Review of “Cocktails & Concatenations” by Joel Shoemaker

Score: 92+/100 (9.2+ out of 10)

Cocktails & Concatenations is yet another curious, intriguing, thought-provoking, and humorous short story collection by Joel Shoemaker!

Uniquely, this book is a genre-bending fusion of heartfelt storytelling and mixology, where each short story is paired with a carefully chosen cocktail that reflects its emotional tone, thematic flavor, or ironic twist. Shoemaker masterfully blends humor, queer identity, grief, and resilience into narratives that feel both deeply personal and universally human—then caps each one off with a drink recipe that adds depth, whimsy, or bittersweet closure.

So, there are a few things that really excited and stood out to us about this book. First of all, it's a triumphant return to the humorous, comedic, satirical tone of the stories in Shoemaker's first book (in our contests), Bacon Grief--which we've often called the "funniest book of the year" and "one of the funniest books we've ever read."

We wouldn't just call it a tone, it's a voice. At his best, Joel Shoemaker allows his unique voice to shine through in his writing.

Now, while Bacon Grief mostly featured lighthearted and cheeky humor, Cocktails & Concatenations is distinctly and decidedly darker with that hint of sarcasm that we love from Shoemaker. There's even a particularly gruesome, violent, and twisted story involving Santa Claus that's something you'd expect out of a Jamilette Cintron horror collection rather than one from Shoemaker. Yes, there were a few dark, sad, and depressing stories in the previous book, Teeth and Crumpets, but not quite this dark.

Another story, which we reviewed previously, titled Hugs & Kisses is particularly brooding and—while not particularly dark—has an aura of melancholy. The two characters—one suffering from a possible identity disorder due to an obsession with Jacqueline Kennedy and the other wrestling with their gender identity as a trans person and budding drag queen—add a layer of seriousness and psychology that's often missing from Shoemaker's lighter and brighter stories.

We have to be honest: despite loving some of Shoemaker's previous books, we weren't expecting to love Cocktails & Concatenations THIS much. We were disarmed and slightly scared away/chased off by the pages upon pages of cocktail recipes—as unique as they are. We've never seen that before. Have you read a short story collection with instructions on how to cook different chicken dishes between the stories? It put us off initially as it seemed gimmicky and a bit out of place in a collection of fiction.

However, the stories themselves are interesting and intriguing. Furthermore, the cocktail recipe gimmick really grew on us. We started to gain an understanding and appreciation not only for Shoemaker's passion/hobby for cocktail concoctions even though he admits (ironically): "I'm not really that into cocktails. I don't even know if I'm doing this right." He says that before the pandemic, he barely knew what a gin & tonic was. However, like many of us going through that awful period in our history, we softened the blow and kept ourselves busy by picking up some odd hobbies.

Shoemaker just happened to acquire mixology. And, really quickly, what a unique, awesome, and interesting person he is. According to this book, he was a librarian for a decade and a magician for three decades! And every time we've heard from him or interacted, he's been all smiles and nothing but positive. Just a sweet person all around, and it shows in his writing. You can tell that he writes fiction to entertain and enlighten. In other words, he seems to want to bring light and positivity to a dreary world prowled by bigotry and ignorance. One specific focus for him is LGBTQ+ rights and issues. He tries to shine a light on things that the majority of heterosexual and cis people likely don't understand or haven't personally experienced. That's especially apparent in Hugs and Kisses which humanizes a trans character for people who may not otherwise recognize or understand. We also saw it in Silas On Sundays, the author's children's book, which sought to bring understanding about the experiences of trans kids.

One idea that Shoemaker's stories continually showcases is how LGBTQ+ people are a lot like heterosexual and cis people—they have a lot of the same hopes, dreams, passions, and experiences. They just happen to differ in one way or another. That doesn't make them abominations or monsters, it just makes them human. We're all different. We all have things that set us apart.

Also, interestingly enough, Shoemaker's books also demonstrate that God's arms are open to everyone including LGBTQ+. Some see LGBTQ+ and Christianity as completely incompatible, but Jesus spent time with and died for every human being from every walk of life. In fact, he mostly shunned self-righteous, judgmental, and bigoted people rather than people who may have been considered "deviant" or different like Mary Magdalene (a prostitute) and Matthew (a tax collector). He chose Saul, a ruthless prosecutor, as his chief messanger of the gospel. He gave the figurative keys to the church to Peter, who denied him three times.

So, it's interesting to read stories like Jesus, Bitmojis, & Me in which it seems really clear that the narrator is both a Christian and an LGBTQ+ person looking for another LGBTQ+ Christian, only to continually be matched with atheists and agnostics. In fact, this story provides one of our favorite moments in the book when the narrator vents with profound frustration at the fact that the dating algorithm keeps outright ignoring his checked preference for a Christian match.

If you've ever wrestled with an algorithm, AI, or software that ignores your preferences and "chooses" or "decides" things for you, you might resonate with this.

So, rather than breaking down and spoiling every single story, let's discuss some of our favorite passages from them, especially the ones that exemplify Shoemaker's incredible snark, sarcasm, and sense of humor!

In the otherwise tense story involving Michael & John, we get the humorous line:

"A suitable woman from a suitable family, and John would have suitable children and a suitable career and he would make suitable money and support his suitable lifestyle."

This rhythmic repetition reinforces the suffocating conformity John is subjected to, contrasting sharply with the authentic love and connection he had with Michael. The language mimics the cadence of societal scripts—what is deemed "suitable"—while underlining how hollow and devastating that script becomes when it denies real love and identity. It's also pretty fun. You can really sense the snark and sarcasm of this.

It's also poetic. Technically, it's anaphora, the repetition of a word, sound, or phrase.

We get it again in the story Lemons and Limes:

"He loved cosmopolitans because he loved the gentleman who ordered cosmopolitans, who proposed with a ring inside of an ice cube inside of a cosmopolitan, who perfected his own recipe for cosmopolitans to save money when the economy turned sour and they both lost their jobs, who learned to batch cosmopolitans and who had a flask engraved for the tenth wedding anniversary, the aluminum anniversary - a cheap trick, perhaps, but now he drank from nothing else. He loved the gentleman who drank a cosmopolitan too many."

Notice that both "He loved" and "cosmopolitan" are repeated.

Another fun (and funny) example of this is from the story titled Davison:

"...especially with businessmen and businesswomen and businesspeople ensures that it always maintains the requisite trickle of patrons, especially after work on weekdays. Davison loved that bus station. He loved that bar. Davison was not a businesshuman."

This also gives us a funny neologism by inventing the word "businesshuman." Hey, at least it's a pronoun applicable to all people who practice business.

Similarly, in the "Chicken Diaper" story we get terms, phrases, and designations like:

"Bob the Chicken"
"Bob the Human"
"Chicken Church"
and "Chicken Diaper."

By the way, this particular story does a really good job at satirizing and poking fun at Amazon reviews (or customer reviews in general) as it features an exaggerated review of a chicken diaper, something which logically shouldn't exist anyway.

There are some other humorous, comedic aspects of this book like the repetition of the character name "Kevin Aaron Black" like he's predictably an assassin. Also, phrases like:

"Marvin was also a military veteran. Also discharged, but not as honorably."

"It was like stabbing a marshmallow, maybe a bowl of Jello even. It was easy as pie."

"...the grandson ordered a scotch and soda as well, not that it mattered because the hostel had neither scotch nor soda..."

"...he was short. He even said something like ‘we could probably share clothes.'"

There's a whimsy and warmth to Shoemaker's conversational style.

It's strange because Shoemaker's voice and writing perpetually resonate with and entertain us, but the stories and characters themselves, ironically, didn't quite stick with us. Like, we had to ask ourselves who is who and what is what. These stories fly by and development (in plot and characters) often feels rushed. There are apparently 14 unique stories in here, yet we could hardly recall the names of characters (because they were mostly forgettable) and mostly remembered passages and quotes we liked.

Oh, yeah, and there's that horrifying Santa Claus story, so we remembered that. Oh, and we remembered the chicken diaper story because... chicken diapers.

​See, we're starting to think and write like Shoemaker!

Also worth mentioning  is that the illustrations are apparently done by Shoemaker's husband, Andrew McCurdy. And in Shoemaker's signature style, it is explained: "He completed this project out of marital obligation. He was paid in beverages and sometimes “messed up” photographs in an effort to receive more beverages."

Well... ok then!

Check it out on Amazon!