story collections. I prefer short stories to be unique, contained stories with a beginning, middle, and end. They just happen to be under 100 pages long. She Shits Bricks is more of a series of loosely connected vignettes. None are full stories, just snippets. Many only 2 or so pages long.

The book can be finished quite quickly and has illustrations for the beginning of each story. It’s best to space it out or all of the stories will blend together. Perhaps read this book in between chapters of another one.

If you liked Dreamsphere, definitely check this one out to continue with the unusual parallel universe created within those pages. Maybe we’ll also be treated to another companion book at some point.

4/5 bricks 🧱🧱🧱🧱

in order to keep me up to my ears in books please consider using the following amazon affiliate link to purchase this product. it’s at no extra cost to you and would really help me out, thank you and happy reading!

Buy it here: She Shits Bricks and Other Short Stories