Book Review: The Awful Truth about Sushing Prize by Marco Ocram

The Awful Truth about the Sushing Prize by Marco Ocram

Publisher: Tiny Fox Press

Date: 2019

Genre: Humour

Plot: Should I tell him about Sushing or play dumb?

Sticking in my comfort zone, I played dumb.

Writer Marco Ocram has a secret superpower—whatever he writes actually happens, there and then. Hoping to win the million-dollar Sushing Prize, he uses his powers to write a true-crime thriller, quickly discovering a freakish murder. But Marco has a major problem—he’s a total idiot who can’t see beyond his next sentence. Losing control of his plot and his characters, and breaking all the rules of fiction, Marco writes himself into every kind of trouble, until only the world’s most incredible ending can save his bacon.

Fast, funny, and utterly different, welcome to the weird world of The Awful Truth.

I received The Awful Truth about the Sushing Prize as part of a blog tour in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

There are some books that you love.

There are some books that can be annoying.

And then you get The Awful Truth About the Sushing Prize that spends the first third being irritating, then you get into the narration, realise it’s making you laugh and finish it thinking it’s an uplifting, fun novel that does something different.

Author insertion isn’t something I’ve read a lot of. This one not only turns the author into a character… he’s still the author. Of the book you’re reading. That he’s writing at the same time.

Don’t ask me to explain the concept beyond that because it blows your mind a bit the more you think about it.

For a moment, I wondered if I should break my golden rule and go back to re-write the sequence. No – any readers pedantic enough to be worried about mistakes like that would have thrown away the book chapters ago.

This book worked for me. As an inspiring author, there were so many moments I related to: characters doing their own thing, writing yourself into a plothole, not being certain what comes next until you write it… Every time writing was referenced, I ended up laughing out loud. It’s why I ultimately realised I thoroughly enjoyed this but I can see why others would have trouble with it: if you’re not a writer, then certain references would just sound ridiculous and the book wouldn’t make any sense.

The plot is completely far-fetched and impossible, which means it works perfectly for the style of story.

The same is true of the characters: the author/main character doesn’t have many redeeming qualities to list. He’s shallow, self-centred and egotistic. But I spent so much of the book laughing at him that he’s kind of loveable in his own way.

There aren’t many characters in this. Correction: there aren’t many characters that you get to know, other than one. In the author’s own words, the rest are secondary characters there to advance the plot. It’s refreshing having an author call out the insertion of otherwise redundant characters: how many times is an individual strategically placed just to advance the plot and that’s all you know about them?

This is a hard book to review. It’s so different and I’m aware that it won’t work for everyone. The plot is all over the place, there’s no consistency, no character depth or development. But for anyone who’s ever watched the words appear on a page and wonder what their characters were doing or anyone who finds themselves trying to think of plausible ways to get out of a plothole, it’s a refreshing and entertaining read.

It takes a few chapters to get used to the style and come to anticipate what to expect. You have to get into the rhythm of the book before you can start to enjoy it as otherwise it’s disjointed. But if you can let go any conceptions you may have, then you’re in for a hilarious, fresh read that is so cliché that it undermines it’s own cliché-ness. You know it’s a tricky review when you’re inventing words to sum it up.

If you want a laugh, give it a go. But be warned what you’ll get.