Coffin Humor

by John Brinling

Noah awoke in a casket.
The casket was on display in a funeral parlor.
He awoke several times more in the same casket and each time had a conversation with the funeral services practitioner, a strange man named Jeremy Black.
During these exchanges, he became aware that his memory was seriously impaired.
Each time, however, he learned a little bit more about his past through a reliving of the last desperate few days.
He also learned that the recovery of his memory would lead to his death.
Problem It might already be too late.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

Nook

First published April 3, 2011

Reviews

[Grampy · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Coffin Humor" by John Brinling is not your every day kind of humor story. But it is entertaining in a rather bizarre way. A man keeps waking up in a coffin at a mortuary every morning, wearing a different outfit each time. He can't remember much of anything, including why he's there. Nevertheless he engages in banter with the undertaker regarding the various prices for different coffins or cremation urns, while the undertaker rather abruptly insists that he get out of the coffin and leave, or he'd call the police. This scenario is repeated with variations until the final day, at which point the ending does about a 180 degree twist.

This book will probably not be considered funny by every reader. Some will likely consider it crass, uncouth, disgusting, low-brow, in poor taste, or just plain pointless. I think a good test is this: if you like the Three Stooges, you'll probably get a kick out of "Coffin Humor". On the other hand, if you DO NOT like the Three Stooges, you probably will NOT like "Coffin Humor". Having said that, I feel compelled to add that I have always thought there was something seriously wrong with people who don't like the Three Stooges, so maybe that's not such a good test after all, but it's about the best I could think of at the moment.

Give it a quick read and see what you think. It's short enough that you won't feel like you just lost a part of your life you'll never get back, even if you think it stinks. But I do think there will be a lot of people who do like it, so until you actually read "Coffin Humor" you won't know which group you fall into.

[Read2review · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting short story in a ‘gotcha’ format. The story opens with Noah waking up in a coffin in a funeral home. The funeral director discovers him lying there and an ongoing discussion results. Noah can’t quite figure out how he ended up in the coffin or why he woke up. This is an imaginative and interesting short story with a cool twist. I don’t want to go into too many details because of the nature of the story.

I like John Brinling’s style. He keeps the reader entertained throughout and the story interesting. The only problem I had with the story was that I thought the wrap-up was too abrupt. It felt to me that there should be more, that the tension should build a bit higher before the reveal. I look forward to seeing more from John.

Nearly 4 stars.

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 2 out of 5]

John Brinling, Coffin Humor (Amazon Digital Services, no date given)

My first exposure to John Brinling. And, honestly, had I not downloaded a couple of other things at the same time (viz. review of the much-superior A Memorable Weekend elsewhere this ish), it probably would have been my last. My best guess is that this is meant to be a kind of sci-fi/mystery hybrid, and I think in the hands of someone with a bit more experience trying to pull that thing off, it might well have been a cracking little story. This, on the other hand, is barely coherent. My rating comes from looking at what could have been instead of what is. **

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

How would you like to wake up in a casket, sitting in a funeral parlor, day after day? That's what's happening to Noah. He doesn't have complete memories a dead wife and the man she was going to testify against. What is really going on?
You'll have to read this ebook to find out. I'm not telling.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh, for a free Kindle short it wasn't bad, but it was very confusing, with all of the action happening too quickly at the end. It wasn't overly coherent, due to the main character not being coherent himself. I personally don't like to read from the point of view of a crazy person, so this didn't really appeal to me.

[Jody · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very short story that I read on my Kindle. It took about 5-10 minutes for me to read it. I didn't pay for the book, it was an Amazon freebie.

All that being said, I enjoyed it immensely! It was suspenseful and the ending was unexpected and made me laugh!

[Jamie Lyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing is actually painful to read. I thought this was written by a middle or high schooler. The author tried to make the writing read like people talk but it just didn't work.

The concept is cool but it would need to be more thought out for a real story.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book to my husband one evening and we both laughed out loud a lot. It has some bad language in it, which we could have done without, but the story was still good despite this. We haven't felt that other stories we've read by this author have been as good.

[Elaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

eh, not worth the read

[Bookish Enchantment (Katherine Quirke) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Intersting concept. The problem was it was a little too rushed and the subject matter did not really make it a good short story.

[Anne-Kathrine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny sarcastic short story :)

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A weird short story with a bit if a surprise ending. Lovin' these freebie short stories I got on my Kindle.

[KyBunnies · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing of this short story is kind of like a Stephen King knock-off. This was a free download in the Kindle store.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank goodness it was free. I would have been upset if I had paid money for it. A bit confusing.

[Liz Lovesrainbows · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short story...not very good.