Heather’s Bookshelf: The Workshop: Week One
Author: Matt Mills
Released: 05/17/23
Genre: Humorous Literary Fiction Novella
“If you want to hate yourself, give writing a try. There’s no shorter road to insecurity, and isn’t that where we all want to go?”
“The Workshop: Week One” introduces a crew of nine competitive undergrads, holed up in a classroom of a university critiquing each other’s work in a creative writing group.
The group is led by Professor Alice “Crongo” McKenna who is barely older than most of the participants and hardly more qualified to give advice. The writers are from various backgrounds, writing skill levels, and levels of intensity. there’s the dorky guy who’s just glad to be included, the really intense hot girl who’s too cool to care she has a unibrow, the trust fund kid…you get the picture.
They take turns reading their works and being critiqued by the others, with their own motivations, experiences and POVs. Timelines and snippets of insight into each of the participants lives between classes is also included. Will Alice be able to pull art out of these novice writers or will they tear each other apart before an inkling of good writing hits the page?
Trigger Warning: adult language, reference to sexual situations, reference to violence
Overall, I enjoyed reading this first in what I’m sure will be a fun series. I don’t know if there could be a more perfect book to read while participating in NaNoWriMo. It’s a light read, in both page number and attitude. There’s cuts to the author’s POV, insight into each of the characters through their voices, judgements by all and clearly written as a good time and a poke at the writing process for all those who for some reason or another delved into the prospect of writing a story. There were several one liners that had me laughing out loud while reading including “Steve’s mustache eats her” and no, I will give you no context on this one. You’ll have to read it. The entire story takes place over week one of a creative course, so again, it’s a fast read and sets up for future episodes, of which I know there is a week two currently in existence (though I have not read it yet). So, I can’t really review the ending as it simply sets up for week two. It’s hard to really connect with so many characters in such a short amount of time. The characters are all so different and flawed that I’m sure everyone will have their favorites, bound to be different per reader and possibly by book. Thank you Matt Mills for a read that helped remind me of the fun of writing as I try to achieve the grueling 50000 word goal in November.
I received a copy of this story in exchange of a fair and honest review.
OVERALL REVIEW:
A short, fun story about a group of students in a creative writing class with a unique story telling aspect. A large amount of characters in a short amount of time hope for a sequel with continued development.
Want to learn more about the author?
Check out my interview with Matt Mills
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Find it for purchase here
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