Don't Thowe Away Please

by Christopher Lesko

Smiley loves cosplay. Smiley loses his smile. Smiley fights evil bastards. Smiley is a weird dude.

164 pages, Paperback

First published May 23, 2018

About the author

Growing up in rural Northeast Ohio allowed Christopher Lesko’s imagination freedom to run wild. After graduating from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh for video production, he independently produced 1st CRAZY—a feature-length documentary that screened at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. While living in Wilmington, North Carolina for eleven years, he further developed creative outlets as a landscape photographer, abstract painter, and most recently as an indie author and graphic designer. He currently lives in Ohio.

Reviews

[Janie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poor Smiley. All he wants to do is go to Comic Con dressed as Dragonzord with a giant dong. His father - dressed as an overweight and unsightly He-Man - decides it is a good time to evict Smiley from his trailer. Now what? The Bo$$man calls Smiley into work and fires him almost instantly. Can the day get any worse? I can tell you this, things enter the bizarro zone faster than a rollercoaster upside-down. As Smiley peruses his co-workers' locker doors, unimaginable things are revealed.

Lesson #1 - never, ever give Billy a ride home from work. His mama cooks babies.

You know Tammy? Knives and boobs, that one. Girls just want to have fun, ad infinitum.

Beatrice is a hot mess. She likes to take milk baths. Promise me you won't peek. Because there are things that you can never unsee...

Rita is going to treatment. That's all I'm going to say. I liked the outcome.

Ethan and Bethany receive wicked justice from malformed children. Beware the heart of Ohio, and don't stop for ice cream.

And now, we are back to Smiley. He's getting the hell out of Ohio (is Ohio really so bad?) and off the path of monotony. His road is clear and limitless. I liked this outcome, too. Enjoy the moment. Oh … and HAIL STAN. Thank you for the entertainment, Chrisopher Lesko. Keep on writing the wackadoodle words. :)

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes you can't be prepared for the weird you are about to encounter. That's the case with Christopher Lesko's DON'T THOWE AWAY PLEASE. Its a book that is one part Clerks, one part Canturbury Tales and all parts weird.

I love the concept of workplace fiction. I, myself, have culled fiction from my everyday work environment and the characters that inhabit it. Lesko takes that ball and lets his imagination run into the weirdest places with it. I also enjoyed the visual cues contained in the book and especially the cover itself. All real photos taken from the authors place of business and used as storytelling devices. Extremely creative and adds a lot of feel to the story.

DON'T THOWE AWAY PLEASE is creative art at its heart. The interconnected stories are wild and free of imaginitive restraint. Its a treasure to read Christopher Lesko's mind at work.

[J. Peter W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for this unique book from Leskocrazy. My head is hazy after reading this. I feel like being dangerous. Tonight I’m going to drive as fast as I can with the headlights off. I hope I make it to the moon.

[John Gibbons · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book by the author I have read. Won't be my last. Is it a novella or a collection of short stories? Both seems to be the easiest answer . What we have here is a guy who just wants to go to a con as a Dragonzord with a huge dong. Everything goes wrong, and he ends up having to go to work.


Spoilers




Smiley, the protagonists ends up getting fired. After being fired by the Bo$$ he goes into the locker room and has a going away party. Each locker he opens tells a story of the owner of said locker. Some of the stories are humorous, others straight up horror, and one of them unexpectedly realistic and sad. Overall this was a great book. I really enjoyed the character of Smiley and hope to read about him someday.