We have an early contender for most mental book title of the year, that's for sure! I was just in need of a bit of fluffy filler for a couple of car journeys, and I found this on Audible Plus and had to give it a try. It certainly fulfilled its intended purpose, with humourous situations, a straightforward premise and some sweet 'found family' feels.

I would consider this more of a collection of short stories; there are five self-contained stories within the book, with a definitive break in between each. It does flow as a single story and each serves to introduce a new character or two, but there are some elements of repetition and recap in each. The writing style is spot on for the story, and the performance of the lead narrator only enhances this - it's engaging and descriptive, while being witty in quite a dry way and completely encapsulating the 'sweater-vest and pocket protector' nerdy character that Fred is. It makes him really easy to picture pretty much from page one - for some reason I could not stop picturing him as the Instagrammer eezekat! I'm sure that's doing Jaysen a great disservice, but that's where my mind went!

Each story has a similar structure; what should be a simple, relaxing evening/event/outing takes a slightly mad turn, leading to danger and daring, followed by a (usually equally ridiculous) resolution. One in particular had me giggling; it felt like the author had probably not long watched the film 'A Knights Tale' when he wrote it. There are a couple of moments with great action sequences that really pull you in and feel like they're going to change the course of Fred's (after)life, but equally a couple of the stories have quite lacklustre endings, where the 'adventure' is essentially rendered as just a lightly humourous anecdote about how characters met. I do think this would make a great long form story if some more worldbuilding and story development were considered, but at the moment the short stories are a mere hint of the characters, world and plot. 

There look to be several more books in this series and I would consider reading them... but only if they were on the Audible Plus/KU/my local library  catalogue. I'm just not entirely convinced it'd be worth spending a credit on. This is a book which I could happily have in in the background while working or doing chores and it does keep you entertained, but equally it can very easily fade into the background.

On the upside, I now have another reason to never attend a school reunion!