Okay, here is a quick book review for a quick book. Seven by Seven is edited by Tony Burton and is definitely readable in a day. For me a great description of it falls into two words: snappy and punchy.
It’s advertised as a set of short stories based on the seven deadly sins written by these seven authors:
B. J. Bourg
Kimberly Brown
Deborah Elliot-Upton
John. M. Floyd
Sunny Frazier
Gary Hoffman
Frank Zafiro
In fact, the book provides a brief biography of these seven which is interesting to read as it gives insight into the genres and topics that span the book. To say that these are short stories though is somewhat deceiving. Instead, Goodreads has described it as “flash fiction,” and there are a total of 49.
Click here for the book on Goodreads
BUT don’t let “49” put you off. Indeed, I’d describe the stories as the pivotal scenes of a larger tale or perhaps even movie pitches. Does anyone remember the movie The Pitch with Tim Robbins? Click here (the book is kind of like this):
The Pitch- movie pitches
Some were great, right up my alley and totally engaging; others didn’t work for me. And I think that’s what most readers may find. There are some genres that will appeal and others that will not. Readers may also find a pattern of writers that they like and those that they don’t. But, the crux is that it does not matter; the stories are quite literally 3-4 pages in length and often end with a cliff-hanger. You may hate this style, but I love it; like I said, it’s snappy and punchy.
The book was actually hard to find via Google (or maybe I haven’t mastered the art of Internet searching as much as I think). Amazon has a copy for under $4.
Click here for the book on Amazon
Check it out, give it a read, enjoy it for what it is and let me know what you think.