Book Review: “Bit Grim, Isn’t It?” by Christopher Galvin

‘Bit Grim, Isn’t It?’ is a collection of short stories with a wide range of topics, from getting a new job to death and heartbreak. The length of each story differed and I must say I enjoyed some of them more than the others.

I’m not going to go into details of each story, but for those of you who have or are planning to read this collection, my absolute favourites are “Bit Grim, Isn’t It?”, “Nothing but words” and “Windy with some light rain”.

• “Bit Grim, Isn’t It?” had made me laugh out loud when I first read it. Thinking back over it, the story is grim but it is written in such a clever way that until the end of it I wasn’t really sure what I was reading about. It was fascinating how the author managed to tell such a dark tale in a light-hearted, innocent way.

• “Nothing but words” I found to be extremely captivating. The amazing idea of a story being told by a book character was intensified even more by his realisation of it. The beginning repeats itself as if the book is picked up and read again, fantastic attention to details. Thought provoking story that I appreciated immensely.

• “Windy with some light rain” made me tear up a little, it is such a heartbreaking but beautiful short story, it evoke many emotions.

I have mixed feeling about other tales but I’m going to give this collection 5 stars in its entirety. I believe everybody will be able to find something that speaks to them in at least one of the stories. Yes, as the title suggests, the overall atmosphere of the book is grim, but I found the read to be gripping and thought-provoking actually. I paused after each and every story just to ‘digest it’, all filled with such strong emotions, it was hard to remain an unbiased reader, I felt sucked into each tale.

Overall, a very bittersweet read, I had clear favourites in this collection to which I’m sure I will come back to. Overflowing with potential, I will be looking forward to the author’s new releases of similarly themed short stories or full length novel.

I would like to thank Chris for sending me the copy of his book, it was a pleasure to read and review it. I really recommend reading it, if you’re interested, you can find it on Amazon.

That’s it from me for today, thank you so much for reading and until next time, Dream On, Dreamers!