Mostly Fun & Funny With Lots of Raunchy Humor

I've been a Drew Hayes fan for years and have read all of his books. I also started reading Robert Bevan's Critical Failures series last year. Given my positive experiences with those authors, I decided to give this series a shot. I would give 4 of the 6 stories 5 stars, 1 of them 4 stars, and 1 of them 1 star. I'll start with the voice performance. I don't particularly care for Cal Wembly's narration. His voice is not engaging (it sounds monotone), and I think all the books (even the ones I enjoyed) suffered from that. By contrast, I enjoyed Cassandra's performance of The Ghost of Hooker Alley quite a bit. Unfortunately, that was her only performance in this series. With every new story, I kept hoping to hear her voice again instead of Cal's. Sadly, it was not to be. As for the content of the stories, I'm not sure if it's odd or not (sometimes authors hit a home run and sometimes they strike out), but my favorite and least favorite stories in this collection were both written by Rick Gualteri. For me, The Legend of Jimmy Headshot was fantastic, but I should have quit listening to Gary's Children after 15 minutes (and would have been happier if I had). I give Gary's Children 1 star because that's what I give any story I wish I hadn't wasted my time finishing. Maybe others like it, but it was not for me. By contrast, Jimmy Headshot was engaging and entertaining from the start. I'll admit, my expectations for Jimmy were pretty low since I had already been disappointed by Gary's Children. So it wouldn't have taken much for Rick to surpass my expectations with Jimmy. At the same time, I was ready to end my Shingles experience early and shut off the final entry if I wasn't enjoying Jimmy's story. I was also skeptical because it was the second consecutive zombie story in the set, and I quite enjoyed the preceding one. Having said that, Jimmy started strong and kept me interested and laughing throughout. The story was full of action and over-the-top sarcastic humor that kept me entertained. If Rick's other stories are like this, then I've been missing out. I'll have to try samples of some of his books before buying them to figure out if they fall into the love or hate side of my feelings based on these two stories. I also really enjoyed the first entry in the series, The Ghost of Hooker Alley. Robert Bevan's style isn't for everyone because he is very raunchy. Sometimes I think he's playing a game of seeing how disgusting he can get before a reader can't take anymore and stops reading/listening -- as if he's trying to determine the line that cannot be crossed without severe consequences because he's willing to cross every imaginable line leading up to that point (and might not even care if he does go too far for his audience). Because of that, there are a few descriptions I wish I could unhear (mainly related to rotten food and strange effects of hormonal changes on a young boy), and I think the book would be stronger without those descriptions. At the same time, I'm not sure Bevan could reach the same level of boundary-pushing hilarity he achieves without making those missteps. I'm left simultaneously wishing he would censor/filter himself a tiny bit while fearing what I'd miss if he did. Drew's entry, Aliens Wrecked Our Kegger, is another of my 5-star picks. This story combines what seem to be some of Drew's favorite topics -- drinking and college life. It's worth noting that Drew's writing style is much different from the other novellas in this series. He's more PG13 than R or X rated and doesn't rely on ranchy sex jokes to keep his audience entertained. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with raunchy humor; if I didn't like it, I wouldn't have enjoyed the other stories in this series. But Drew can keep you entertained with a solid plot line and one liners about 15 different frat boys all named Tony (including Hipster Tony and his unicycle earring) rather than relying on dick jokes and shock value to make you laugh and keep you engaged. I also give 5 stars to Zombies Ate My Homework. Middle school children take refuge from zombies in an adult novelty shop and hilarity ensues. It takes some sort of creative genius to figure out which sex toys could be turned into zombie-killing weapons. I can't help wondering how many sex shops John Hartness visited while pondering this issue or how many dildos and butt plugs he picked up to test the weight and firmness when choosing weapons for his characters. Finally, I give 4 stars to The Monkey's Penis by Steve Wetherell. It's a solid story and kept me entertained, but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the ones I gave 5 stars. Steve does a good job combining classic themes (like trying to make the best decisions with limited wishes while finding yourself transported to alternate histories or parallel universes). This isn't necessarily a book I'd read again (like the 5-star ones), but I'm glad I had the experience of hearing the story.