Lone Star Book Blog Tour: Pictures of the Shark by Thomas H. McNeely (review & giveaway)


PICTURES OF THE SHARK

by
THOMAS H. McNEELY
 
Short Stories / Southern Fiction / Coming of Age
Publisher: Texas Review Press
Date of Publication: June 28, 2022
Number of Pages: 205 pages
 
Scroll down for Giveaway!
 

A sudden snowfall in Houston reveals family secrets. A trip to Universal Studios to snap a picture of the shark from Jaws becomes a battle of wills between father and son. A midnight séance and the ghost of Janis Joplin conjure the mysteries of sex. A young boy’s pilgrimage to see Elvis Presley becomes a moment of transformation. A young woman discovers the responsibilities of talent and freedom.
 
Pictures of the Shark, by Houston native and Dobie Paisano award-winning author Thomas H. McNeely traces a young man’s coming of age and falling apart. From the rough and tumble of Houston’s early seventies East End to the post-punk Texas bohemia of late eighties Austin, this novel in stories examines what happens when childhood trauma haunts adult lives. 
 
PRAISE FOR PICTURES OF THE SHARK:
 
 “McNeely’s brilliant stories are filled with delicious menace and heartbreaking hope.”

– Pamela Painter, author of What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers and Fabrications: New and Selected Stories

 

In these gorgeously crafted interlinked stories, Thomas McNeely demonstrates once again an uncanny ability to illuminate the darkest emotional corners of his characters with a vision that is as tender and compassionate as it is unflinching.”

Antonio Ruiz-Camacho, author of Barefoot Dogs

 

“With masterful prose, McNeely draws you down into emotional depths where your ambivalence and confusion show you at your most profoundly human. These stories hook you quickly and deeply and keep you even after they end.

– C.W. Smith, author of Steplings, Buffalo Nickel, and Understanding Women


“You got to be where you are to get anyplace else.”

Pictures of the Shark by Thomas H. McNeely is a complex glimpse into events and relationships that shape a person’s rocky transition into adulthood. A damaged household and broken promises can fracture a child into pieces that either remain disparate or are patched together, ultimately forming a profoundly changed life that might not always be for the better.

Pictures of the Shark is a unique novel split into eight short stories that subtly connect and melt into each other, mimicking the stitched together pieces of a cracked life. In Houston, Texas, during a time when a rare snowfall blanketed the city in the mid-1970s and when an aging Elvis was still the King, Buddy was growing up in an imperfect household that is first tense with animosity and then empty of a distant father yet always heavy with sadness, oppression, and antipathy. The ‘70s were a tumultuous time for almost everyone, and for Buddy, life was a minefield of hormones, ambiguity, and mangled dreams.

This set of short stories is melancholy yet mesmerizing in its portrait of harsh betrayals, poor choices, and the inability to feel secure in skin that is destined never to truly fit. While the overall plot settles on Buddy and his parents, other connected characters orbit this collection, rounding out the microcosms of lives that are relatable yet foreign, or perhaps we want them to feel foreign because these lives are honestly flawed, flayed, and often grotesque in the wake of their hard-earned wreckage.

Grab a copy of Pictures of the Shark and hitch a ride to Houston and other Texas locales and all the way to Universal Studios in Hollywood to take pictures of that infamous shark, but this will not be a carefree vacation or romantic getaway for anyone. This book is raw and heartbreaking, but it is engaging as well because a messy life is still worth living, even if it is only viewed through rosy gossamer or a drunken haze. in Pictures of the Shark, McNeely captures the authentic essence of these cohesive lives with panache, sincerity, and extraordinary talent.

Enter the giveaway below on or before July 15, 2022, for a chance to win some fabulous prizes.


I received a free copy of this book from Lone Star Book Blog Tours in exchange for my honest review.


Thomas H. McNeely is an Eastside Houston native. He has published short stories and nonfiction in The Atlantic, Texas Monthly, Ploughshares, and many other magazines and anthologies, including Best American Mystery Stories and Algonquin Books’ Best of the South. His stories have been shortlisted for the Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories, and O. Henry Award anthologies. He has received National Endowment for the Arts, Wallace Stegner and MacDowell Colony fellowships for his fiction. His first book, Ghost Horse, won the Gival Press Novel Award and was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize in Writing. He currently teaches in the Stanford Online Writing Studio and at Emerson College, Boston.
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GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!
FOUR WINNERS!
2 winners: autographed copy of Pictures of the Shark
2 winners: autographed copy of Pictures of the Shark 
+ editorial critique of an excerpt (up to 20 pages)
from an unpublished short story or novel
(US only; ends midnight, CDT, 7/15/2022)

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7/5/22 

Excerpt 

7/5/22 

BONUS Promo 

7/6/22 

Review 

7/6/22 

BONUS Promo 

7/7/22 

Guest Post 

7/8/22 

Review 

7/9/22 

Excerpt 

7/10/22 

Playlist 

7/11/22 

Review 

7/12/22 

Author Interview  

7/13/22 

Review 

7/14/22 

Review 

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4 Replies to “Lone Star Book Blog Tour: Pictures of the Shark by Thomas H. McNeely (review & giveaway)”

  1. Fantastic review! I mostly steer clear of books that are melancholy, but I think I will make an exception with this one. It sounds like time well-spent between the covers.

    • I love these types of stories because it is beneficial to focus on the human condition and relationships in general, remembering that everyone struggles to some degree and yearns for happiness.

  2. Dear Ms. Jones –
    Thank you for this very thoughtful review! I am glad that you enjoyed my book.
    Best, Tom McNeely

    • Thank you! I love reading thought-provoking stories that highlight the human condition. Your book is anthropologically exceptional, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!