 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another book review. Today, we are talking about Friday Black by Nenna... Nenna, is it Nenna? Nenna, I'm not sure. Kwame, Ajbrenja. This is a fantastic story collection. If you don't want to hang out and watch this review, I don't blame you. Just go on and go buy the damn thing. This is one of those collections that change that change your whole perspective on something. I'm talking about the writing. I'm not talking about the politics of the book or any of that stuff. We'll get to that in a second. But the the writing here is so fresh and human and polished, but it also feels very raw in places. And I don't mean raw as in unpolished. I just said it was polished. But there's a feeling like there's so much passion and raw is the closest thing I can get to describing it to you. There's an urgency to it. These are stories that you just feel like you have to read. If you're of a certain mindset. We're gonna get to that in just a minute. But the the themes and the topics it's very current affairs. It's very topical as far as the political you know temperament of this country is concerned. The the thing is it's not that political though. The stories are deceptively deep in places. There are some fables. Especially the lion and the spider. That was a great story. There's more of a fable aspect to it. There's a literal fable told in that one. I'm a big fan of anything. A story within a story. I'm a huge fan of that. There's at least two stories in here like that. Now with the going into the political aspect of it. There's not that there's not there's no name. There's no name-jopping. It's not like he's Trump bashing Obama bashing or any politician bashing. There's no politician bashing. What he's doing is he's taking real-world topics and flipping them on their head and making them and writing speculative speculative fiction about them. There's a story about a man who's haunted by his aborted children. There's another story about a school shooting where the I'm trying not to give spoilers but I want to talk about what I enjoyed about these stories. There's one story where there's a there's a school shooting at a college and the shooter ends up being stuck with his victim in the afterlife. That's that's all I'm going to tell you about that one. The very first story though right out of the gate you can go and read the look inside on Amazon and decide for yourself if it is too quote unquote predictable not predictable political for you. The reason I say that is the first story is probably the most current affairs topical kind of deal that you are going to you find in the story. So if you can get through that one you're going to love if you like that story you're going to love the rest of the collection. I can see how this might feel a bit preachy to my conservative friends or to the Trump supporters out there or anything like that. Trump has never mentioned not Republicans and conservatives aren't really mentioned either. It's more of the mindset and not you know just labeling everyone with a broad brush stroke which I was impressed with. The but that I want to hit this home. The thing that makes this collection so good is the writing. The imagination is stellar. It's outstanding. There are stories in here that just absolutely blew me away with how not not really how original they were but the twists on the tropes maybe like the haunting trope or the trope about you know violent not really trope but violence in public that kind of thing how we deal with and how we perceive violence on the news things like that. The only stories that didn't really hit me were two toward the end. The second the last and third from last stories that were both of them are about working in retail. One is how to sell a jacket as told by Ice King and the other one is in retail. The Ice King story it was all right. I like the ending of it. I like the message behind the story but in retail felt too short. It just didn't seem to go anywhere. Maybe I completely missed the theme that that's entirely possible and then he finishes it up with through the flash and I completely forgot about those two stories but every other story in this collection. Let me count here we got one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve no it's twelve out of the twelve stories there's only two that didn't fire on all cylinders I would give every single one I give all ten of those stories five stars that's how good they are and even the in retail and the Ice King story I'd still give three stars so if I if we're if we're gonna throw stars on something I would give it four point probably four point seven five four four point eight stars that kind of deal um because it's nowhere near deserving of like a four point five or a four it's an outstanding collection which brings me to the fact that it's my third favorite collection of all time right now um Clive Barker's books of blood will always be at number one uh I can't imagine anybody coming along and dethroning that just like I can't imagine anybody coming along and dethroning Stephen King's it is my favorite book of all time Marissa Pessel Marissa Pessel and Joe Hill have come close uh the goldfinch came close um but I don't expect that to ever change with this one I have Clive Barker's books of blood I don't think that one will ever change right underneath that is Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Anariques and then we have this one by uh Nanakwame Ajaybranya I think I got that right it's the first name that's bothering me and I can't find any pronunciations of the name online but Friday Black there's another story in here um called Black Friday uh well no no it's Friday Black about Black Friday um the retail you know thing so there's three stories in here about working in retail but I like the story Friday Black especially because um I once worked on a book with my friend Jeff Brackett called Shucklers I ended up leaving the project but he went on to to complete the project um it was based on a short story of mine called he who has the last laugh um about and my my story my contributions to the novel opened up with kind of like a uh it was basically zombies but not zombies and more like more like the raid zombies from uh 28 days later but uh anytime someone laughed that that was the triggering point hang on I got something on my leg oh I kicked the shit sorry um anytime someone laughed they turned in like this maniacal killing machine kind of deal um and that happened during Black Friday at a chain store like Walmart and this has notes of that I always find it it's amazing I know he's never read my read my piece um and this of course came out long I mean I wrote my piece probably five years ago um probably more but uh there was so many similarities and I find it amazing when stuff like that happens knowing that two creators shared absolutely no content with each other and came up with roughly the same idea and because I like that idea I love that story so that's a little aside there um the the standout stories in this collection are through the flash Lark Street Zimmerland is amazing uh the Finkelstein five um let's see here the Lion and the Spider uh Friday Black but I I believe that my favorite my favorite story in here um is Light Spitter and that is the story of the school shooting I highly recommend you guys pick up this book get through it excuse me uh if even if you don't read every single story just about every single story is worth the price of admission so when you get in here even if even if you only like two or three I still feel like you will think that this collection is worth your time so have you read Friday Black uh let me know down there in the comments below uh if let's try I know I brought up politics and current affairs and things like that let's try not to rant and rave uh rant and rage about that stuff down there in the newly due if you didn't like it let me know why but I have a feeling that people that don't like like this book um will have very strong opinions I don't mind that but please don't be rude about it I will just delete your comment it's as simple as that um and what I mean rude is you know calling name calling things like that um you can express your opinion and we can have a discussion same with if you like the book uh but let me know don't just like this book is great I want to know details I want to know exactly what you liked about the book so I can come back and talk to you about the book that's what the comment section is for me it's a conversation it's a place to have a conversation so let's have a conversation about this book down there in the doobly-doo but until next time I have been E you have been you this has been another book review I'll talk to you guys later bye bye