Overall, I was disappointed in this collection. It gets a 5.5/10 rating. Here is a brief listing of the stories you will find within this book:

A ZOMBIE’S LAMENT I’m very familiar with the characters from BREATHERS. Love the voice of the zombie - slightly cynical with a dash of humor. 6
SOFTLAND This story has an interesting idea: people who poach luck from other people and then sell it on the black market. I thought this story had the best opening sentence I’d read in years until I read that Browne took most of it from a Beck album. I do like this sentence: “After all, you can’t take something from someone without eventually paying a price.” I call that karma. 6
MY EGO IS BIGGER THAN YOURS Wherein a man injects Egos on a regular basis and perhaps begins to suffer side effects. Or is he? Best story so far. The beginning drags with the naming of all the celebrities but picks up with the first poisoning. Then I started getting tired of the sexual references. 8
DREAM GIRLS A misogynist story. Don’t bother reading it. 0
SHOOTING MONKEYS IN A BARREL More sexual references. Why does seemingly everything have to be a sexual reference? Ugh! I’m no prude but jeez, can’t a story just be a story? More great sentences: “I feel buoyant and warm and fluffy. I don’t know how I can feel fluffy, but I do.” Good story, not great. 6
CAPTIVITY Boring. 5
THE SODOM AND GOMORRAH SHORE Pretty good. I’m also familiar with these characters from FATED. 6
HOMER’S REPRISE Huh? This is a lot of things thrown together in a very short story. 7
DR. LULLABY Very interesting. My favorite story of the bunch. Medical “guinea pigs” begin to have the power to make other people have those unfortunate side effects that they list at the end of pharmaceutical commercials and take up most of the commercial. I really enjoyed this and it could have been even longer. 9
ZOMBIE GIGOLO Although it has a good first line: “Is it necrophilia if you’re both dead?” and some really gross description, I stopped reading before the end of the first page. This was actually written for a Gross-Out Contest. I’m surprised it only got third place because it grossed me out enough to stop reading it. 2 ( )

Overall, I was disappointed in this collection. It gets a 5.5/10 rating. Here is a brief listing of the stories you will find within this book:

A ZOMBIE’S LAMENT I’m very familiar with the characters from BREATHERS. Love the voice of the zombie - slightly cynical with a dash of humor. 6
SOFTLAND This story has an interesting idea: people who poach luck from other people and then sell it on the black market. I thought this story had the best opening sentence I’d read in years until I read that Browne took most of it from a Beck album. I do like this sentence: “After all, you can’t take something from someone without eventually paying a price.” I call that karma. 6
MY EGO IS BIGGER THAN YOURS Wherein a man injects Egos on a regular basis and perhaps begins to suffer side effects. Or is he? Best story so far. The beginning drags with the naming of all the celebrities but picks up with the first poisoning. Then I started getting tired of the sexual references. 8
DREAM GIRLS A misogynist story. Don’t bother reading it. 0
SHOOTING MONKEYS IN A BARREL More sexual references. Why does seemingly everything have to be a sexual reference? Ugh! I’m no prude but jeez, can’t a story just be a story? More great sentences: “I feel buoyant and warm and fluffy. I don’t know how I can feel fluffy, but I do.” Good story, not great. 6
CAPTIVITY Boring. 5
THE SODOM AND GOMORRAH SHORE Pretty good. I’m also familiar with these characters from FATED. 6
HOMER’S REPRISE Huh? This is a lot of things thrown together in a very short story. 7
DR. LULLABY Very interesting. My favorite story of the bunch. Medical “guinea pigs” begin to have the power to make other people have those unfortunate side effects that they list at the end of pharmaceutical commercials and take up most of the commercial. I really enjoyed this and it could have been even longer. 9
ZOMBIE GIGOLO Although it has a good first line: “Is it necrophilia if you’re both dead?” and some really gross description, I stopped reading before the end of the first page. This was actually written for a Gross-Out Contest. I’m surprised it only got third place because it grossed me out enough to stop reading it. 2 ( )

Is it any wonder that SG Browne has become one of my new favorite authors? I read his book "Fated" last year, followed it with "Breathers" this year, and now this short story collection "Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel".

Let me start by saying that I rarely read short story collections. I find some short stories are brilliant, but that the majority of them leave much to be desired. This probably comes from my desire to delve into characters and understand them. Short stories, by nature of the "short" part, are precluded from any deep analysis of characterization and are typically situation and plot driven. While these stories are no different in that respect, the writing is remarkably clever carrying the reader on a fun romp. To add to the fun, at the end of each story is a blurb by the author explaining a bit about how he came to write that particular story.
The first story, "A Zombie's Lament" ultimately became the novel "Breathers". After reading the short story, I must say I am glad Mr. Browne decided to expand upon this idea. The short story was dark and a bit depressing. The novel adds so much more humor... although I still felt the poor zombies were getting a raw deal!

The title entry into this collection was my favorite. It follows a writer who is suffering from writers block only to find a dealer with bags of words. The story becomes a remarkably witty word salad. Part of me hopes that the author leaves this perfect little gem just as it; but then part of me would like to see if he could carry the magic through an entire novel.

Another favorite is "The Sodom and Gomorrah Shore". It is a spin-off from his novel "Fated" and stars the characters of Sloth and Gluttony in a reality show set in the Biblical towns of Sodom and Gomorrah. Another laugh out loud story with great social and religious commentary subtext.
Along with the aforementioned stories we also have "Dream Girls" about a future where technology has allowed for human-alien-clone girls that can morph into anything the owner desires. There is "My Ego Is Bigger Than Yours" about a future where people can take a drug that will allow them to temporarily assume the personality of a dead celebrity. "Captivity", possibly the darkest of the stories, and one that will make you look at your shampoo bottle differently for the rest of your life. "Homer's Reprise" is a mash up of Greek mythology with American and Scottish mythos and some other strange stuff thrown in. An offbeat super hero story is the best way to describe "Dr Lullaby". "Zombie Gigolo" was written for a gross-out contest and I am not sure how he didn't win first prize with it! It is disgusting, and yet hilarious. I read it to my husband; he laughed non-stop but may never get an erection again. (Thank you very much, Mr. Browne!)

And then there is "Softland" about a family of luck-poachers. I was left wanting more, so I am on my way out now to pick up a copy of "Lucky Bastard", which is the novel developed from it. ( )