Title: Someone Like You

Author: Roald Dahl

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 270

Rating: 9/10

 

Roald Dahl - Someone Like You

Roald Dahl – Someone Like You

 

You will have Adele’s song stuck in your head the entire time that you’re reading this, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Someone Like You is a fantastic collection of short stories, and unlike the work that Mr. Dahl is most well-known for, it’s definitely not one for kids.

See, the stories are dark, and I like that – subject matter includes a bet in which a man could lose his finger, a man who’s almost driven mad by his sound machine (which records even the cries of plants and trees when they’re uprooted), and even a man who’s terrified that he’s about to be bitten by a poisonous spider. That story features some casual racism towards the end, but because it’s from a character and from a time when it was much more common, that’s Dahl forgiven.

Two other stories of note include The Great Automatic Grammatizator, a machine which resembles a giant computer and which can spit out short stories and novels at a speed and standard that no other writer could keep up with, and a longer set of stories which are grouped under the title of ‘Claud’s Dog‘, and which are loosely linked together and which left me feeling a little confused, although the ending was fantastic.

Overall, then, this is not just one of the best books of Dahl’s short stories that I’ve read, but one of the best books of short stories in general. It’s worth tracking down a copy for your collection.

 

Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl

 

Click here to buy Someone Like You.