Off Center in the Attic: A Collection of Short Stories and Flash Fiction

By: Mary Deal

Narrated by: Chris Kenworthy

Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Humor and nonsense, flights of fantasy into other realms, fright, disgust and disappointment, silliness and wonderment, and the sadness of reality and heartache.

It’s all here, and more, in stories that may leave you a little Off Center in the Attic.

"Acting in a Coffin" - A director plays a prank that backfires on a movie set.
"The Wallflower" - A woman compares herself to one who is the life of the party.
"Pupule" - A neighborhood gets a lesson in humility from a crazy old Hawaiian man.
"To Soar" - What a bird drops.
"Out of Body" - A man is shot and his brain goes through a metamorphosis.
"Looking for Life" - Never the right one.
"Most Wanted" - The killer of young boys remains at large.
"Grandpappy’s Cows" - Antics of backward backwoods relatives.
"Boy at the Crossroad" - The making of a monster.
"Cafeteria Science" - How to lose your lunch.
"Indoctrination" - A daring woman wants to experience something different and gets her wish.
"Explosive Day" - No escape.
"The Smell of Death" - A clue to the dying.
"Legacy" - A woman in mourning changes her life to follow in her mother’s footsteps.
"An Urgent Message" - A plea to a writer.
"Rituals" - Neurosis as a way of life.
"Watched" - Being watched can kill.
"The Swimmer" - A man losing his sanity.
"Thanatos" - The urge to die.
"Alien Footprints" - An invisible perpetrator.
"Vibratory Rates" - Visitations from heaven and hell.
"The Voodoo Kit" - A Jamaican hex follows a woman home.
"Pekoe" - A newborn kitten abandoned in a portable toilet.
"Great Lady of Wisdom" - A holy goat.
"The Last Thing I Do" - The end of making memories.
"Future Winner" - A little-known artist gets a break.
"Innocence" - A high school girl on the verge of betrayal by her innocence.
"Sister Fly" - Karma
"Homeless, Not Heartless" - A man and his dog.
"Roots" - What you may find when tracing your family tree.

©2017 Mary Deal (P)2019 Mary Deal

Interesting shorts

This book contains many interesting short stories that stretch the imagination. I received this review copy at my request and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

A thoughtful collection

Off Center is a very thoughtful collection of stories about life, loss, and sometimes death.

Off Center in the Attic review

I actually enjoyed listening to Off Center in the Attic written by Mary Deal and narrated by Chris Kenworthy. Well written and narrated, it's worth the five stars give for overall, performance and story.

Small fragments of something larger

A really weird and overall unsatisfying collection of shorts and miscellaneous writing; I'd summarize this collection as slice-of-life more than anything else. Lots of the stories here feel like they were written in response to writing prompts and give just enough information to satisfy what the prompt was asking for before ending abruptly. If you're looking for stories following the standard structure of introduction, conflict and resolution you may be very disappointed as many of them don't get past the introduction before ending abruptly, which is a shame due to some of them feeling like they'd work excellently as the first act of a longer novella. Others feel like diary excerpts where the characters are meant to be already known and come off as really weird due to the lack of context for some of their behaviors.