New Bad News

by Ryan Ridge

In New Bad News, the frenetic and far-out worlds of fading celebrities, failed festival promoters, underemployed adjuncts, and overly aware chatbots collide. A Terminator statue comes to life at the Hollywood Wax Museum; a coyote laps up Colt 45, as a passerby looks on in existential quietude; a detective disappears while investigating a missing midwestern cam girl. Set in Kentucky, Hollywood, and the afterlife, these bright, bold short-shorts and stories construct an uncannily familiar, alternate-reality America.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

180 pages, Paperback

Published May 19, 2020

Reviews

[Kevin Catalano · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! Ridge's writing is so original, anarchic, and FUNNY!

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've interviewed a number of writers over the years. I know one of the questions they dislike is "Where do you get your ideas?". In this case, you just have to ask. There are some delightfully bizarre stories in this collection! And, I'm quite impressed with how much story Ridge fits into such tiny spaces. Well worth your time.

[Tyler Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wild Information age absurdity. Ridge is clever and musical. Each section of the book feels like, not a different writer, but a the same writer on a different drug. No section of the book outstays it’s welcome. “On Acid” is one of the best works of micro fiction/prose poetry I’ve ever read. Loved reading this book.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

You ever bite into something and think, "This doesn't taste right," and then you kind of look at it and then take another bite and think, "This definitely doesn't taste right. I should stop eating this," and then you put your fork down, but a few seconds later you take another bite, and you keep doing that until you've eaten the whole thing? That's what reading this book was like for me.

[Ryan Ridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wrote it, so I'm biased.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulously fun yet achingly sad

[Caitlin Boyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

So weird. The AI Q&A at the end (I think that's what was happening?) kind of lost me. Other parts were hilarious.

My first foray into flash fiction.

[Megan Alyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ridge kills it. Bizarre image after bizarre image tangled into many micro narratives ranging from sentimental to truly rebellious. Loved this collection.

[Brett Starr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found New Bad News through the publisher Sarabande Books.

New Bad News is a mostly flash fiction story collection. Most of the stories range in length from a paragragh to a page or more.

This collection starts off with a section of flash fiction which is where Ridge excels the most, the best stories in the book are the short flash fiction. The collection then goes into a page by page account called Hey, It's America about a man destined to start his own festival. Then back to a second series of flash fiction, the next section titled 22-nd Century Man is a series that amounted to just random thoughts by the author, followed up by the final series of flash fiction

The flash fiction that really got my attention was -

Fire Consumes Business near the Freeway
Coyote
Last Cigarette
Game
Home
A Novel Idea
All Americans

Seek out & enjoy good books!

BJ