Suck Suck Suck: Stories by Brandt Scheidemantel is a collection of strange and entertaining stories containing the weirdest characters. When young Tea Ganger meets Dora at church, she’s happy to have her as a new friend. However, when she starts copying everything Tea does, Tea begins to adopt some of her own weird habits, with dire consequences. Proud father Richard Thompson is happy to fund his son’s overseas trip, but when the ATM sucks his card in, little does he know that his entire world is about to catapult into madness at the hands of an extremely ambitious and professional bank manager named Sharon Charon. A vengeful spirit gets revenge on a rapist, but things don’t work out as well as hoped. A woman runs from the devil in a sock drawer, searching in vain for an escape, until she comes face to face with an eight-legged creature. But why does it look so familiar?

Prepare yourself for a captivating read as Suck Suck Suck offers readers engaging plots within its diverse stories. Brandt Scheidemantel takes readers on an enticing journey where trolls really do exist and a giant pink octopus preys on innocent bankgoers as soon as they fall asleep. I liked the story, Te Adora, for its clever wordplay and what horrors take place later on with the two central characters, Tea and Dora. Te Adora provided a cool plot twist, which is what any decent psychological thriller needs. I also like Richard’s story, which mirrors the title, Suck Suck Suck. It got crazier and crazier as the story continued, and I must say, I felt even more befuddled by Sharon Charon than Richard did! However, some of the stories are extremely disturbing, so I urge sensitive readers to be aware of this.

In Suck Suck Suck, a collection of short stories by Brandt Scheidemantel, Richard had always worked hard to give his family what he did not have while growing up. One day, after sending money to his son, his card was swallowed by the ATM. What follows is a series of weird events. In A Plumbing Problem, Alvaro is an orphan who has faced numerous challenges and endured abuse. The worst comes when he is abused by a priest at the sanctuary. How will things turn out for Alvaro? In Marketplace of Sin, things become hard for Lucy’s family after her father’s suicide. They are about to be evicted from their house. Lucy discovers a valuable necklace hidden in a closet in the house where she babysits. How will things unfold as Lucy seeks to save her employer's marriage and find money to pay rent?

The steady pacing kept me intrigued and eager to discover what the next story had in store. The writing is crisp and engaging and filled with well-crafted dialogues, bringing these unique stories to life. This thought-provoking work also explores some social themes that will resonate with many audiences. It got me thinking about the importance of addressing mental health issues and the courage to hold to account those who hurt others for their selfish desires, regardless of their rank or title. The characters are well-developed, and Brandt also ensured all events and emotions are vividly depicted, which helps to capture the imagination of the reader. Suck Suck Suck by Brandt Scheidemantel was an amazing read, and I look forward to reading something else by this talented author.

Suck Suck Suck by Brandt Scheidemantel is a collection of seven darkly imaginative stories that plunge the reader into various depths of horror. The book opens with Te Adora, where 13-year-old Tea Ganger becomes the unfortunate fixation of Dora, the unsettling new girl at church. In the eponymous story, a trip to the bank sends Richard Thompson spiralling into an identity crisis when the ATM sucks in his card and spits out a new name for him. A Plumbing Problem is the most harrowing story in the anthology. After suffering unspeakable abuse at the hands of a priest, young Alvaro Bandono fractures: his physical life descends into trauma and self-destruction while his spirit seeks vengeance, slipping through the church’s plumbing. The anthology ends with It Is Not Safe To Swim Today, a psychological descent into obsession that twists the protagonist into a predatory figure wandering at dusk.

Suck Suck Suck flits effortlessly between tones and themes from one story to another. From the wide-eyed panic of a teen to the blasphemous ramblings of an unrepentant spirit, a unifying thread across all the stories is the terror of losing control over one’s mind, identity, and body. My favourite story is Te Adora. It is a chilling exploration of mimicry and the lengths someone would go to be you. The wordplay is brilliant. Te Adora means [she] loves you in Spanish. Tea and Dora. Dorothea and Theodora. Both girls echo each other, mirror images slipping into a distorted reality. Overall, Brandt Scheidemantel excels in taking ordinary situations and turning them into stories made from nightmares.

In Suck, Suck, Suck, an anthology by Brandt Scheidemantel, Te Adora is about a schoolgirl who is surprised when the new girl starts copying her. From her look to her mannerisms, it’s like they’re twins, except something is very wrong. Suck, Suck, Suck is about Richard Thompson, an accountant in his mid-50s, whose ATM card is chewed up by the machine. The branch manager comes to his aid, or does she? Have you ever wondered how spirits end up haunting people? In A Plumbing Problem, you’ll find out. Marketplace of Sin will have you believing that trolls do live under bridges, so just be careful what they promise. In The Devil’s Sock Drawer, an unnamed woman believes she may have died and gone to hell, or has she? Drugs, teenage sex, a psychotic butcher, and two families about to fall apart culminate at a Valentine’s Day dance in Cold Hard Love. Finally, in It’s Not Safe to Swim Today, you’ll meet a mysterious veiled woman whose very presence affects a man’s entire life.

Suck, Suck, Suck is a collection of seven short stories by Brandt Scheidemantel, all with a “didn’t see that coming” twist at the end. These stories aren’t connected, so you could read them in any order. Each one has a wild, abrupt ending, which has you questioning what you just read, but in a “wow” kind of way. My personal favorites were A Plumbing Problem and Cold Hard Love. You need to have an open mind, a strong stomach, and be prepared to be taken on a journey that you won’t soon forget. This collection is for a very mature audience, as it deals with adult issues. Suck, Suck, Suck, and the other five stories are the product of Brandt Scheidemantel’s very fertile imagination, and I loved every second of the time spent reading them.

This is collection took me on a journey through American suburbia but with large helpings of magic and myth. My favorite story was A Plumbing Problem about two ghosts in a church’s water heater tank - not gonna spoil it but they do some pretty wild things to haunt the church and I was laughing while also contemplating ideas about religion and the soul.