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DEAD[ish] (DEAD[ish] #1)

by Naomi Kramer (Goodreads Author)

2.78 of 5 stars 2.78 · rating details · 1,667 ratings · 443 reviews

Linda’s had a bad day. First her boyfriend killed her. Then she woke up, still on this boring plane of existence, and with an odd obsession about her missing body. Mike won’t tell her what he did with her body, and she can’t find the stupid thing herself. There’s only one thing she can do - torment the bastard until he coughs up the information.
This is a very short work -...more

ebook, 104 pages

Published June 2009 by self published

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Dec 31, 2012 Lana rated it 1 of 5 stars

...wha...?

Okay. I recently got a Kindle and I've been downloading the free books like a mad-woman. Which is how I stumbled across this. DEAD(ish) got my attention because of the summary- which made me snicker and I thought it would be a funny murder-mystery from Linda's perspective.

I...was wrong.

Now, maybe I shouldn't talk about it, because I am such a picky person, but this book made zerooooooo sense to me. If I hadn't read the summary I would've had no idea what was going on. Mike is crude and...more

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Dec 23, 2011 Yvensong rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysteries-and-thrillers, ebook, free-from-pub-or-author

I have a mixed reaction to this story. I think it would have been more intriguing if it had been fleshed out a little more, with some more clues leading to the revelation of what had happened to the ghost's body. The characters were interesting enough and the premise was fun, with a bit of humor thrown in. Sometimes, the abrupt leap from one character's narrative to another was distracting, and I believe if the story was longer that form would have worked a whole lot better.

I would enjoy seeing...more

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May 10, 2013 Shawn Kamphuis rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read Dead(ish) by Naomi Kramer. This was a supernatural mystery book. This was a very interesting book. Dead(ish) is about an abusive couple, Mike and Linda, who got into a fight. In the altercation Mike accidently killed Linda. Mike proceeded to hide Linda’s body, causing the Linda's spirit, unable to find her body, to be in a state of unrest. Her spirit decided to haunt Mike and a private detective Trent in an attempt to track down her body. One of the motifs of this book was that people are...more

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Mar 22, 2013 Tara Lee rated it 1 of 5 stars

I got this book, I believe, because it was free on Amazon and initially the premise was interesting. At first. The description for Dead(ish) by Naomi Kramer on Goodreads had a disclaimer that there was foul language but really... dropping the F-bomb 5 times on the first page and throwing in who knows how many other curse words is necessary?

Linda wants to find her body. So she's hired a PI to try and weasel out of her ex boyfriend where it is. How can a ghost hire a PI, you may ask. I don't know...more I got this book, I believe, because it was free on Amazon and initially the premise was interesting. At first. The description for Dead(ish) by Naomi Kramer on Goodreads had a disclaimer that there was foul language but really... dropping the F-bomb 5 times on the first page and throwing in who knows how many other curse words is necessary?

Linda wants to find her body. So she's hired a PI to try and weasel out of her ex boyfriend where it is. How can a ghost hire a PI, you may ask. I don't know. And it isn't explained.

I understand that the story is only 45 pages long but the entire thing skipped back and forth between so many different perspectives and it just felt disjointed and forced. I don't have a problem with cursing in stories.... unfortunately I do it in real life. But honestly, where is the line drawn between cursing and completely taking away from the story itself?

It wasn't long enough to do the story it COULD have been any justice.

Trent was supposed to be a detective or a PI or something... but was completely clueless and had no idea what he was doing it seemed. He complained most of the time that Linda was getting on his nerves and he wished she'd go bother Mike... and then all of the sudden at the end of the story had some weird sympathy for her that came out of nowhere and made no sense.

Mike was a crude and vulgar jerk (maybe the only person in the entire story that was portrayed the way he should have been). He never showed any remorse or compassion or even disgust for the fact that he (spoiler alert) ATE HER. He was completely one dimensional but it didn't feel like that was done on purpose.

Geordi and Laz were their gay (but only most of the time) next door neighbors who liked to have "party time" outside where everyone could see. Their relationship and attitude seemed completely forced (like the story) and fake and I had a hard time believing any of the dialogue between the two of them, or them and anyone else. It just didn't seem like the way two people (gay or not) would actually speak.

I didn't like the story. I don't think that's a surprise or a big shocker. It made no sense. Nothing popped out at me to say "Look at that! Keep reading!" I was more reading just so I could get to the end and get it over with. Apparently there are more books that follow this, but I won't be reading them.

It's not a book I would recommend to anyone (especially anyone under the age of 18). The description is misleading in that it makes it wound like an interesting story to read. And it just isn't. Man I hate reading books I don't like. Bums me out.(less)

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Mar 04, 2013 Becky rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, mystery-and-thrillers, nook, reviewed, disappointing, made-my-eyes-bleed, challenge-1010

Errr... Right. Where to even start?

I picked this up for free a while back for my Nook, because, come on - that cover is cute! I just now got around to reading it, though, and, well, it wasn't the best.

This whole story, novella, whatever, just felt unfinished. Starting from a whole chapter of Mike's monologue to someone about how his wife/girlfriend (I think gf, though) died, and then another chapter from Trent's perspective with his own monologue... and I started to wonder that each section wo...more Errr... Right. Where to even start?

I picked this up for free a while back for my Nook, because, come on - that cover is cute! I just now got around to reading it, though, and, well, it wasn't the best.

This whole story, novella, whatever, just felt unfinished. Starting from a whole chapter of Mike's monologue to someone about how his wife/girlfriend (I think gf, though) died, and then another chapter from Trent's perspective with his own monologue... and I started to wonder that each section would be that kind of story-progressing-dialogue-I-hate - only with a twist of not actually being dialogue at all, but just one person talking to themselves...

Oh yes, quite. I agree. Juvenile and awkward. Quite right.

(Yeah, like that.)

So then things move along, shifting around from perspective to perspective, and in the end I just found myself wondering what the actual story was. There were a lot of Things That Happened, but there seemed to be missing one of those plot thingies.

The Quick Rundown, and there will be spoilers: Mike's girlfriend/maybe-wife is dead and haunting him because she thinks he killed her. He claims it was an accident, and that they argued after she cheated on him with the flamboyantly-gay-no-only-mostly-gay neighbors, and he slapped her, she fell and hit her head and died. Only, there's no body. And the girlfriend/maybe-wife is haunting him until she gets it back. Only to find out that, uhh, it's not available. Because... Mike barbequed her and fed her to the very same flamboyantly-gay-no-only-mostly-gay neighbors she was supposed to have cheated on him with - or did he ask her to do it? Nobody seems to really know.

But, gaping plot-(haha what plot?)-holes... If Genius Mike claimed that the death was an accident, how, exactly, did he plan to make that stick when there's no body? Even if he wasn't being haunted and harassed by his murder victim? I mean, logistically, there's got to be blood evidence out the wazoo to have cut her up into cookable and eatable pieces. Hair, bones, bloody clothes... all things that would leave lots of mess and wouldn't have been served at the neighborhood cook-out.

But to add insult to injury and hobble this "story" a little more, Mike then goes ahead and tells the neighbors what they just ate, so that they'd have to, I dunno, cover for him. I dunno about you, but I don't get it.. It's not like they were in on the murder, so why tell them? Because he's clearly not the brightest bulb on the tree (one), and because Trent wouldn't have his deus ex machina drunken flamboyantly-gay-no-only-mostly-gay neighbor spill the beans and wrap up the story (two).

The characters were one dimensional, lifeless (ha-ha, see what I did there?), and moronic caricatures in the extreme.

Don't waste your time on this one. The only good thing I can say about it is that reading it on the smallest font size on my nook apparently counted as two pages each, so it was over really fast.

One star for my nook's awesomeness. (less)

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Dec 23, 2012 LG (A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions) rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2011, mystery-or-thriller, 1-star, format-ebook, acquired-free

I downloaded this because the cute, visually appealing cover art led me to believe it would be a funny book in the same vein as Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job, or possibly even MaryJanice Davidson's Undead and Unwed or Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys. Yeah, I read a lot more into that cover image than I should have. It really is a nice-looking cover, though.

I'll get this next part out of the way quickly: If you're easily offended by swear words, don't even touch this. I think there are maybe 1-4 per...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Zep rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I really can't understand any rating above ... say a 2 for this book. this is the only 'thriller/horror/mystery' thing I've ever encountered where the answers provided in the story raise far more questions than were answered. *additional spoiler warning* for example:

where's her body?
a. oh, we ate it.
you ate it? her entire body? does this author have any notion at all
of how difficult such a thing is? what would they have done with organs? ate them too, I suppose? bones? washed it down with a he...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Shovelmonkey1 rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people with short attention spans and new kindles

Recommended to Shovelmonkey1 by: kindle cyber world invisible list makers

I got me a kindle. Oh yes.

Dbolden has already pointed out that they are the work of the devil. I am starting to think that there might be some truth in that already and it has only been four days since I burned all my books and armed myself with a Kindle and a utility belt replete with Kindle accessories; chargers, differently textured and self-illuminating covers, screen stickers... truly it is endless. Kidding. I have burned no books and no books were molested during the acquisition of my e-re...more I got me a kindle. Oh yes.

Dbolden has already pointed out that they are the work of the devil. I am starting to think that there might be some truth in that already and it has only been four days since I burned all my books and armed myself with a Kindle and a utility belt replete with Kindle accessories; chargers, differently textured and self-illuminating covers, screen stickers... truly it is endless. Kidding. I have burned no books and no books were molested during the acquisition of my e-reader.

Dead(ish) was my first complete e-read and looking down the list it seems I am not alone in popping my Kindle-cherry on this one. Sloppy seconds e-reader-style, how lovely. I chose this based on the title alone, figuring that I could download some free zombie action to read on the train. The obvious Kindle benefit is the lack of a cover thus not providing the world with a clear view of secret shame reading.

This wasn't a horrible read. But it was not the best of all reads either. To be honest, the blizzard of swears was what instantly turned me off. I work in a construction led environment and am no stranger to the multiple and many faceted expletive. I can extol, conjugate and commingle swear words into combinations, variations and exhortations that leave most 50 year old digger drivers weeping into their mugs of overly sweetened tea. But here, in this book, it all just seemed forced and unnecessary. Lack of further character development and background mean that we never get to understand why these characters all swear so much. Are they ex marine staff sergeants? Navy lifers? Ex dockers? Dunno. Not going to know either.

What you do know is that Linda is dead and she is surrounded by four useless men, three of whom contributed directly to her demise. Well them, a bottle of baby oil, some overly precipitous stilleto heels, a jealous lover and a bit of improbable afternoon delight with the neighbourly homosexuals, Geordie and Lazarus. Trent is the alleged non useless one who fulfils the dual role of PI and exorcist while doggedly searching for Linda's missing corpse. He is Whoopi Goldberg to Linda's Patrick Swayze. Is this book Ghost for Gen Y? Maybe. Cut out the swears and flesh out the living and the dead with a bit more of a back story and it would be heading in the right direction.

(less)

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Jan 10, 2012 Julianne Snow rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recently I picked up this little gem for free from Amazon. Here’s the synopsis exactly as I first read it…

Linda’s had a bad day. First her boyfriend killed her. Then she woke up, still on this boring plane of existence, and with an odd obsession about her missing body. Mike won’t tell her what he did with her body, and she can’t find the stupid thing herself. There’s only one thing she can do – torment the bastard until he coughs up the information.

So you can see why I was intrigued!

Normally I d...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Nona rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook

"Dead(ish)" was the very first book I read on my Kindle device. It is a short and fairly fast paced read, so I finished it in less than one day.

I'll start by saying there is a lot of talent to be seen in this work.

Naomi Kramer did a fine job outlining a story here, but it does feel like its only an outline. It was good enough to keep me reading long enough to finish it instead of just moving on to my next title, but not quite good enough to make me want to immediately buy the next one.

The thing...more

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Jan 01, 2012 Tracy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: detective-mystery-thriller

I nabbed Dead(ish) thanks to its fantastic price-point on Amazon (approximately free dollars), and I was intrigued by the prelude.

I thought: foul language, dead girlfriends, paranoid ex-boyfriends/killers, and hijinks all around. This seems to be my cup of tea.

A download, and an hour later--I was pleasantly surprised. While there were clunky parts in the middle of the story (some transitions felt abrupt, some of the language could have been tightened up, a bit of repetition here and there), the...more

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Nov 25, 2011 Lynn rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: not-finished, fantasy

***Warning! The following review contains the f-word.*** :-)

One of those books I couldn't find the strength to finish.

I am German, and sometimes, I am fascinated about the American rules of language: Every "fuck" is bleeped out, general language warnings before a text starts are considered polite and whole texts are rated for their use of language instead of content.
Please don't get me wrong: I am no special fan of foul language, but bleeping words out is very American to me. ;-)

(That by the way...more ***Warning! The following review contains the f-word.*** :-)

One of those books I couldn't find the strength to finish.

I am German, and sometimes, I am fascinated about the American rules of language: Every "fuck" is bleeped out, general language warnings before a text starts are considered polite and whole texts are rated for their use of language instead of content.
Please don't get me wrong: I am no special fan of foul language, but bleeping words out is very American to me. ;-)

(That by the way is the point where I got to think and added the warning before the review... :-)) )

This book to a considerable part *consists* out of foul language, so if you're squeamish about that, stay away.
I however am not sqeamish, the blurb sounded good so I downloaded it.
And was ... well, bored to death.
I do not doubt that NK wants to use this language to characterize the main protagonist, and the disturbing part is that she might succeed in that: It is entirely possible that some people of a certain age in fact *do* talk like that. I for my part am 36 and feel I am faaaar too old to suffer through it; to me, it is just strange language and getting on my nerves. :-/
Can't blame the author for *that* though.

But what I can and do blame her for and why I stopped reading after 30 % is the absolute confusion and muddledheadedness she tells the story in.
There are changes in narrating perspective every few paragraphs:
NK jumps from one protagonist to another which would be bearable, but each of them tells the story in first-person-singular and thus brings new facts into the story that might be important for the story but because of the perspective are not yet introduced and not explained properly (because in the narrator's mind and view, it is perfectly clear, so why bother telling the reader?) - sounds woozying? It is.

This book is just not my cup of tea.

Oh, and on behalf of every reader sharing my opinion on this book:
If you're an author and fucking absolutely want to narrate in fucking first-person-singular, please do fucking stick with *fucking one person*.
(See: Strange. ;-) )(less)

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May 13, 2011 Neil Schiller rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have real mixed feelings about this book. Where do I start? Ok, let's look at the positives. At the heart of DEAD(ish) is a great idea. It's quirky and it's different and it's quite original. I wasn't 100% convinced of the narrative twist where the ghost of Linda finds out what happened to her body, but I was convinced enough. It just about worked in an offbeat, Chuck Palahniuk kind of way. And it's fair to say that Naomi Kramer can write. She has a great style which flows well and has an edge...more

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Mar 19, 2011 Trisha rated it 2 of 5 stars

The Professional Description
Linda’s had a bad day. First her boyfriend killed her. Then she woke up, still on this boring plane of existence, and with an odd obsession about her missing body. Mike won’t tell her what he did with her body and she can’t find the stupid thing herself. There’s only one thing she can do - torment the bastard until he coughs up the information.

A Bit of a Ramble
I read this quickly and probably a bit hazily on the plane ride back from Vegas. Five days of partying with m...more

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Mar 09, 2011 Indigo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: girl-power

In the urban fantasy/supernatural detective genre it is nice to see someone branching out a bit with feminist and GBLT issues.

DEAD(ish) is only 100 pages long, and it gives you the characters, sitch, plot, conflict, and resolution. But at onlt 100 pages, it gives them to you with very little else.

I would never have known Linda was a blonde if I hadn't seen the first dew pages of the next book.

I would've loved to know more about Trent and how Linda came to choose him. And while we do get told w...more

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Feb 28, 2011 Nathan rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, read-2011

Considering I got this for free, I can't say I paid too much for it, however the half hour it took to read could have been spent doing so many other things.

I was going to write horrible mean things because I felt it was appropriate since I only gave it one star, but it wasn't a complete and total waste of digital paper.

The story actually had a decent base. The murdered girlfriend haunting her murderous boyfriend trying to find her body. That's got funny potential. Private eyes and gay neighbor...more

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Oct 06, 2010 Craig Hansen rated it 4 of 5 stars

After reading DEAD(ish), which I got for free thanks to an Amazon-initiated sale, I felt I should give Naomi something back, so here's a review. DEAD(ish) is a longish short story or maybe a shortish short novel. Whatever you want to call it, it piqued my curiosity with its concept: a dead girl bugging a private eye to find her body so she can rest in peace.

Somehow, Naomi Kramer managed to juggle five main characters and tell the story from (if I counted right) three narrative voices and yet nev...more

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Apr 14, 2012 Vex rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012, read-own-kindle

What a fun read! I enjoyed this so much that I cannot wait to read the next book in the series.

We meet Mike. He has a problem. He murdered his girlfriend and now she's haunting the crap out of him. Not just run of the mill Caspar the Friendly Ghost pranks, but mean and nasty ones. I especially enjoyed when he woke up to discover Linda has coloured his hair blue, eyebrows green and skin orange - as Mike puts it, "I look like a smurf, a munchkin, and an oompa loompa had an orgy and I was their lov...more

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Aug 22, 2010 Imogen Rose rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A Morsel of Twisted Wickeness

When Linda finds herself dead, she discovers that her body is mysteriously absent…well, she must find it! After all, what’s a ghost without a body? She tries to find out what’s happened to it from the one person who should know, her boyfriend–he killed her, after all. When he turns out to be particularly avoidant in answering her very simple question, she sets out to make his life a living hell. Will she ever find her body?

Naomi Kramer takes us on a rip-snorting ride...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Holly Letson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: series-challenge-2013

This one turned out being more serious (and weird!) than I expected, especially toward the end, but I still enjoyed it.
-----------
Mike is a pretty normal guy, probably in his mid-to-late 20s, with a deadly secret. See, he killed girlfriend, Linda. He's very open about that, though he refuses to tell how, and he claims it's an accident.
Linda has hired Trent, a P.I., to help her find her body, so that she can get back to it. She believes that everything will be fine then, and that it will all b...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Kai rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: pretty much no one.

Recommended to Kai by: Amazon, who is now my mortal enemy.

Shelves: if-it-weren-t-an-ebook-i-d-burn-it, ghosties

Oh dear. I grabbed this because the story sounded cute and amusing - dead girl wants her body back, like, NOW. and decides to torment boyfriend who killed her until he tells her what he's done with it. Too bad the story actually came out awful. The dialogues (and monologues) are embarrassingly juvenile, as are the acts of revenge she pulls on the boyfriend. The detective couldn't detect his ass from a hole in the ground and the gay couple next door are so gay the word stereotype doesn't come clo...more

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Jan 15, 2010 Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's taken me a couple of days to digest this. DEAD[ish:] is funny, vulgar, and thought-provoking. I can't help but think about the wonderful movie "Ghost," though DEAD[ish:] couldn't be more different. Both stories deal with the question of how a ghost deals with the world they've been forced to leave behind.

In both stories the deceased have something tying them to the world of the living. While Patrick Swayze's character in "Ghost" has the noble purpose of finding his killer and saving his be...more

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Nov 28, 2010 Tracey Alley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Naomi Kramer's novella DEAD(ish) is unlike anything I've ever read before. I had been on a fairly steady diet of Terry Pratchett [I like to read Pratchett while I'm working] so probably shouldn't have jumped straight into a story like this one. It is remarkably well-written, something I've come to expect from Ms Kramer, and the story flows with ease - I read it in one sitting.

The pathos of the main character, the recently departed Linda, is both funny, tragic and pathetic all at the same time....more

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Jan 28, 2012 Jennifer Rainey rated it 2 of 5 stars

2 1/2 stars.

I picked up Dead(ish) by Naomi Kramer for free on Christmas, and I immediately noticed something about the reviews. Either readers adored it or were incredibly critical of it.

As always, I appear to be the odd man out. I’m so ‘middle-of-the-road’ with this short story, that I’m giving it 2.5/5. I didn’t adore it, but I certainly didn’t hate it, either.

The concept of the story is cute, and at times, the tale is laugh out loud funny. Dead(ish) follows a ghost as she attempts to solve th...more

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Jan 01, 2012 Amanda rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: free-kindle-books, 2012-reads

If I had known that 93% was technically 100% of this book I could have finished this last night. I should have stuck with it even though I was ready for bed. Either way I'm done and I'm so glad I didn't pay anything for this book. I don't think I've read a book that uses the "F" word as frequently as this book. And I know I've read alot of books that don't refrain from using it or other choice words.

Anyways the idea of the story isn't terrible but I didn't like any of the characters all that mu...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Bèbè rated it 3 of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3 stars

SHORT SUMMARY: Dead(ish) is a hilarious, quick-read book that will have you laughing, guaranteed. It's about a woman who's boyfriend "accidentally" kills her because she sleeps with two sexy gay guys next door. The motive is simple and he gets away with it from the police pretty quick. What he didn't expect is for Linda to come back as a ghost and try and mess with his life because he killed her. Paint his skin, put makeup on him, and dye his hair in his sleep? No problem!...more

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Jan 10, 2011 K.A. rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was spectacular! I laughed so hard I was crying - If you want a change from your normal paranormal - pick up this book. Not written as one would expect it was a nice change of pace from the norm - getting the story from the three main characters point of view. Decidely different, humorous and a light take on death - I loved it. And if you like your revenge served up with a bit of wicked... check this one out.

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Dec 22, 2012 Victor rated it 1 of 5 stars

The best part of this book was its length. It is unfortunate, but I felt throughout the entire book that I was simply listening to a monologue from an unimaginative storyteller....

The biggest problem with this book is one of voice. Multiple times throughout the book, the story shifts from the point of view of a private detective, to a dead woman's ghost, to the dead woman's murdering ex, to a gay couple... Yet despite the shifts in perspective, nothing changes. Nothing feels different. The voice...more The best part of this book was its length. It is unfortunate, but I felt throughout the entire book that I was simply listening to a monologue from an unimaginative storyteller....

The biggest problem with this book is one of voice. Multiple times throughout the book, the story shifts from the point of view of a private detective, to a dead woman's ghost, to the dead woman's murdering ex, to a gay couple... Yet despite the shifts in perspective, nothing changes. Nothing feels different. The voice is identical, the manner of speech (or internal monologue, however you want to look at it) is identical no matter who's point of view it is. This is unfortunately disconcerting, as you start to think the author's world is populated only with one archetype. I suspect this archetype is very similar to the author herself.

The second problem is the "mystery"... Now, I didn't really read this book for a mystery, but the book decided to present me with one. The ghost of a dead woman wanted to know where her body was. Okay... I can live with that. But once you present the reader with a mystery, the author is beholden to give the reader a few things. 1 - The author has to give the reader a reason to care that the mystery gets solved... The character of the ghost wasn't particularly likable, so I couldn't be brought to care about her well being. The character of the ex wasn't likable, and as long as the mystery went unsolved, he would be tormented by somewhat creative tortures at the hand of his ex... again, no motivation for resolution here. 2 - The author has to give the reader some way to work this mystery through with the "detective". This didn't really happen here. There were no real clever clues, no particular hints to what was happening. After a short and painful introduction to all the characters, someone confessed. This was a failure.

To make matters worse... the "resolution" of the mystery actually led to a whole new opportunity (seeing as the resolution didn't actually resolve the main problem)... yet this wasn't exploited by the author, leaving me with absolutely no resolution, no particular care about it anyway, and a vague feeling that I just wasted a bit of time. (less)

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Jan 02, 2012 S.N.Arly Arly rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-and-science-ficiton

I wanted to like this book more than I did, and I admit I kept reading in the hope it would get better. It certainly had potential.

Ultimately two issues interfered with this story fulfilling its potential.

The first, and most significant problem, is the use of far too many point of view characters in such a short story. I didn't get attached to any of them, which means I didn't care how it turned out. None of the characters were fully developed, and as a result many of the characters, including...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Manda rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one

What on Earth did I just read?

Wtf?

(Seriously. That was my reaction.)

Is it supposed to be a horror, a mystery, or a comedy? Because it pretty much fails to be anything more than poorly thought-out slop. I had hoped for a dark comedy that would effectively satisfy my craving for morbidity without being over the top, but this was not it. It was nothing more than the most basic of murder stories with a slight twist: the twist being slightly outrageous but not presented very well. By the time whoever it is that's dead (I can't even remember her name; how unfortunate) finally discovers what happened to her body, I was so fed up with the story that I barely batted an eye and thought little more than "Oh, how terrible" in a flat, monotone voice. You know that one person you knew who thought they were funny, but every time they'd make a joke they'd get the punchline or the timing wrong? That's how I felt about the end.

The story is a short novella that reads like it was written in one sitting. It reads sort of like someone has a vague idea of something that happened and they're trying to explain it to you, and they keep explaining it to try to make it make sense, but it never really does.

I started out with the feeling that it was going to be kind of goofy, but it never really went anywhere for me. None of the characters really do anything other than speculate, whine, and hide crucial information that makes the story progress only when they accidentally tell it or finally confess after the plot has (once again) come screeching to a grinding halt. I felt like there was a lot of room for the author to expound on each of the characters' relationships to one another that could have been more interesting than (view spoiler)

Not to mention, it resolves with one party instantly turning themselves in, no questions asked, after having drunkenly let slip what had happened. Ugh.(less)

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About Naomi Kramer

I always have a hard time knowing what to put in this sort of thing. Funny, isn't it? I'm great at making stuff up, but reality??? EEEEEK!

So, the start's probably a good place to begin, eh? I grew up in a little country town called Walla Walla. A tiny place - about 600 people and a Lutheran church that, ironically, could seat all of them. Walla Walla had one big thing going for it - a lack of FUN...more I always have a hard time knowing what to put in this sort of thing. Funny, isn't it? I'm great at making stuff up, but reality??? EEEEEK!

So, the start's probably a good place to begin, eh? I grew up in a little country town called Walla Walla. A tiny place - about 600 people and a Lutheran church that, ironically, could seat all of them. Walla Walla had one big thing going for it - a lack of FUN trouble to get into. So when I was a kid, I spent most of my leisure time reading. And writing. And imagining weird stuff. I come by that talent naturally, you know - my mother has a nutty imagination and a nuttier sense of humour.

I grew up, moved to the Big Smoke, made a few dumb mistakes, grew up some more, and eventually realised that I'd always wanted to be a writer. So I started writing again. I wrote, and wrote, and eventually DEAD(ish) turned up in my head, almost fully-fledged, and I decided that Linda, Mike and Trent might just make me famous. *snicker*

These days I live in Ipswich, west of Brisbane in Queensland. It's a place that I'm growing to like the longer I live there - once I got out of the suburbs, anyhow. It's like a small country city, with a long heritage and just one cafe that makes my heart flip-flop. I live with my husband, 2 children, 2 cats and an imaginary dog, in an old Queenslander on the edge of town. I still work full-time, because oddly I'm not world-famous yet, and I dye my hair a new colour every week. I sit out on the verandah to write with a little netbook, in the sun.

I'm a book-lover, I love to reread the good ones and hate to let them go, so I was an instant convert to ebooks. Less storage room required for all those books I can't bring myself to get rid of!

I'm a sucker for Katharine Kerr's Deverry series, Anne McCaffrey's Pern books, and Piers Anthony's Xanth. *swoon* I'm a recent convert to Mercedes Lackey, helped by an unexpected Midnight Oil (Aussie band) reference which endeared her to me.

Less book-related - I'm a vegetarian, fierce feminist, liberal christian. I wear my hair kd-lang-short, but usually brightly coloured. I have a Samoan traditional tattoo armband. I wear big black (non-leather) boots most of the time. I'm not as scary-looking as I sound, honest! :-) I listen to Joan Jett, The Offspring, Prince, P!nk and a variety of other music.(less)

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Quotes from DEAD[ish]

“New Rule #1 – Don't date women who paint. Arty-farty doesn't just equal freaky in the sack, it also equals nasty genius revenge. I don't like genius when it's happening to me.” — 8 people liked it

“Women!” he muttered. “Can't live with 'em, can't escape even by killing 'em.” — 1 person liked it

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avg rating	preview: DEAD[ish] Goodreads rating: 2.78 (1667 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6599765-dead-ish?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1288854653l/6599765.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6599765-dead-ish?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]DEAD[ish] by Naomi Kramer[/url]

DEAD[ish] (DEAD[ish] #1)

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