{"product_id":"2940180731647","title":"Final First","description":"\u003cp\u003eFINAL FIRST, the debut short story collection from Matthew Atkinson, will take you across several different genres where you'll laugh, shudder, get shot, play some super high-stakes children's games, and get beaten senseless!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFINAL FIRST offers slow-burning dramas either horror-adjacent (where cosmic mystery meets family drama in \"Shard\") or not (lighthearted adulting non-epic \"Eggs in Stainless Steel\") or WTF (the spiritual whiplash of \"Glue for the Goose\").\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFINAL FIRST will stab you over and over with the emotional pain of growing up (the bitter epistolary grief of \"Spread\"; the game in \"Actuarial Life Table\" that gets too real) or the physical pain (the senseless and patently adolescent mayhem of \"Fifteen Minutes Later\").\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFINAL FIRST will unnerve you with realism (the sleazy hotel hostage situation of \"Occupied \/ Vacant\"), definite un-realism (the bad dream and beyond of \"Hypnopomp\"), an uncertain amount of realism (the world-changing kickball game of \"Atrous Orb\"), the aftermath of a horrible event that might come up in a later collection (the high-estrogen \"The Q-Word\")\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlthough a number of these stories prominently feature children... warning: not for kids! Arguably not for adults! Just like life itself. There's no kiss or kill like the first... let this collection be your FINAL FIRST.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor clarity, this collection includes these stories:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\"Shard\"\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\"Spread\"\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\"Glue for the Goose\"\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\"Eggs in Stainless Steel\"\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\"Occupied \/ Vacant\"\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\"Atrous Orb\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\"Hypnopomp\"\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\"Actuarial Life Table\"\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\"The Q-Word\"\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\"Fifteen Minutes Later\"\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ol\u003e","brand":"Matthew Atkinson","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46958757904625,"sku":"2940180731647","price":5.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0674\/5433\/7265\/files\/2940180731647_p0.jpg?v=1765432813","url":"https:\/\/shop.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940180731647","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble","version":"1.0","type":"link"}