Book Review - Bite Me

SPOILER NOTE:

This is the third book of Moore's vampire love story and it's recommended that you read the first two books (Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck) before reading this review, as spoilers will be elegantly excreted along the way.  But you already knew that, didn't you?  Alright, relax…no need to be patting your own ass.  Your competence will be documented.  So go ahead and read the review at your own risk.

Christopher Moore's Bite Me wraps up his vampiric love story by removing Tommy as the protagonist and offering up someone fresh, Goth and ridiculous, to take over the reins.

"Now you listen.  I have about twenty minutes before the sun comes up, so you better head over to my 

car and replace the flat tire that you caused.  Because I am not in the mood."

STORY:

Chet, the huge shaved cat from You Suck, becomes a huge stalking vampiric fiend that can't seem to decide whether to eat his victims, suck their blood, or hump the holy hell out of them.  He (Chet) is not only growing in size and brain function, but he's also making quite the kitty army.  The vampiric feline pack starts to run amuck in San Francisco, devouring the homeless and then—*gulp*—moving on to the middle class.  Is there anyone in the city that can stop Chet and his army before San Francisco is nothing more than a giant litter box?  Why...yes.  There does seem to be one person.  Abigail Von Normal: emergency backup Mistress of the Greater Bay Area.  Oh, and she does get a little help from her sexy manga boyfriend, Foo Dog.  So technically, there's like two people.  Well, there are also the Animals, and those goofy cops, and some old vampires, and this old Japanese guy, and the Emperor of San Francisco, and let's not forget Tommy and Jody either...so really, there's like a gaggle of idiots running around making poor decisions and attempting to hunt the bloodcurdling Chet monster.  Killer humping cats, vampiric rats, artistic samurai, and douche waffles ensue.

"Are you saying that if I became a vampire cat, I'd live forever AND gain intelligence...but would

have to drink nothing but blood for eternity?"

"Yep."

"Not interested."

THOUGHTS:

They say a novel's protagonist is the person who the story begins and ends with.  And if that's to be believed, then Abby Normal (a cross between Wednesday Addams and Lydia Deetz) becomes this story's lead.  She was everything that was hilarious about the second book, You Suck.  And if you enjoyed her rambling in that story, then you'll love her here.  Her journal entries—once again—turn what could have been a slightly slow and safe story, into a roll in the hay with Goth humor.

In the second book, the story left us with Tommy and Jody discussing whether or not to stay vampires (Foo Dog has discovered a cure).  And since Abby didn't want to see them fight about it, when they pass out at dawn, she and her manga-haired sex-slave, cast the two lovers in bronze, essentially keeping them together forever…as statues.  But if you know anything about how Moore writes, you already know that anything he deems as "forever" is really just the start of a humorous blunder.

"You know, we could turn around and not have to fight all these vampires."

"Dude, they have my girlfriend.  You've seen what she looks like right?"

"Fair enough."

SHOULD YOU READ THE THIRD BOOK?

The actual question you're probably asking is: "I've read the first book and liked it, but the second left a whole lot to be desired in the story, but it was funny…so should I spend my time reading this one?"  Well, if you enjoyed Abby in the second book and were actually able to read all the way through it and still enjoy Moore's humor—regardless of the nonexistent plot—then you'll enjoy the third installment.  Since the story is "mostly" seen through Abby's eyes, there's a lot more silliness going on and more laughs.  In terms of the story, the plot is organized and stuff does seem to be happening, but some of the story lines end somewhat quick and safe without many twists, as if Moore decided the book was too long and it needed trimming in the resolution department.

Now, when you read the story synopsis above, you're probably thinking Chet has a humongous part in the novel.  Well, he does in about the first third of the book.  But then Moore needs to wrap up the series by the last page and poor Chet and his vampiric felines take a back seat to the many story lines that need concluding.

"Large vampiric cats you say..."

"Yes."

"Eating the homeless..."

"Yes!  Yes!"

"I'm sorry, I fail to see the problem."

JUST HOW MANY STORY LINES ARE THERE?

Each chapter has a different character's point-of-view and each character has a different story line that needs to be told.  So the book will have you bouncing around like a three year old, hopped up on Pixy Stix.  You'll start with Abby, but then you’ll switch over to the Animals, Jody, Tommy, Cavuto and Rivera, the Emperor of San Francisco and his men, Foo Dog, the Old Ones, the samurai Okata, and even Chet (who gets his own chapters where you'll read his thoughts and desires), until finally arriving back to Abby.  Is it a mess?  You betcha.  Could some of the story lines have been dropped altogether?  Sure.  The Emperor's chapters seem unnecessary, along with Chet and his thoughts, but then you'll be losing all the hilarity that goes along with them.  Just like in the other two books, you're reading Moore, not for the education in storytelling, but because of all the wonderful laughs along the way.  And there are plenty of them.  The story gets so ridiculous at one point you'll wonder how a grown man (Moore) can invent crap like sucking dead rats up in a vacuum without spending most of his time in therapy.  Then again, maybe he does...

"Don't worry mom, he can't come in unless we invite him."

"Yeah, well then you owe me money for all the Pogonias he's out there eating." 

CONCLUSION:

Bite Me reads more like a newspaper within the city of San Francisco.  Each chapter is a new headline, accompanied by the silliest story you can imagine.  Will it become a literary masterpiece?  Probably not.  But who really cares?  Its main purpose is to deliver unexpected hilarity, and Moore never fails in that department.  Is this trilogy better than some of his other works?  No.  But if you've already read the first two books, don't you want to find out how this terrific mess ends?  Of course you do.  And that is one thing you can look forward to: a resolution in every story line…and a couple might even surprise you.

3 1/2 out of 5 stars (minus a star for character bouncing and ½ star for safe story line endings)

Book Review - You Suck

Contrary to popular belief, You Suck is not a vintage porn starring Long Dong Silver.  It is, in fact, the next chapter in Christopher Moore’s tragic saga of C. Thomas Flood and his vampire love, Jody.

WARNING: if you haven't read the first novel in the C. Thomas Flood saga, Bloodsucking Fiends, P&P highly recommends you doing so, before venturing forth into this review.  First book spoilers ahead.

"They said we'd never shower again and would forever remain malodorous, but we'll 

show them.  We'll show them all."

BLOODSUCKING FIENDS RECAP:

Since P&P never reviewed Bloodsucking Fiends (stop looking at us that way and don't try to act like you've never been lazy).  Here's a bit of a recap in the action.  C. Thomas Flood, an aspiring writer from Indiana, heads to San Francisco to stake a claim in the literary world.  Shortly after arriving, his car is set aflame, his new bedroom is shared with five Chinese guys, his nights are spent managing a team of supermarket shelf stockers named the Animals, and his new girlfriend (an older, superhot redhead he met in the middle of the night named Jody) may be a vampire.  Okay, let's not sugar coat it.  She is a vampire and Tommy Flood ends up becoming her minion.  But is having sex with a vampire and doing her laundry something that Tommy always wanted?  First book spoilers are still ahead.  Read at your own risk.

YOU SUCK - STORY:

We pick up exactly where the first book left off: C. Thomas Flood being turned into a vampire by Jody, and Elijah (the centuries old vampire that turned Jody just for the fun of it) still stuck inside the bronze statue.  But can the happily-ever-after ending from the first book, really last?  In short…nope.  Sooner rather than later, Jody and Tommy realize they still need to leave town as promised, but there's the little problem of needing a minion to do their daylight bidding.  Blue painted hookers, gothic minions, bald cats, troubled teens, A Dirty Job's Charlie Asher, and the vampire Lord Flood ensues.

"Man, this is the last time I throw a party on a Tuesday."

THOUGHTS:

About the first eighty pages of the novel are just a bunch of ridiculous conversations between Jody and Tommy.  Basically, Tommy is being treated like a child by Jody, as he tries to come to terms with being a fresh undead stalker of the night.  Not that banter is a problem, but throughout most of the novel, you'll come to realize there's really not much going on.  There’s a lot of talking, pot smoking (the Animals, not Tommy since he is a vampire and all), sex, wandering around, and hiding from daylight in the most awkward places.  With the first novel (Bloodsucking Fiends) being scene after scene of vampire jokes and action chapters leading to the inevitable confrontation with Elijah, You Suck isn't left with much of a plot to utilize.  Therefore, Moore had to make things happen in each of the separate story lines.  For instance, the Animals take all their hard earned stolen money and blow it in Vegas on a Smurf hooker.  The cops, Cavuto and Rivera, have to make sure all vampires leave the city, and Jody and Tommy have to search for a minion.  But even with those story lines happening, there's still no over-arching plot in the novel.  It feels more like random stories from different people's journals that occasionally over-lap. 

With all that being said, the real reason anyone reads Moore is for the humor.  So is the book funny?  Ridiculously funny.  The random conversations in the beginning felt a little forced and out of character, but after the minion became part of the novel, the pace and humor increased tenfold.

"Mental checklist: Murder random family.  Help boy overcome puberty by 

killing his classmates.  Check amount of Followers on Twitter."

WHAT ABOUT A MINION?

If you've read A Dirty Job then you'll know of the character Abigail Von Normal, AKA Abby Normal.  (She is the sixteen year old friend of Lily, the cashier at Charlie Asher's secondhand store.)  Abby has finally found and fallen in love with her Dark Lord.  Except, her Dark Lord (the vampire Flood) isn't a few hundred years old and definitely doesn't know anything about being a vampire.  Abby's chapters throughout the book help the writing feel fresh, because each word is written as if she's telling the story in her diary.  The way she phrases conversations and events is absolutely hilarious.

Abby wants to be a vampire in the worst way and at one part in the story—because of a certain event—she thinks she's been turned and the "powers of the night" need some time to develop.  So Abby begins to act tough, but she's actually just a scared little girl that doesn't know crap about anything.  And that makes her chapters a complete delight.  The way she describes her Nosferatude, her love for Starbucks, and just her complete lack of caring, help carry the novel.  And thank goodness, because with nothing much to do, the Tommy and Jody story line, grows stale fast.

PACING:

Once the minion and the Animals story line start to intersect with Jody and Tommy, the novel begins to pick up and foolishness increases.  Action starts to actually take place and the lovely vampire couple find themselves falling deeper and deeper into trouble.  The next hurdle is the ending.  But don't expect a humongous climax to take place.  The ending just happens to fizzle out like a few days old Pepsi and you're left with a little more than indifference once the last page is turned.  It’s sad, considering Moore’s other works.

"I told you I have a problem eating spaghetti and meatballs.  You're taking these 

clothes to the cleaner.  You...not me!"

CONCLUSION:

This may not be Moore's best plotted tale, but his wacky writing is still woven deep within the novel.  If you enjoyed Bloodsucking Fiends and want to slightly deepen the story of Jody and Tommy, then feel at ease picking up this second volume.  If you found Bloodsucking Fiends to be lacking, then there's no need to venture any further into the saga.  But regardless of story trouble, the novel will still make you laugh if you have an appetite for over-the-top Moore humor.

3 out of 5 stars (minus a star for the ending and one for the pacing)

Book Review - A Dirty Job

Christopher Moore's Website

A Dirty Job on Amazon

Well, last week I gave Christopher Moore’s Sacre Bleu a mediocre review—and rightfully so, considering it was slightly more of a history book, than fiction.  But I didn’t want to give up on Moore.  He has numerous reviews online pointing out how ridiculous and funny his books are, so I decided to jump right into another one of his titles.  And I’m happy to say, that “A Dirty Job” is as funny and ridiculous as you can get. 

 

When I look for a novel to devote precious free time too, I want to be engaged and distracted from real life as much as possible.  If you can do that and make me laugh, then you have something special.  Now, every time I read a book and there’s a humorous line or scene, I might smile or chuckle slightly, but there were scenes in “A Dirty Job” that had me laughing out loud.  Never before has that happened, so I have to commend Moore on a job well done.

 

Story:

The setting is San Francisco and a normal (Beta Male) guy named Charlie, who owns a secondhand store, is about to have his entire world turned upside down.  He’s the kind of guy who is happy going through life without any excitement and is content living out his existence peacefully.  But, when the love of his life has his child and then suddenly passes away, things get weird.  Really weird.  Giant ravens, dark shadows and glowing items start to appear, and Charlie has no idea what’s going on.  He tries to shrug everything off, thinking he’s losing his mind.  So with a new baby girl around, Sophie, a secondhand store to run, and the forces of darkness surrounding him, he tries to do what any Beta Male would do: nothing.  Except that doesn’t pan out too well in the long run.

 

Thoughts:

This book goes beyond absurd and punches bizarre right in the face.  If you like books to stay pretty grounded, then this is NOT the book for you.  And I’m not just talking about angel and demon stuff either.  You get sewer harpies (who seem to have the urge for sex), giant black dogs, squirrel people, outrageous settings; humor where it shouldn’t exist…the list goes on and on.  If you’re the type that doesn’t like foul language or has a problem with books/stories/movies that rip into stereotypes, then again—THIS IS NOT THE BOOK FOR YOU. 

 

Now, if you’re like me, and find humor in almost anything, and can handle a plot that continues to get more and more outlandish the further you read, than have at it.  You’ll love this book.  I initially thought: “Why hasn’t this been turned into a movie yet?”  And after about 10 or so chapters, I thought, “There’s no way anyone could make this into a movie.”

 

When you get about 1/3 through the story, you’ll think you have the whole thing figured out.  Wrong.  Major time goes by: sometimes months, sometimes years and still the plot rages on.  All I wanted to do was continue to turn the page to see what silliness will happen next, and I never was disappointed.

 

The characters, no matter how over-the-top stereotypical they are, are so likable, that you don’t want anything to happen to them.  And the main character Charlie is so nonchalant about even the weirdest things, that it makes the story completely unpredictable.

 

Moore pokes fun at every race/ethnic/religious background: Jewish, Catholic, Buddhist, Asian, Russian, African-American, etc.; there’s no road he won’t go down.  I firmly believe that life is too short to be pulling the politically correct crap, or labeling people with the “racist” card for telling jokes about how they view life.  So if you’re one of those people, do me a favor: get off your high-horse and swallow your stupidity, because you’re only wasting everyone’s (including mine) time.

 

Everything that Sacre Bleu wasn’t; is everything that “A Dirty Job” is.  This novel was exactly what I needed to laugh and forget the real-life problems going on—even if it was for just a little while.  I highly recommend picking this one up if you’re in need of a good laugh.

 

Since this novel was so much fun, I will be spending more time with Moore in the future…my only problem now is: which book do I start next?

 

4 1/2 out of 5 stars (all 4 ½ stars for being perfectly ridiculous—just the way I like it)

Book Review - Sacre Bleu

Sacre Bleu's Amazon Listing

Christopher Moore's Website

The Cover:

Wow!  Isn't that cover just awesomeness?

You know how they say book covers boost sales, by inspiring readers to pick up a lonely book on a shelf and give the summary a look-see?  Well, Sacre Bleu was definitely one of those books for me.  Having a background in Art & Illustration, I couldn’t help but be attracted to the wonderful cover of Sacre Bleu.  I’ve never read anything by Christopher Moore, which could be good or it could be bad.  But with a wonderful cover like the one above, what can possibly go wrong?

 

Story:

It’s 1890 and Vincent van Gogh at the height of his career drew a pistol (no pun intended) and shot himself in the chest.  Then proceeded to walk through a cornfield to a doctor, only for it to be too late and him die.  Did he really commit suicide or was there something else behind these tragic and usual events?

 

My thoughts:

Well Vincent’s friends, one Henry Lautrec and a baker/painter/protagonist named Lucien Lessard are on the case.  At least that’s what the inside cover of the book says.  So we have a story involving the famous Vincent van Gogh, art in general, a murder mystery and a baker who’s looking to solve it all.  This book sounds like its right up my alley.

 

The death of Vincent happens in the first chapter and then gets briefly mentioned again in an afterthought about 2/3 through the book.  It seems the actual mystery and solving of a murder was just to get readers to pick this novel up.  What the book really is about is a young man’s love of his muse.  Or if you keep reading, it turns out the story is one big metaphor about how much Christopher Moore loves artists, their muses and just art in general. 

 

The first couple of chapters introduce you to Lucien, his family and his dear friend Henri (who spends way too much time drinking and hanging with whores).  I was really getting into Lucien’s love of painting and his awesome friends, like Renoir, Monet or Manet, and also really enjoying the relationship of Lucien and his father.  Then the first flashback happened.  It wouldn’t be so bad, if it stayed revolved around Lucien and his story, but then it crept into a history lesson about how Paris was in bad shape during a war.  And then flashback, after flashback, after flashback.

 

From there the book spiraled out of control and jumped all over the place, sometimes not including Lucien at all.  Instead you get art lessons from the Impressionists or stories told through their eyes, and Vincent and Lucien’s story is thrown to the waste side.  What really kept me going is the fact that I have an Art background, so I could relate to all the side stories being told here.  But there’s also a disadvantage to that: I already know most of the history and really had to drudge through it, just so I could get back to Lucien’s story.

 

By the time you do get back to Lucien and his bud, Henri, you’ve lost the bond with him and don’t really care what happens next.  Or at least that’s how I felt.  I finished the book because I wanted to write this review and was really hoping there was something that would happen at the end to justify all the history I read through, but I was disappointed.

 

Christopher Moore’s prose is top notch and his comedy, when it did show up, was refreshing and had me giggling here and there.  But as I see with the rest of his books, it’s his comedy that he’s known for, and this novel just didn’t have enough to keep me reading.

 

I do applaud all the research he did into the lives of such famous artists at that time, but I think the plot got away from him.  If he removed 1/3 of the book and shortened the history lessons, reverting back to Lucien more, I think this would have been a better book.  But really, what do I know?  I just know what I like to read, not how to write a best-seller.

 

In the end, Sacre Bleu has a great idea behind, with wonderful—but not enough—comedy, but Moore let his love of art history get in the way of his story telling.  He even goes so far as to tell you in the last chapter, exactly what was real and what wasn’t.  The sad thing is: most of it was non-fiction—and most of the time real life is boring. 

 

If you’re in love with the writing of Moore or just love Art History, then you might want to pick this book up.  The rest of us should check it out of our local library and see if it’s to our liking.

 

2 1/2 out of 5 stars (1 star both for comedy & research and 1/2 star for the idea)