A shadowy heroin-addicted government figure hires a Hard-boiled, semi-alcoholic, chain-smoking detective to retrieve a secret book. Along the way, he meets a free-spirited and polyamorous female. Many bad situations ensue, rapidly devolving into worse, then devolving into...If you were going to write an absurd rendition of a satirical parody of a satirical crime novel, you can put your pen down because it's already been done by Ellis.

A lot of people are bothered by this book.

Sexy Godzilla, ostrich sexuality, and the worst steakhouse meal ever described on paper might be some the reasons. And those are the least offensive things in the little novel.

I, however, am not only unbothered, I spent a great deal of time laughing so hard I woke my husband up. When I was able to contain myself, I spent that time saying "what the did I just read?" and then promptly reading it again just to ensure that my sense of humour is as warped as I thought.

There's plenty of criticism about the book, and it's 100% true and also completely wrong.

The writing is sketchy. Ellis tell you from the top that the writing is sketchy. He deliberately wrote it that way.

He takes the crime genre too far. Yes. Yes, he does. It's a satirical politico-crime noir with a hefty dollop of the absurd thrown in.

The overthetopness is exhausting. No, it isn't. It's the entire point.

I usually slog through detective/crime/noir novels, but not this one. This was like watching a Nic Cage/Charlie Sheen death match, and the winner had to wrestle a bear trained by Axl Rose.

And then you'd turn to chapter 2.

It's not for everyone, but it was most definitely for me. If you're easily offended, or have a low tolerance for absurdity and straight-up vulgarity, this isn't the book for you.

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Created Mar 06, 2024 at 1:20pm • Submit your own review...