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David Mitchell and Robert Webb – This Mitchell and Webb Book | Review

Title: This Mitchell and Webb Book

Author: David Mitchell and Robert Webb

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 262

Rating: 9/10

David Mitchell and Robert Webb – This Mitchell and Webb Book

You know Mitchell and Webb, right – the two comedians who starred in Peep Show and the ‘I’m a PC/I’m a Mac‘ adverts? Okay, okay, I know – they’ve done loads more than that, but that’s as good a place as any to start.

Here, the two men turn their pens away from writing comedy sketches and try their hands at writing a full-length book, not necessarily alternating but taking it in turns to switch around every now and then and assume the role of the sole writer. I think most people have a favourite, and if you’re anything like me then your favourite is David Mitchell – he just has a deep and biting wit that Webb can only aspire to, although Webb does make up for this in other ways.

One of the coolest things about this book is that it’s a beautiful, big hardback, with colour printing and gorgeous designs inside. Think of it as being like the Guinness Book of Records, only funnier, less fact-based and potentially on acid. It’s a similarly-sized A4 book, and it has a matching production value, but the similarities end there – for starters, ten-year-old copies of this are much less likely to be changing hands at a car boot sale.

If you’re a fan of either David Mitchell or Robert Webb, this book’s for you. I don’t know what else to say – imagine their shows, in book form.

David Mitchell and Robert Webb

Click here to buy This Mitchell and Webb Book.

Jesse James Freeman – Billy Purgatory and the Curse of the Satanic Five | Review

Title: Billy Purgatory and the Curse of the Satanic Five

Author: Jesse James Freeman

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 390

Rating: 8/10

Jesse James Freeman – Billy Purgatory and the Curse of the Satanic Five

Disclaimer: Whilst I bought this book out of my own money, Jesse is published and represented by Booktrope, the same publisher which is releasing my debut novella, No Rest for the Wicked.

If you’ve read Billy Purgatory: I am the Devil Bird then this is basically that book, but on acid, and I’m pretty sure the first book was stoned to begin with. Oh man, where do I start?

Basically, Billy Purgatory is a skateboard-wielding badass, who by the end of this book is pretty much whatever age you want him to be. In fact, by the time that you’ve ended up with multiple versions of him in the same room, and they’re talking about alternate realities, your brain is pretty much fried. For that sole reason, I had to give this an eight when I gave the first book a nine – it took me longer to get into it, but once I was there, I was hooked.

And because of the complexities of the story line in the second book, I honestly can’t figure out whether it matters if you read the books in order or not – I usually have pretty strong opinions on this, when I read a book that’s part of a series, but for the first time since I launched SocialBookshelves.com, I just can’t figure it out!

Jesse James Freeman

Still, I was super happy to learn Billy’s middle name and to watch his relationship with Anastacia develop. And then there’s the other big positive to reading something that Jesse has written, which is the fact that you get to read something that he’s written. He writes with colloquialisms, but not so many that they get annoying, and his dialogue is razor sharp – I’m not saying that he isn’t good at writing descriptively, but dialogue is definitely his strength.

Overall, if you read and enjoyed the first Billy Purgatory book, then you should definitely think about reading this one too. If you haven’t read the first book, go and read that, see what you think, and follow it up with this one if you get hooked into the series, like I did. Now that’s badass.