Stephen C. BirdRecensioni

Stephen C. Bird's book, "Catastrophically Consequential," was a pretty funny book. I got it on one of the giveaways and am thankful for that. The humor in it is not meant for all people. I think this kind of humor will put many people off, but I wasn't phased by it. This book is good for a read, but it isn't something I would want to get a hard-cover version of for a personal collection that I would read repeatedly. Still, it's good enough and entertaining with a lot of laughs. If you want a book with a decent enough flow and a lot of laughs, then this is the book for you! I thought I had reviewed this book, but sadly it must not have saved it.

Received for review from the publisher.

I'm not really sure what I expected, but this wasn't it. The physical book is very well put together, clean and crisp.

The stories are... strange. Very surreal and trippy. They take place in/tell the story of some kind of future American continent where people have split into two camps: the hyper-sexual and aggressively liberal people who delightfully flaunt all sexual, political, and social mores and the proudly dumbed-down and staunchly conservative majority.

I really liked the parts where characters spoke in unison, "as in a Greek Chorus," and when the two men were seducing Sunnie into their lifestyle (it was ominous in a thrilling, scary way). But, otherwise, the strange hyper-sexuality really held me off from fully engaging with the stories.

Welcome to the satire of 2018. I’m on the fence with this book. While parts made me laugh, and I enjoyed the satire of our current political climate, global warming, and even Facebook, the chapters felt disjointed and slightly disorienting. The pacing was good, but the characters lacked development and the plot needed cohesion. There was no flow. Rather, the book offered a series of commentary loosely woven together by characters randomly inserted like the tiles a player draws in a matching game. I felt like I was reading a draft of this book but not the finished product.

***PLEASE NOTE THAT I WON THIS IN A GOODREADS GIVEAWAY***

This review was first posted on Melissa's Midnight Musings on August 22 2012.


This book is bizarre. Almost as bizarre as The Sugar Frosted Nutsack. Almost. Catastrophically Consequential, at the very least didn't make me want to bang my head into a wall because it basically repeated itself all the way through.

No, this book had a variable story. But it failed to catch my attention.

It's full of ridiculous puns. Not even clever ones. Just a bunch of words that are misspelled and made to look like they're clever. There are plenty of random name droppings and strange associations too.

And then there's an entire chapter that's written in text-speak. That made me want to gouge out my eyes. And the chapter after that is written in redneck speak. Just as bad.

I understand that the book is supposed to be satirical, but in some spots this was just down right offensive, covered in thinly veiled jokes. I won't go into specifics because I don't want to upset any readers, but I'll just say be warned. There are also some semi-gruesome violent descriptions in this book as well.

It definitely lives up to it's name being that it's catastrophic, but as for consequential, I'm not sure....

I don't even know who I would recommend this to other than someone who likes bizarro fiction, which, I guess I'm learning from reading this, that I don't.

I received this book for free as a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

I'm going to be 100% honest here, if I hadn't won this book in the giveaway and subsequently felt that I should review it- I probably would have never picked it up.

I started reading this book on April 20th and managed to read two chapters that day. I then attempted to read the third chapter and felt so overwhelmed that I had to stop. I didn't pick it up again until the 24th of April. For four days I stared at [b:Catastrophically Consequential|13498101|Catastrophically Consequential|Stephen C. Bird|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1330057887s/13498101.jpg|19042813] and for four days I felt extremely frustrated. I'm not usually one to not finish a book, even if I don't really like it, and I didn't want my first Goodreads First Reads book to be one of them.

Once I picked it up again, this time focused on getting through the book, understanding as much as I could, I managed to make it through.

If you don't want spoilers I suggest that you don't read the next part.

For those who haven't read this book--or at least attempted--you won't fully understand what I'm talking about when I say that the majority of the book was written in what I can only describe as if a drunken German hill-billy was speaking.

Heahz uh last-minute reminder: we takin our gun-siez case dey any Druidyck-Wyckan-Pagan woship-pers down at duh Fyremenziez Fieldie; themmerz duh worst kind uh heatheners.

This quote is surprisingly not from the chapter that was hardest to read and from what I understood the narrator is talking about bringing their guns to a fire where they were burning the Cora-Ann (Qur'an)and were 100% okay with shooting (and killing) anyone who tried to stop them.

In terms of clarity and ease of understanding I would give this book half a star if I could. It honesty was the most annoying book I've ever read when it comes to the actual reading aspect. There were multiple times that I had to sit and think about the words just to figure out what [a:Stephen C. Bird|3087044|Stephen C. Bird|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1359732359p2/3087044.jpg] was trying to convey.

There are words such as szcztall (stall), kulchural (cultural) and mythologistickal (mythological) that require a double check to make sure you've understood and then there are the words such as themmerz (them{they} are), heahz (here is) and deah (they are) that you need to understand the rest of the sentence to fully understand them.

On top of all the 'normal' words that have been given a weird German-hill-billy twist there are tons of people and places that are well known that also have new spellings. Jeh-Hee-Zeus (Jesus), Mecks-Sicko (Mexico), Kanadyans (Canadians) and Two-Tank-Amen (Tutankhamun). Though, to be honest I though these were pretty clever.

The story itself is quite hard to follow, the timeline is quite scattered and some of the chapters just didn't fit into the story. More specifically the first, second, and last chapters have the same 'the world is f*cked up theme as the rest of the book, but from what I understood they don't fit into the story.

Despite the numerous characters and plot lines the general idea of the novel remains the same. Most of these characters are involved in an alternative lifestyle. Either one of sexual nature that is 'different', whether it be part of the LGBT community, the S&M community, incestual relations or weird fetishes (such as being urinated on). Or one that involves excessive use of hallucinogenic drugs. Those characters as well as the few that don't fall into one of those categories all share a hatred for minorities-- even when most of them fall into one themselves. Leading them down a path of self-hatred.

The minorities that are hated on in the novel are mainly the poor, the people of middle-eastern decent, the sexual deviants and drug addicts (including food as a 'drug').

In my opinion this novel is a commentary on how damaged our world is and how hypocritical we are. No one group of people are 'perfect', each of us has a different view of the world and unless we stop judging others for their choices, no matter how weirded out we are by them, we will continue to fall in a downward spiral.

Maybe I missed the point of the novel completely, but I think that the title [b:Catastrophically Consequential|13498101|Catastrophically Consequential|Stephen C. Bird|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1330057887s/13498101.jpg|19042813] refers to how messed up this world is and how much human kind will have to pay for the way we have treated each other and the planet itself.

My half star for the writing aspect of the novel combined with the four stars I want to give [a:Stephen C. Bird|3087044|Stephen C. Bird|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1359732359p2/3087044.jpg] for the main concept of the novel makes it hard for me to decide between a four and a five.

However, given the fact that I thought I was going to hate the book, after reading the first chapter, I'm going to round up to a five for surprising me with how much I actually like it.

*won through GoodReads giveaway*

If Wassily Kandinsky and Francis Bacon had written a book...

Bird has an anomalous approach as an author that requires more than a few mental double-takes and pauses for reflection. He's obviously in the possession of an artfulness and arsenal of more-or-less latent brilliance. This is often evident throughout. There were a few stories that I was a bit disenthralled by, but I cannot say conclusively that this wasn't because I didn't pay the necessary attention.

My favorite analogy of all-time came early in the book: "his inauthenticitie was comparable to that of a slumming New England aristocrat passing for the prep school gardener."

I feel as if I'm bilking by giving this only three stars, and if the time and opportunity to reread the book presents itself, I may bump the rating up. Despite the ambivalent rating, I think this book was firing on all cylinders and accomplished exactly what it wanted to.

This book was truly silly. I really am not sure how it got published. It was obviously created by someone who had a rather trenchant wit and active imagination, but to publish something like this is beyond me. It is a collection of what amounts to rants by different characters that the author has created. All are equally silly, nonsensical and jaded. The author is a performance artist who created these characters and performs these rants in public to live audiences. Why he felt that they would go over well in print I do not know. I love good satire and black humor, but this was neither of those, this was just off the wall. For example, a self loathing rich girl goes to a party where she is surrounded by in his words "Eurotrash". She baits them by telling them she hates them all because they are all posers and hypocrites and a whole string of unfortunate labels. Unlike other times she has done this, they don't laugh at her, they think that she hates herself so much, she wants to die. They get very excited, and as a group go get all the kitchen implements they can lay their hands on, and they pound, stab, and beat her to death as a mob, cheering each other on - thinking this is what she wants and they are fulfilling her wishes. When she is dead, they feel like they have done a good thing, and go back to partying, while the body lies on the floor a bloody mess, completely ignored. I guess I don't hate self loathing rich people enough to think it's funny that they get murdered at a party after spewing venom at strangers. All life is precious; that is just sick.

In another, a girl's Mother is waiting in her car for her daughter to be done with school. While she is waiting, she notices something is going on in a hearse in the parking lot. She goes to look, and finds the school ho and the football captain doing the deed in the back. She tells them to stop, and the girl calls the Mother a ho and a fight ensues. The Mother goes back to her car, and the girl follows, the fight continues. The Mother it turns out, has a magic yearbook which has special powers, which she brings to bear on the girl. While she is saying the magic words, the girl grabs the yearbook and after the Mother finishes saying the words, the girl is burned to ashes, right there in front of witnesses. The daughter finally gets out of school, and the Mother drives away, thinking that a good thing has been done.

I don't understand why this book ever came out in print. It may be good as performance art, but without the artist in person, the text came out both flat and rather sick, in my humble opinion. I did not find it either humorous or creative, just annoying and unprintable. It is the first book that I've gotten through GoodReads FirstReads that I haven't liked. Unfortunate - but that's how things go sometimes.

This book was a very difficult read due to the style of writing, with misspelled words and crazy sentences, you definitely have to get a feel for it. This is without a doubt an imaginative, twisted, humourous read that will bend your mind. This book will certainly appeal to those who wish to deviate from the norm, but not recommended for the faint of heart.

Catastrophically Consequential is not for the faint. Stephen Bird encompasses every stereotype known to man upon which he showers a “catastrophically consequential” outlook to expire his own characters. He stretches through time and space hitting “Amurycka Profunda”, “West Whoreville” all the way to “Doucheyland” in this continual diatribe against…everyone. He uniquely creates the illusion of a utopian “Welt” by illustrating the truly opposite in his book satirically foreshadowing the possible apocalyptic future on the world’s present condition. The author orchestrates a “mélange à trios” between the language he uses, his humor and the subject matter. It isn’t essential to know German in order to read this book but it does add to the humor. For someone who prides herself on her grammar and the written word, I find it refreshing to read a book that genuinely challenges the mind.I wouldn’t have normally picked this book up for its storyline but find that its creativity and uniqueness make it an unusual read that breaks up the monotony of a true daily dilemma between vampires and werewolves.

I really just couldn't get into this book. I don't even know if I should rate it 3 stars, because I only read the first few pages but even with that I knew I didn't want to read it. However, being that I didn't actually read it I don't want to rate it low because it just may be a good book, just not a book for me. Received from a GoodReads giveaway.

Sunnie and Brother mourn Mother; an apparition visits Sunnie. Mother appears in Sunnie's disturbing dreams. In one dream, Sunnie meets Momma Leg, a vicious dominatrix … Comedy writers Pamm Demmyck and Remmy Dessyvyr then appear. Pamm is the boss; Remmy fights back. Remmy has principles; Pamm just wants to write jokes … Amourrica Profunda descends into political chaos caused by endemic polarization. The nation is in peril; Amourrica Profunda becomes "Mourrzicka" … Pamm and Remmy find success with their musical in the Triplethreat District of Megalopola … The Anarchic Rebel Patriots take over Mourrzicka which becomes "Isolamicka" … Turmerico Inflammatorio and his wife, Curcuma Moulu, develop a best-selling product called "Turmerican Wonder Fabric". Turmerico's daughter, Francka Inflammatorio, expects her eight-year old daughter Deandra to become a predatory capitalist; Deandra defies her Mommy … Sunnie's brother Bobbie encounters Chester, a "shaman for good". Bobbie helps Chester investigate a nearby cult ceremony. Two women wait for the ceremony to begin. Female One, a "hustler", is more dominant; Female Two is more passive and academic. They converse. At the ceremony, a collection of perverse and eccentric characters is gathered by a pit, lit up with torches. At the bottom of the pit, an older man and a middle-aged woman lay side by side on two cement slabs. The woman is dressed as a scarecrow; the man as a clown … Bobbie flees the cult ceremony; he drives to his friend Tommie's home. Tommie's not there; Bobbie finds a haunted house. Bobbie enacts a destructive plan. A space goddess appears; two witches greet Bobbie … A cataclysm occurs.

(281 Word Synopsis) 1. Noloso Chushingura returns to the wretchedness of Mucha Nieve, Nueva Jork and is shocked by what he sees. He then flees Mucha Nieve, crossing the border by bus into Kanuckya. 2. Pavlina Perestroika, The Man in the 1975 Buick Regal and “A Guest” drive to Miasma Falls. Pavlina later meets her friend Bobby Bluetooth. 3. Klarissa Koontberger, Gloria "Gigi" Evil-Lynne Gigglefoock Koontberger and their disturbed children reside in the Crew-Ella de Parkay Villa in Douchebag, Nueva Jork. 4. Pavlina Perestroika and her Guest physioanimate to the Marie Versailles Trailer Park to visit Trailer Number Nine. 5. Giovanni Zsazsasky escapes the Puta Jork bar “Vulture” and travels to Brrrlin, Doucheyland. At a Beast Village bar called Schmack, go-go boy Kristofer Petrograd Falkland and stripper Helio resolve their differences. 6. Homo hotties speak out against gay shame. Bobby and Tommy live their obsession with rainbow flags. 7. Elfindaabaah Glindaabaah, high school musical star, founds the "Weak-Ed Fan Club" for teenage girl fans of the Fraud-Gay musical "Weak-Ed". 8. Sheena Horrorshow Princess chides aging Bohemians who refuse to adapt to gentrified Puta Jork. 9. Jean-Nette The Jet Lag Fag Hag reveals, to The Grrrlfriends, the reasons why she sacrificed her career. She then travels with The Grrrlfriends to the Marie Versailles Trailer Park. The Grrrlfriends experience a nightmare inside of Trailer Number Nine. 10. Dolores the Day Glo Drag Queen commands The Grrrlfriends to destroy Jean-Nette the Jet Lag Fag Hag. The Girlfriends gratefully accept this responsibility. 11. Noloso Chushingura and his entire body of work are condemned by a mysterious group of art critics. 12. The Collected, Completed and Unfinished Works of Noloso Chushingura. 13. Reviews of “Art Is Dead: The Anti-Book”.