Bizarro Fiction Month Day 9: Mother Puncher

I'm up to day eight of my Bizarro Fiction Month, and I have one more author's book to review who will be reviewed here again: Gina Ranalli's  Mother Puncher. I actually reviewed her Suicide Girls in the Afterlife back on day one as part of the Bizarro Starter Kit (orange)  review. I'll be coming back to her later in the month when I review Wall of Kiss.

I think most people know that overpopulation is a fairly serious problem. In Mother Puncher Gina Ranalli has a created a bizarre future world where the government has tried to solve the problem by taking over the health insurance industry, and has passing new laws that any child not born in a hospital can't get insurance. If a child is born in the hospital, the parents are allowed to be punched in the face by the mother puncher. Since the fathers usually run off and hide, it's mostly the mothers that get punched, hence the name mother puncher.

This is the story of the mother puncher called Ed Means, who is an ex-boxer. Ed isn't actually a bad guy. While Ed does believe that bringing a baby into an overpopulated world is wrong, he doesn't really like punching mothers, and tries to avoid doing any real damage. He really doesn't like the way most fathers run off and hide to avoid their punishment. Really, the only reason he hasn't quit is because he's afraid someone who does like hitting women will take over.

Despite having a job that most people would find abhorrent, Ed comes across as a likable guy, and when bad stuff starts happening to him--because of stalker fans, psychotic rivals, and protesters--you rally can't help but feel sorry for the guy.

Bizarro Fiction Month: Day 8 The Egg Said Nothing

It's Day 8 of Bizarro Fiction Month, and it's also Easter. If you're like me, the first thing you think of when you think of Easter is Easter eggs. Sure, if I had a copy of Jesus Freaks, I'd totally be doing that today. Since I don't, I'm going with an egg theme, specifically, The Egg Said Nothing by Caris O'Malley.

I've only read four of the various years' New Bizarro Author series books so far, but of the four I read, this one is my favorite (and note to self: try to get this year's batch before the year is over). I'm not entirely sure why, but it is. Maybe it's because I'm a sucker for a good time travel story.

It's the story of a guy named Manny, who lays an egg. Then he gets some harassing phone calls about it, and gets into a fight with a sinister man with a shovel. Eventually he ends up at a diner, where he falls in love with the waitress. Then things start getting even weirder.

This book has humor, action, and romance. These are all good things for a book to have.This is a great, fun read.

Bizarro Fiction Month Day 7: Slub Glub in the Weird World of the Weeping Willows

As the first week of Bizarro Fiction Month draws to a close, it's time to do a review for a book that I didn't actually buy for myself, which as with the other books I reviewed on days 2-6, is by an author I'll be reviewing again later. My nephew's birthday is this month, and I decided that since Eraserhead has a children's bizarro imprint, I should get a children's bizarro book for my nephew.   Out of the various Spunk Goblin Titles, as the imprint is called, I chose Andrew Goldfarb's Slub Glub in the Weird World of the Weeping Willows based largely on the fact that it was cheap enough to qualify for Amazon's 4-for-3 offer, which enabled be to get other bizarro books including another Goldfarb book, Hypno-Hog's Moonshine Monster Jamboree. Naturally, I decided to read Slub Glub myself before I gave it away.

Slub Glub is a really cool book. I just love Goldfarb's illustrations. They are just so weird. The story itself is written in a very simple style, which isn't unexpected since it is written for children. I should also say that the story is also very strange and a bit complicated.

The story is about a bizarre, blue, blobby, mutant thing called Slub Glub. Slub Glub wakes up one morning and discovers that his forest has been flooded because the willows have been weeping. The willows are weeping because racoons have been climbing them at night and chewing on their leaves. The racoons have climbing the willows to escape from the hyena's mockery. The hyenas are mocking the racoons...well this would go on for quite a while with a long list of improbable occurrences triggering each other and I'm not going to list them all.  These weird happening cause Slub Glub and a willow tree called Willowmina to go on a quest to try and put things right.

I think that this would be a really great bizarro book for kids (and adults). I also think that adults should enjoy it, too. I'm definitely  going to get Andrew Goldfarb's other books.