The Audio File: Uncanny Robot

Artificial intelligence has made major advances over the last few years. We’ve seen the rise of predictive text algorithms and even AIs that can generate artwork. But these leaps in technology have many people asking some serious questions. But perhaps the most pressing question of them all is this: can you use an AI to write the script for an audio drama? The audio drama we’re reviewing today aims to answer that question. We’re taking a look at Uncanny Robot. 

Uncanny Robot is an anthology audio drama created by Theresa Matsuura and Rich Pav. The start by taking a story prompt, and feeding them into different predictive text AIs. They then allow the AI to keep going, occasionally stepping in when it gets stuck in a rut, or if they otherwise don’t like the direction things are going. Then, Theresa and Rich record and narrate the insuring story. What laughs, insanity, and even touching moments, can an AI come up with? Uncanny Robot is here to find out.

This was another audio drama where I was requested to review by the creators. I was contacted over Reddit asking if I’d give Uncanny Robot a review. This was right around the time Arielle Nissenblatt (rhymes with this-and-that) did that Twitter tread introducing my fellow podcast critics and I to everyone on Twitter. I said yes, and here we are now.

So, a few things to discuss before we go forward. The first couple episodes were almost entirely AI driven, with minimal input from the humans. The primary AI used is Novel AI. Theresa and Rich originally wanted Uncanny Robot to be something that listeners could unwind and relax to. The AI insanity of the stories would be like an ASMR video, but in podcast form. However, they soon decided that this would prove too limiting for what they wanted Uncanny Robot to be. So, they started taking a more hands-on approach to the stories. I’m not sure what the exact percentage of human contributions to the later stories are, but defiantly much more than in the first two episodes. Each episode also includes an accompanying commentary episode. The first two episodes include the commentary along with the stories.

The use of AI also extends to other aspects of Uncanny Robot. All of the images and art work that accompany the episodes are all AI generated. Even the music is AI generated. Apparently, there’s some AI that can generate music scores, but it is very tricky to get something worthwhile out of it. Rich is quite adept at this, but it is certainly no small task.

I must also give a shout out to another podcast that Theresa and Rich work on. Uncanny Japan explores all that is weird from old Japan. Strange superstitions, folktales, cultural oddities, and interesting language quirks, and whatever else Theresa digs-up while researching for her novels and short stories. It is hosted by Theresa, who also does the research, while Rich handles the audio engineering and soundscaping. It isn’t an audio drama, or audio fiction per se, but I still greatly enjoy it. I would encourage everyone to give Uncanny Japan a listen. Well, after you listen to Uncanny Robot, of course. I should probably also mention that Theresa is a Bram Stoker Award nominated author. She has published short story collections such as The Carp-Faced Boy and Other Tales and A Robe of Feathers and Other Stories.

Okay, now that we’ve discussed all of that, let’s get into the episodes. Our first episode is a cheery little starter. You see, the theme of this episode is death. Oh, don’t worry, it is more lighthearted than it might sound. In our first story, titled “Memories of Death” a ghost recounts his childhood experiences with death. His parents died when he was only twelve, and his sister and cousin died not long after that. He began to contemplate his inevitable demise, and how death comes for us all sooner or later. Then, he took a faithful trip to his grandma’s house. He hears about murder on the radio, and in songs, and on television. The protagonist became obsessed with thinking about murder, and talking to everyone about murder, and he began to fear that he might be a murderer.

Some people wonder if it might only be a matter of time before AI get into the story writing business. Some people fear this might lead to human writers getting edged out of the market. Personally, I’m not losing any sleep over the matter. If these episodes are anything to go off of, AI has a long, long way to go before it can seriously challenge human writers. Still, AI are capable of producing some unintentionally hilarious results. I’ve certainly played around with enough predictive text algorithms. My favorite is InferKit. I learned about it, back when it was called Talk to Transformer, from the YouTube channel GrayStillPlays. He did a video where he made it write articles about Florida Man. I once made it attempt to recreate Percy Jackson’s Wikipedia article. I posted the result on the r/camphalfblood subreddit, if you are curious. I also had it try to recreate stories from Thomas the Tank Engine, and I’m still kicking myself for not saving the results.

I thought that “Memories of Death” was an excellent start for Uncanny Robot. We start off with a scene that is evocative of Spoon River Anthology. Then we get to the visit with Grandma, and the story goes completely off the rails. Of course, going off the rails is when the real fun starts. Let’s see, our protagonist is obsessed with murder, consumes large amounts of media centered around murder, constantly talks about murder, and fears that he might be a murderer? Well, I think that the answer is pretty obvious. The protagonist became a member of the true crime fandom. Though, it seems he got a little too into it, if he feared that he might be a murderer. Wait, he started worrying that he was a murderer when he was twelve, which was the age his parents, sister, and cousin died at…uh oh! That’s not good! There are some errors, continuity and otherwise, but that just adds to the charm and hilarity. For example, a man jumping off of a building is described as a murder. Uh, Mr. Robot, ever heard of suicide? Also, the protagonist hears about this on the radio, but then the story says that he and Grandma saw it on television.

“Memories of Death” is a great first offering from Uncanny Robot.

The second story is called “ You Remind Me of Someone.” Jake has recently become a vampire. It is cold and raining in the cemetery, and he is all alone. Then he sees his sister Rachel. She invites him into a nearby chapel. They talk about life and afterlife. Rachel reminds Jake of someone, but he can’t quite think who.

We all know that AI is capable of creating some great comedy stories. However, can I create something a bit more serious? It would seem that the answer is a tentative yes. Now, this story wasn’t anything groundbreaking or revolutionary. Still, for a story that was primarily written by an AI, it’s not half bad. Sure, there were a few goofs, as is to be expected from an AI-generated story. For example, Jake says that his sister Rachel reminds him of his sister Rachel. Not long after this we learn that Rachel is dead. It was almost like the story was trying to have this be a twist, but it didn’t quite know how to properly pull it off. Still, it could have been a lot worse, so I’m still impressed with how this story turned out. “You Remind Me of Someone” is a great second part for Uncanny Robot’s first episode.

Our second episode features the biographies of famous musicians, as written by AIs. The first story is titled “Elvis Lives.” As the title says, it takes place in a world where Elvis did not die in 1977 at the age of forty-two. We get to learn all sorts of fun facts about Elvis. For example, apparently, his birth name was Ralston Oliver Jones. He was named after his mother’s favorite singer, Billie Holiday. Speaking of his mother, she worked as a dancer at a strip club. Elvis changed his name to Elvis Aaron Presley when he was eight. His family moved to California when he was a teenager, and he attended UCLA. Elvis had a total of twenty-six marriages, and was divorced several times. In 1969, he got a sex change and became known as Pricilla Presley. This probably caused some confusion, as Elvis’ first wife was also named Pricilla.

I could go on, but this doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the sheer insanity of this story. The rules of reality really are out to lunch with this one. I loved absolutely every minute of this hilarious insanity. Oh, but we aren’t done yet. You see, our protagonist gets to meet Elvis in the present day. Elvis is a philanthropist who likes to help Black people. In fact, he plans to sell all White people into slavery to help Black people. He also wants to turn the protagonist into a Black genius. I guess Elvis is a reverse Clayton Bigsby; a White Black Supremacist, if you will. And he threatens to whip the protagonist if they don’t agree to become a Black genius. Kind of sending mixed signals there, Elvis. Also, I’m pretty sure that gender reassignment surgery is the correct term for what the story called a sex change. And come to think of it, the AI deadnamed Elvis, or should I say Pricilla, quite a bit. Of course, things would get a bit confusing if, among other things, the AI talked about how Pricilla Presley was the ex-wife of Pricilla Presley.

“Elvis Lives” is my absolute favorite story from Uncanny Robot. With “Memories of Death” in a respectable second place. Absolutely hilarious from start to finish. I loved every minute of it.

The second story in the episode is “Whatever Happened to Mr. Mojo Risin?” It follows an interview with the musician Jim Morrison. I’m less familiar with him than I am with Elvis. This story also had the misfortune of having to follow “Elvis Lives.” It was pretty much impossibly to top the insanity of its predecessor. So, I couldn’t really get into “Whatever Happened to Mr. Mojo Risin?” AI stories as always a mixed bag, and this on just didn’t click with me.

While we’re on the subject, the third episode is titled “Valentines Day with the Revenant Squad.” It is a love story set in a dystopian future. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t get into it. It wasn’t really bad, but just kind of meh. As such, we shall move right along.

Our fourth port of call is titled “Asteroid Arnie and the Mushiblooms.” The protagonist of this story gets to go on an adventure with the great space hero Asteroid Arnie. They must travel to an alternate version of Earth to save the Mushiblooms. Mushiblooms are cute little fuzzballs, and Asteroid Arnie is their only hope. So, grab your nucleic phaser, and hold on tight.

I was intrigued when I heard that this story would involve alternate universes. As many of you will know, alternate history is a big source of bread and butter for this blog. So, I was eager to see what the AI would come up with. Well, it’s turned out the AI wasn’t all that interested in alternate history. It seems that it wanted to write an episode of Rick and Morty instead. Still, we did get some fun alternate history tidbits. For example, the protagonist isn’t from our universe. They come from a world where Earth was destroyed in 1876 as a result of the American Civil War. We must presume that space travel, and space colonization, was invented much sooner than in our universe. 

I should also note that this episode marks the point that Theresa and Rich started taking a more hands-on approach to the stories. I can definitely see that. The story was noticeably more cohesive than its predecessors. It still managed to still feel like it was written by an AI, which, of course, it was. This episode certainly had its moments, but I felt that everything didn’t quite come together as well as it could have.

The fifth episode is “Peppers and the Screaming Yoof: A True Crime Parody.” It begins in April of 1969. Four meddling kids, and their dog, are on their way back from Woodstock. They soon find themselves on a mysterious farm called the Screaming Yoof. As meddling kids are wont to do, they decide to snoop around and investigate the mystery.

This episode was released on April Fools’ Day. As such, I spent most of the episode trying to figure out what the trick was going to be. I thought that maybe it would turn out to have been written completely by the humans, with no AI input. This was before I listened to the companion episode, and learned about the change in how episodes are made. So, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop the whole time. I suppose the effect was a bit like Horse eBooks. It was this Twitter account that, as the name suggests, spammed quotes from various Russian ebooks about horses. Everyone assumed that it was an automated bot account. The quotes, non sequiturs that they were, almost worked as dada poetry. It was kind of amusing to think that a bot account had inadvertently created art. Well, as it turns out, it was not a bot account, there was a human running the Horse eBooks account the entire time.

Anyway, if you’ve ever wondered what Scooby-Doo would be like if it had swearing, overt drug references, and if Scooby was the antichrist, well, here you go. The Scooby analog is mentioned to have been raised by a cult called The Devil Dogs, but this doesn’t have much bearing on the plot. There’s one point where the characters encounter a turntable from the 1980s, which apparently happened before 1969. Theresa and Rich have said they intended this story to be a parody of true crime podcasts. I do get some hints of that, but Scooby-Doo is definitely the dominant flavor here. I admit that true crime podcasts aren’t really my area of expertise.

This one wasn’t bad, but maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t been looking for signs of trickery.

The sixth episode is “Asteroid Annie and the Mushiblooms.” This episode is an alternate universe version of the previous episode “Asteroid Arnie and the Mushiblooms.” Once again, we have a protagonist going on an adventure with a space hero; in this case, Asteroid Annie. However, there are some differences this time round. Chief among them is that the Mushiblooms are evil, and Asteroid Annie is the only person who can stop their diabolical plot.

I think I like this episode a bit more than “Asteroid Arnie.” It just felt like the plot was better constructed this time round. There was a part where Annie said that it is important to remember three things: shake the jar, open the jar, and be kind to the babies. I assumed that this was simply AI-generated gibberish. However, it turns out that Theresa was the one who wrote that particular line. In fairness, it does have plot reverence. There’s a jar of seeds that is important to defeating the Mushiblooms. The part about being kind to the babies is because, apparently, the Mushiblooms will be reborn from the seeds, and there is a chance that they will be good. Okay, I’m just going to be real here, I got none of that from the story. I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t listened to the companion episode. Still, overall I found “Asteroid Annie” to be a bit of a step-up over “Asteroid Arnie.”

Our final episode is “Singer Boy and the Trip to the Moon.” Our protagonist is a clown who works for a circus. They’ve been feeling a bit blue lately, and they just need to get away from it all. So, they team up with another member of the circus named Singer Boy. Together, the two depart in a hot air balloon. The Moon is their destination, and they intend to leave their troubles millions of miles away.

This story had a number of surprisingly introspective, and dare I say, even touching moments. There’s a strong sense of melancholy throughout the story, but also a sense of hope and cautious optimism. It’s like the story is saying that, yeah, bad things happen, but they can be overcome. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. A surprisingly competent effort at a serious story for something written by an AI. Granted, this is all a bit undercut when you consider that Theresa was guiding the path the story took. Still, even with that in mind, this story wasn’t half bad. Sometimes, I wish I could get away from all of my troubles, if only for a bit. Maybe not in a hot air balloon bound for the Moon, but something along those lines, perhaps.

I’m reminded a bit of Today is Spaceship Day by Austin McConnell. It is also a story that was created via a predictive text algorithm. Austin creator turned it into an animated YouTube video using Plotagon, back before Plotagon implemented a subscription model. In fact, he even randomized the way the characters were generated. Very humorous, as you might expect, but also surprisingly touching at times. Definitely give it a watch, if you haven’t already.

And with that, we have covered all of the episodes currently available from Uncanny Robot. It was a bit of a mixed bag, and it certainly had its ups and downs. As is to be expected for something involving AI and predictive text algorithms. Still, it managed to produce some genuine laughs, and some surprisingly competent attempts at more serious material. So, overall, I’m pretty satisfied with my listening experience with Uncanny Robot. I’d recommend everyone else give it a listen. AI probably won’t be the future of audio drama, but it can make some surprisingly entraining stories, when given the right nudges.

I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.

Book Review: Suffer! by A.C. Sloan

I wasn’t always involved in the audio drama community. Before that, I used to write short stories and novels. In fact, I’ve got at least three or four unpublished book manuscripts. There are plenty of other people like me, but what about the reverse? That is, people who started in the realm of audio dramas, but then expanded into prose fiction? Well, we are going to discuss one such example in today’s review. We are taking a look at Suffer! by A.C. Sloan. 

Theo has a lot on her plate. She’s a part-time college student, she works various part-time gig to help make ends meet, and she helps look after her autistic sister Pris and their great-aunt Dottie. Still, every week she can get away from it all for one hour on Thursday night. That is the night the hit show Suffer comes on. It follows the adventure of Marcia Suffer. Played by Roxy DeVine, Marsha’s a victim rights attorney who also works as a vigilante. Marsha does whatever it takes to bring justice to her clients, even if it means going outside the law at times. Theo always watches with her best friend Sam, along with Pris and Dottie. They also have their own YouTube fan channel called The Suffragettes of Arleta. Theo enters a contest to meet Roxy DeVine not expecting much. To her surprise, however, she wins. Roxy is coming to Theo’s house to watch the Suffer season finale with Theo and the gang. It’s a dream come true. However, Theo and company will soon learn that all that glitters is not gold. For things are rarely what they seem in the land of Hollywood.

A.C. Sloan is better known as Ann Sloan. You might remember her as the creator of The Carlötta Beautox Chronicles and Who is Cam Candor? It was certainly exciting to hear that Ann was going to be publishing a novel. Doubly so when I discovered that it would have an audiobook adaption. So, I saw Ann giving out free review copies on Twitter. I asked if there were any audiobooks available for review. I’d previously reviewed the audiobook of The Supervillainy Saga Vol 1 at the request of author C.T. Phipps. Ann said that there were indeed, and I leapt at the opportunity. And here we are now.

So, first things first, are there any references to The Carlötta Beautox Chronicles. Well, Suffer! is an original work with no connections to Ann’s previous works. That said, there are a couple little nods and references to be found. At various points, the characters spray paint cheaper shoes red to make them look like Louboutins. This is something that Carlötta did at the end of season one, and she even left red footprints just like Sam does. There’s also one point in Suffer! where it is said that some news is best taken with loins girded. “Gird your loins” is pretty much Carlötta’s catchphrase.

In terms of style, Suffer! is a bit more grounded and down to earth than The Carlötta Beautox Chronicles. It still has Ann Sloan’s signature humor, but it tones down the wackiness a bit. This is certainly understandable. What works in an audio drama isn’t necessarily going to translate into book form. Books and audio dramas are different mediums, and they each have their own conventions. Suffer! also brings several moments of genuine seriousness and introspection. I think it is really great to see Ann Sloan branching out and trying new things. The more introspective and emotional scenes show that Ann is capable of writing more than just screwball comedies.

So, let’s talk about the characters. As previously stated, Theo has received a lot of hard knocks in life. Her dad died when she was young, her stepdad wanted nothing to do with her, and her mom sided with Theo’s stepdad. So, Theo was sent to live with Dottie, but that was okay. Dottie was a lot more fun, and actually gave her love and attention. Theo is absolutely devoted to being the best big sister possible to Pris. This is good, as Pris is autistic, and Theo is way more of a mother to her than their actual mother. In fact, a minor plot thread throughout the book involves Theo trying to find a way to become Pris’ legal guardian. Theo knows that the world is an often and cruel and unkind place, and she wants to help make it better. That’s why she aspires to be a victim’s rights attorney, just like her hero Marsha Suffer. Theo is the rock that the other characters rely on, and often serves as the voice of reason when things get especially crazy.

The major themes of Suffer! involve bullying, victims becoming bullies, the cycle of hurting, and how we break that cycle. Unsurprisingly, Theo has had to deal with a lot of bullies in her life. The part that really struck a chord with me was a flashback to when Theo was in third grade. Her class did that whole Secret Santa thing, and Theo got assigned to the mean girl who made her life living hell. They had to give a gift every day that week. First day, Theo got nothing, but then she got mean spirited gifts, like chewed gum or a shaken soda can. The teacher tried to get involved, but that just made things worse. And despite it all, Theo still did her best to give genuinely good gifts to the boy she was assigned. I mean, ouch, that all really hit home. I had several things like that happen to me in grade school. I really hope Theo got a hug a some point.

I looked up Arleta, as I wasn’t previously familiar with it. One of the pictures on the Wikipedia page for Arleta is a high school. But to be perfectly frank, it looks more like a prison. Of course, Theo and Sam would probably say that’s a pretty accurate description. And yet, despite all of this, the descriptions of daily life in Arleta, and the neighborhood Theo and Dottie live in, have a certain fondness to them. I wonder if Ann Sloan might be drawing from personal experience.

Dottie is Theo’s great-aunt. As previously stated, she’s the one who raised Theo for most of Theo’s life. Dottie always speaks her mind, and doesn’t hold back with sharp comments. Her generally approach to life can best be summarized as “Screw you, and up yours! I’m too damn old for this shit!” She reminds me a bit of my mother, who has a similar outlook on life. Theo has had help take care of Dottie more as she’s gotten older. Still, Dottie certainly doesn’t let old age, or needing an oxygen canister, slow her down.

Pris, short for Pristine, is Theo’s little sister. As previously noted, she is a high-functioning autistic. I would say that Pris is one of the best representations of an autistic person I’ve ever seen in media. I don’t know if Ann Sloan has anyone autistic in her life, but if not, she clearly did her research. Pris is also significant in that she’s half-Latina and a girl. Autistic girls and, autistic racial minorities, are still fairly rare in fiction. I also liked that one of Pris’ stims is that she flaps her hands. This is something I do myself, and Suffer! was the first time I actually encountered an autistic character in fiction who did that too. Stims are little respective behaviors autistic people do; often to help cope with stress. Pris has a good memory, but not to a superhuman degree. 

I also really appreciated how her dialog was written. A frustratingly common stereotype is that autistic people talk like robots. In reality, autistic people run the full spectrum when it comes to modes of speech. Pris’ dialog is deliberately stilted, but feels natural, and doesn’t come across as a caricature. As someone who is on the autism spectrum, I really appreciated how Pris was written.

Rounding out the main four is Sam Ruiz. He’s been Theo’s best friend since middle school. He’s tall, gay, flamboyant, and has a personality that is larger than life. He’s here, he’s queer, and he will not let your forget it. Sam works as a nurse by day, and likes it well enough, but he yearns for something more. He is an incredibly talented makeup artist, and quite knowledgeable about fashion. Sam’s also occasionally been known to cosplay as Marsha Suffer, and looks fabulous while doing so. And no, Sam was not named after me. Ann Sloan certainly liked my reviews of her shows, but I doubt it was that much. Also, I am neither tall, gay, Mexican, nor fabulously flamboyant.

And let us not forget Roxy DeVine, the actress who portrays Marcia Suffer. She has become incredibly wealthy thanks to her work on Suffer. However, she’s also very vain, high-strung, and is a general nightmare to work with. This can partially be traced back to her youth. Roxy had the stage mother from hell. Roxy’s mother was always quick to criticize and nitpick. Roxy didn’t have any friends growing up; her extremely good looks tended to make other girls jealous. Technically, all the pushing the Roxy’s mother did paid off. Roxy is a highly successful, and extremely wealthy actress. However, she’s managed to alienate pretty much everyone around her, and still feels unfulfilled. Roxy puts up a tough exterior because, deep down, very deep down, she’s still the same sad kid she was in grade school. Of course, as previously mentioned, a big theme of the novel is that having a rough childhood only gets you so much sympathy. Eventually, you have to move on from the past, and stop using your own misery as an excuse to hurt others. Theo got hit by several hard knocks in life, but she managed to not turn out like Roxy.

I’ll also make a few remarks about the way the entertainment industry is presented. So, Suffer is part of the big Thursday line-up of shows. I’m getting some hints of Shonda Rhimes, and all of the shows she’s made. Shonda Rhimes shows always air on Thursday, and have a devoted following. Though those shows air on ABC, but the network that Suffer airs on sounds more akin to The CW. The characters are all excited to attend a convention called DramaCon. It’s somewhat similar to ComicCon, or various anime conventions, but is aimed at a more mainstream crowd. Well, I would say ComicCon is pretty mainstream at this point. As are most stereotypical “nerd” properties like Star Wars and the MCU. I have to assume that mainstream means people who watch shows on network television. DramaCon is also, somehow, even bigger than ComicCon. Now, this is an Ann Sloan book, so the rules of reality are out to lunch, if a bit less so than in her previous works. So, I’m willing to suspend my disbelief that something like DramaCon could be that successful.

I’d also like to take a moment to talk about the audiobook. After all, it is the reason we are here. The audiobook is narrated by Chelsea Kwoka, who previously appeared on The Carlötta Beautox Chronicles. She does a wonderful job capturing all of the characters. She nails Sam’s larger-than-life personality and Dottie’s “I’m too old to give a damn” attitude. I especially like how she handled Pris’ dialogue. She made Pris sound a bit stilted, and overly formal, but it never felt like a caricature of an autistic person. Her performance sounded very believable and accurate. So, great performances all around from Chelsea Kwoka.

Okay, now we’re getting into the spoilers section. So, if you don’t want any of that, turn back now.

Last chance, you sure you want to continue?

If everyone who wants out is gone, then let’s get into it.

So, from reading various synopsis blurbs, and listening to the preview sample on Audible, I knew that Roxy would get kidnapped and held hostage. I assumed that Theo and company would have to save her, if only to keep Suffer on the air. Well, it turns out I was half-correct. Roxy did indeed get held against her will…except Theo and the gang are her captors. Roxy, during her disastrous visit to Theo and Dottie’s home, slips and hits her head. I briefly wondered if things were about to turn into Weekend at Bernie’s, and Theo would have to convince the world that Roxy was still alive. I also considered that maybe Roxy might get amnesia, and believe that she actually was Marcia Suffer. But no, turns out we got a comedic hostage situation.

In fairness, Roxy was a complete jerk to absolutely everyone up to that point. In particular, she was mean to Pris, and that is pretty much unforgivable. Well, I guess Roxy learned that, sometimes, karma comes at you hard and fast. It certainly was fun seeing her run through the wringer. Still, in keeping with the anti-bullying themes of the novel, the punishment must fit the crime. Roxy might have been a jerk, but Theo and the gang couldn’t keep her locked up forever. Why, if they did, Marcia Suffer would never make her triumphant return on Suffer. Oh, and holding someone against their will is wrong and immoral. That’s bad too, I guess.

Well, I do have a few minor points of criticism here. Theo eventually comes to realize that holding Roxy hostage makes her a bully. I suppose this is keeping with the anti-bullying themes, but holding someone hostage is a tad worse than bullying. I would be one thing if Theo was blackmailing Roxy, but holding Roxy hostage is straight-up criminal activity. In fairness, the book does acknowledge this, but there were probably better examples to go with for an anti-bullying message.

Theo and Roxy eventually bond by sharing experiences of their terrible mothers. Theo also explains how much Marcia Suffer means to her. Okay, all well and good. This was set up as a major turning point in Roxy’s extended stay with Theo and the gang. But that being said, I feel we could have used just a smidge more time to really make Roxy’s character development feel properly earned. It felt like we went from those bonding scenes, and then immediately to Roxy agreeing not to turn Theo over to the police. The plot was on the right track, but maybe needed just a tad longer to bake.

This next part isn’t a complaint, but more of an observation. The characters use a water gun they got at DramaCon to keep Roxy in-line. The water gun is modeled off of Marcia Suffer‘s gun, and is hyper-realistic. In real life, toy guns and water guns always have a bright red or orange cap at the end to identify them as such. These colorful caps are legally required. The requirement was made specifically because of people using toy guns to, among other things, rob banks and cash registers. That, and so the police didn’t accidentally shoot kids with toy guns. In fact, sawing-off the tip of a toy gun, or painting it, is actually a crime. So, a water gun as realistic as described in the book would land its manufactures in some seriously hot waters. Of course, this was another instance where I was willing to suspend my disbelief for the sake of the story.

I would like to emphasize that my critiques are, in the grand scheme of things, minor issues. Overall, I found Suffer! to be an incredibly enjoyable novel. I was in the mood for something fun and lighthearted, and it managed to scratch that itch. At the same time, it also managed to deliver some genuinely heartfelt and rather touching moments. This was actually what I would have expected from a debut novel written by Ann Sloan. I expected Suffer! to be excellent, and a lot of fun, and it certainly did not disappoint. It has Ann Sloan’s trademark humor, but also shows that she is capable of tackling more serious fare. Also, as an aside, I really love the cover art. Colorful, stylized, and understated. An excellent choice for a book cover.

If this is the start of a novel writing career, I for one can’t wait to see what comes next. So, if I haven’t made it clear by now, purchase a copy of Suffer! today.

I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.