A collection of short stories. These were like shards of icy frozen pain on a gloomy day the first one was ominous. All were dour my favorite the same as the title of collection. Missing a beat as I felt for the main character narrating. Bodhrams can be sacred, they should be made & played that way. Drums are heart beats & should be made healthy with love. All life is sacred & there is such a thing as excess or worse misplace spite
Space is the final nightmare told well with corporations that never stop exploiting.
Improving Clement the most disturbing, but they all were the bone crushing desperation of loneliness, poverty of mind, body or soul. I feel the author has alot of potential but he needs to spread out the pathos. He has the moody Irish mood theme down hard but most can't take the types of windows he was trying to have people look through. It made me dig up an old punk group song [pogues who could be viscously cynical & leader/songwriter realistic to self shortcomings]

After reaching the 5th story and only really following and understanding one of them, I DNF'd. One story that (I think) was about dementia, was too short to really expand on the subjects, and just glossed over it. Such a heavy topic doesn't lend itself well to a short story format in my opinion. I feel it diminishes the seriousness of the disease.
As for the other stories, none of them hit home. I'm not sure if it was the writing style, the choice of topics, or both. But each sentence just read as words to me with no ending. Very confusing to me.

When it comes to short stories count me in. Overall Shane Hulgraine succeeds having the reader wanting more. There were a couple of blips along the way that wandered a little too long however this is a minor point for there is some impressive writing and varied subjects to be enjoyed in this collection.
An independent review NetGalley

It's difficult to put this on in a box. If you're looking for a fairly comprehensive collection of obscure short stories, I highly recommend it.

Desculpe, mas não consegui me interessar pelos contos do livro. Sinto que faltava um pouco de tempero para que eu sentisse o gosto de alguma coisa nisso daqui.

A good collection of stories from an author I'm new to. Definitely will look for more by him. Has a great way with words and even though the stories are short, they stay with you.

Well written with good character development but very hard to follow for me. Story lines were a little all over the place and just couldn’t get into any of the short stories. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I enjoyed Shane Hulgraine’s approach to short fiction in this collection and found much to enjoy in the way this author crafts dialogue and plot. I loved the way I could travel through a few stories in one sitting and the stories on the shorter side still had lasting power.