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Stitches
Pete, a twenty-six year old high school dropout, shares an apartment with Auger, a socially incapable medical student with aspirations of becoming a surgeon. Pete works at a deli with his best friend Jill and wants nothing more than to injure himself on the job so he can collect a huge cash settlement and retire, a plan he shares with Jill and Auger only half-jokingly. But Pete is beginning to notice things about his roommate, like the strange noises coming from Auger's room late at night, the sheets of plastic covering his walls and his floor, and the big chest freezer he seems to constantly be filling with ice. But these are little things, after all, nothing to be concerned about. Auger always pays his share of the rent on time and never causes any problems. He’s just a quiet guy who never looks you in the eye and never seems to be totally present when you’re talking to him, living behind a perpetually locked door in a room shrouded in plastic. Nope, nothing at all to be concerned about.
129 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 4, 2012
3 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 14, 2015
Well, it's a book I bought after seeing an ad for it on Cracked.com. I wasn't expecting Shakespeare, but I was at least hoping for an entertaining read. I was disappointed.
This is a totally mediocre self-published print on demand book by some dude you otherwise never would've heard of, with all of the problems common to self-pubs: terrible spelling and punctuation, underdeveloped cardboard characters, and a boring, conventional plot that zigzags between everyday teen-turned-twentysomething melodrama and gratuitous action movie tropes that have no business in such an otherwise dull, conventional, immature narrative (exploding cars, decapitations, etc.) The two main characters are whiny, dull, and immature for their age, and Augur, while having some interesting dimensionality at first, is ruined by the author by turning him into the source of all of the incongruous action movie ridiculousness. Worse, the author obviously had no clue where he wanted to end up when he wrote this, breaking the cardinal rule of writing fiction. Consequently, the "feel" of the book is very pasted together, and goes up and down depending on the author's mood on that particular day. The quality of the writing varies from almost good to absolutely wretched - on par with things I read in high school writing workshops when I was 15. Reimann employs an otherwise-absent omniscient narrator to link the pasted pieces together, which just adds to the amatuerish nature of the work and makes the whole thing feel like a botched screenplay. None of these structural problems would have weight if Reimann had a story worth telling, but alas, J.J. Abrams appears to have claimed another victim in this regard. Why write a book at all if you don't have a story to tell? This isn't Hollywood, so you can't get away with hiding your lack of imagination with CGI, even though it appears that in places this is exactly what Reimann is trying to do.
As much as I wanted to like this book, I've known too many people who wrote better than this when they were teenagers to take this book by a twentysomething seriously at all.
This is a totally mediocre self-published print on demand book by some dude you otherwise never would've heard of, with all of the problems common to self-pubs: terrible spelling and punctuation, underdeveloped cardboard characters, and a boring, conventional plot that zigzags between everyday teen-turned-twentysomething melodrama and gratuitous action movie tropes that have no business in such an otherwise dull, conventional, immature narrative (exploding cars, decapitations, etc.) The two main characters are whiny, dull, and immature for their age, and Augur, while having some interesting dimensionality at first, is ruined by the author by turning him into the source of all of the incongruous action movie ridiculousness. Worse, the author obviously had no clue where he wanted to end up when he wrote this, breaking the cardinal rule of writing fiction. Consequently, the "feel" of the book is very pasted together, and goes up and down depending on the author's mood on that particular day. The quality of the writing varies from almost good to absolutely wretched - on par with things I read in high school writing workshops when I was 15. Reimann employs an otherwise-absent omniscient narrator to link the pasted pieces together, which just adds to the amatuerish nature of the work and makes the whole thing feel like a botched screenplay. None of these structural problems would have weight if Reimann had a story worth telling, but alas, J.J. Abrams appears to have claimed another victim in this regard. Why write a book at all if you don't have a story to tell? This isn't Hollywood, so you can't get away with hiding your lack of imagination with CGI, even though it appears that in places this is exactly what Reimann is trying to do.
As much as I wanted to like this book, I've known too many people who wrote better than this when they were teenagers to take this book by a twentysomething seriously at all.
May 31, 2014
Like most readers, I imagine, I came to know Tm Reimann's writing via Cracked.com. I've greatly enjoyed his articles, and when I saw he'd published a novel, I opted to buy a copy. I contacted him about this (I'd hoped to find it in ePub, but no dice), and he was very gracious and enthusiastic.
I bought the book from Amazon, and while it took me a bit of time to get around to reading it, I'm glad I did. Short, strange, and subtle, the novel follows a trio of friends who are at dead ends in their lives and looking down the barrel of some major life issues. Pete is a dropout working a dead-end job and getting intoxicated on a mixture of alcohol and sleeping pills to make bad decisions he can't later remember. Jill is his coworker and crush; a self-harming cutter who views her life through a lens of failure. Auger is Pete's roommate; an odd, Asp-y recluse whose private hobby is performing surgery on the unwary.
While the story takes some odd turns to get going and definitely has a "first novel" feel to it, the characters eventually come to life and find heart in the reality of their setting. I find the tale as a whole is best viewed as a metaphor for growing up and taking initiative in one's life, especially in the sense that sometimes the best gift your nearest and dearest can give you is a clean break and a head start on moving on. While certainly not for all audiences (and definitely packing its share of flaws), "Stitches" makes for a breezy and pleasant read.
I bought the book from Amazon, and while it took me a bit of time to get around to reading it, I'm glad I did. Short, strange, and subtle, the novel follows a trio of friends who are at dead ends in their lives and looking down the barrel of some major life issues. Pete is a dropout working a dead-end job and getting intoxicated on a mixture of alcohol and sleeping pills to make bad decisions he can't later remember. Jill is his coworker and crush; a self-harming cutter who views her life through a lens of failure. Auger is Pete's roommate; an odd, Asp-y recluse whose private hobby is performing surgery on the unwary.
While the story takes some odd turns to get going and definitely has a "first novel" feel to it, the characters eventually come to life and find heart in the reality of their setting. I find the tale as a whole is best viewed as a metaphor for growing up and taking initiative in one's life, especially in the sense that sometimes the best gift your nearest and dearest can give you is a clean break and a head start on moving on. While certainly not for all audiences (and definitely packing its share of flaws), "Stitches" makes for a breezy and pleasant read.
February 10, 2014
I picked this up because it seemed weird in a way that reminded me of Dexter. What it winds up being is a story that never really goes anywhere involving characters I mostly don't care about. One of the characters in particular spends half of this very short book browbeating herself and self harming and that is the whole point of any chapter involving her. It's seldom funny though it sure tries to be at times. Just not for me and I don't have a lot to recommend about it.
March 2, 2014
A quick, fun read, good for a short train trip, long plane ride, or just a lazy weekend. Cliches abound (a girl who cuts herself, a weird, quiet guy who spends too much time in his bedroom), but the plot moves along nicely. There are issues with points of view, as the author switches between telling some portions in first person from different characters' perspectives and other sections in third person. The romantic subplot also feels forced.
November 30, 2013
Not bad at all--it was an enjoyable read that flew by (took me about a day, on and off). The book has good characters, and some great use of humor, but overall wasn't as meaty as I would like. Worth reading for sure!
June 5, 2015
Incredibly disturbing, yet rather good, short horror story. Honestly, I was glad this novella was so short because I don't think I would have been able to handle the amount of gore had it been longer. Read this and then go read something sweet and fluffy after.
September 23, 2013
Darkly funny book about three broken people and the relationships they develop.
December 23, 2013
Unusual. Interesting. Disturbing.
October 3, 2014
Not at all what I expected. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I found myself pleasantly surprised. It takes you in places that you don't expect to go.
February 29, 2016
Dark and gory, but ultimately rather entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews