Hole Punch

"Hole Punch, by Garth Simmons, is a short story collections that defies description. Within its pages are hundreds of short, often fragmented, often bizarre narratives, characterised by cartoonish excess, visceral sensory descriptions, eccentric characters, and a grim but brilliant humour."

"A dark and often bizarre series of micro-fiction tales. A highly inventive structure that catapults you from one reality to another while leaving you with a slight sense that just maybe the stories will all fall into a complete whole at any moment. Somewhat reminiscent of some of Douglas Adams’s work, or at least I thought so. Highly inventive, and totally engrossing. Well worth a read. But, be warned – you’re in for an intensely unusual reading experience"

"Capturing the science fiction in fleeting moments of everyday life. Vitreous outrage at an existence that is fanged all the way down"

"This was the kind of strangeness that always leaves my brain feeling raw."

"This book made me laugh hard in public - Tracksuit smartphone-faces looked jealous upon my joy, for they were unable to attain that divine state of mirth, unable to to transcend with Hole Punch."

"Such a unique, dark and interesting style and also very funny. I found myself rereading bits from pages and pages before, it all seems to interlink in some mad way and really sucked me into it's bizarre universe."

"paints a hilarious and depressingly bleak portrait of humanity, both now and in the future. It's almost enough to hope that another world will visit us with a War Brick before we get this chance."

"If you’re looking for a raw, fragmented, nightmarish collection of stories that makes you feel simultaneously bewildered, scared, disgusted, amused and angry all at once, you've found it."

"If you ask AI to write poetry after dumping into it some Vonnegut, the Far Side comics, 50’s sci-fi, Rick and Morty, then topped off with some extra existential philosophy and this is what comes out."

"the literary equivalent of a bottle of absinthe!"

"The promise that the text carries throughout its travel from start to finish is its uniqueness. The author takes the reader on a strange yet fascinating ride through unconventional imagery and characterization. The level of imagination is not to a complex degree but the portrayal of complex thoughts through visual manifestations is commendable. The author has vividly sketched deep-rooted social and political issues in morbid details, in a way sensing the need to open up and face that prevalent evil from a completely new view, non-human."

"like the song that catches your ear, but you don’t really realise why, something on lizard brain level."

"A rollicking ride through the imagination of Manchester writer and artist Garth Simmons. In a few short pages and with deceptive ease the author transports you to/inside different worlds, minds, times, beings, machines .. and lifeforms that defy description .. before returning you to a distorted version of your own nondescript neighbourhood or bland officeplace in his genre-defying, black ice dark & often hilarious stories."

"I come back to Hole Punch regularly. It doesn't ever really feel like you can 'complete' this book, despite me saying I've 'read' it. I didn't read it.

Listing as an arc:

Netgalley

Booksirens

Librarything

Voracious Readers

Also will be having a one month Goodreads giveaway. As this is a republishing of a book released in 2021, then there are approx 1000 readers who have already listed the book on their "TBR" piles. So they should get a notification and this should push awareness of the book up.

I will also be promoting the book on my Instagram page, which has 6500 followers at the moment. And will be performing readings locally.