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0kokokay's review against another edition
I dnf'd this but from what I read it wasn't that it was bad it just felt like the humour wasn't for me. I don't think I could have dealt with the mc for the entire book icl
noesbookishthings's review against another edition
5.0
Once again, I HEART Christopher Moore. The man is just pure brilliance. I find myself reading his books less and less frequently though, because I don't want to run out of them. But this one definitely left room at the end for a sequel and I'm really hoping that is part of his master plan with this novel. Do you hear me Mr. Moore?!?!? DO YOU?!?!?
Charlie Asher is Joe Average. Nothing remarkable, the kind of guy who goes through life without most people noticing. And then one day he becomes Death. Or an agent of Death. Or the Luminatus. We're not quite sure, and we follow Charlie along as he discovers exactly what he has become and what his purpose is, all while maintaining his roles as single father, widow and small business owner.
Once again I am amazed at how well-developed and quirky Moore's characters are and I just love the dialogue. It's incredibly witty and I find myself laughing out loud often. I continue to be Super Fan.
Charlie Asher is Joe Average. Nothing remarkable, the kind of guy who goes through life without most people noticing. And then one day he becomes Death. Or an agent of Death. Or the Luminatus. We're not quite sure, and we follow Charlie along as he discovers exactly what he has become and what his purpose is, all while maintaining his roles as single father, widow and small business owner.
Once again I am amazed at how well-developed and quirky Moore's characters are and I just love the dialogue. It's incredibly witty and I find myself laughing out loud often. I continue to be Super Fan.
lauraborkpower's review against another edition
4.0
Totally fun, funny, sweet, and sad (in a silly way). I've already started Fluke and know that I'm going to be a big, big fan of Moore. He's whimsical and funny like Tom Robbins, but can really ramp up the tension for bits of thriller popped in among the hell-hounds and squirrel people. Read it and you'll know exactly what I mean.
blurrypetals's review against another edition
5.0
Herein lies the long and tired tale of my history with Christopher Moore and, eventually, with this book. This one's a little long and anecdotal, but there is a review of this book somewhere in here...I think. Let's find out together!
I'd like to kick this review and retrospective off by saying I have not read a book more than three times all the way through since my Twilight phase, where I read the first book roughly six or seven times. I'm not proud of it. That said, my Twilight phase actually ended very shortly after I got into Christopher Moore's books. I'd like to think I broke the mind control all on my own, but it could have been thanks to Moore's influence on me as a reader and a writer. Correlation or causation?
I digress.
Nowadays, I'll skim the best parts of all my faves, but I very rarely decide to reread something, so I usually decide to reread something I've only read once. The first time I reread something for the third time since my Twilight phase was when I reread this very book back in 2014 and the second time was in March when I decided to read Peeps by Scott Westerfeld for the third time. Not to be outdone, A Dirty Job has made its return for a victory lap. At this rate, it will surely outdo Twilight in a few years in the quantity department.
It's actually kind of because of Twilight that I even discovered Christopher Moore. I was big into vampire books at the time and this led me to discover many of my favorite authors and books, some of which being Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan, Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead, Peeps by Scott Westerfeld, and, of course, certainly not the least of the bunch, The Vampire Trilogy by Christopher Moore, which opened up about a dozen other books for me to puddle jump over to. After finishing You Suck in early 2008, it was a no-brainer to make A Dirty Job my next stop on the Moore Express not even a month later.
I was already head over heels for Moore's writing style by the time I got to reading this book for the first time, but this really cemented the idea that something completely unique, different, and delightful was worming its way into my vernacular, my writing, and my thought patterns.
"Sophisticated" is not a word I would ever unironically use to describe Moore's writing, but there's a certain specific and comfortable elegance to this book and the way its story unfolds over the course of a six year long timeline.
I've recommended this book more times than I can possibly count and, almost every time someone has asked me to describe what it's about, I almost always say, "It's about a guy whose wife dies shortly after giving birth to their daughter, leaving him to raise the girl all by himself before proceeding to deal with the brand new information that he is now a a grim reaper and must collect the souls of the dead and dying." Almost everyone has then responded with a casual, enthusiastic, "I'll have to check it out!" Then I usually pepper in something along the lines of, "Yeah, it's one of the funniest books ever written!" which immediately throws the person off.
My point here is that this book is something with an amazing premise, one of my favorite premises ever put to paper (or film or music or whatever else), something which hooks in just about anyone who enjoys books about grim reapers, death dealers, and all other manner of such characters, lets that hook reel in the reader, and then the real magic of the novel begins. We're told this book is going to be something serious and cool and, through the literary equivalent of smoke and mirrors, Moore pulls a switcheroo and all that serious cool turns into Moore's brilliant brand of weird, geeky absurdist comedy painted on the backdrop of Moore's favorite city to write about, San Francisco. Through his eyes, we see San Fran for all its breathtaking, goofy, and just plain strange glory, and because of this novel, I see Moore's rose-tinted version of this beautiful insane city.
I am full of love for this book and I always will be. It's not perfect and anyone who isn't a fan of the absurdism is not going to have a good time trying to read this book, but this book is perfectly imperfect. It's given me great, deep lung-aching laughs, it's made me cry sympathetic tears, and it, as well as the rest of Christopher Moore's bibliography, has gotten me through a lot of rough times in my life, and will almost definitely continue to get me through the best of times and the worst of times.
Thanks for everything, Author Guy. This book is truly a blessing.
I'd like to kick this review and retrospective off by saying I have not read a book more than three times all the way through since my Twilight phase, where I read the first book roughly six or seven times. I'm not proud of it. That said, my Twilight phase actually ended very shortly after I got into Christopher Moore's books. I'd like to think I broke the mind control all on my own, but it could have been thanks to Moore's influence on me as a reader and a writer. Correlation or causation?
I digress.
Nowadays, I'll skim the best parts of all my faves, but I very rarely decide to reread something, so I usually decide to reread something I've only read once. The first time I reread something for the third time since my Twilight phase was when I reread this very book back in 2014 and the second time was in March when I decided to read Peeps by Scott Westerfeld for the third time. Not to be outdone, A Dirty Job has made its return for a victory lap. At this rate, it will surely outdo Twilight in a few years in the quantity department.
It's actually kind of because of Twilight that I even discovered Christopher Moore. I was big into vampire books at the time and this led me to discover many of my favorite authors and books, some of which being Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan, Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead, Peeps by Scott Westerfeld, and, of course, certainly not the least of the bunch, The Vampire Trilogy by Christopher Moore, which opened up about a dozen other books for me to puddle jump over to. After finishing You Suck in early 2008, it was a no-brainer to make A Dirty Job my next stop on the Moore Express not even a month later.
I was already head over heels for Moore's writing style by the time I got to reading this book for the first time, but this really cemented the idea that something completely unique, different, and delightful was worming its way into my vernacular, my writing, and my thought patterns.
"Sophisticated" is not a word I would ever unironically use to describe Moore's writing, but there's a certain specific and comfortable elegance to this book and the way its story unfolds over the course of a six year long timeline.
I've recommended this book more times than I can possibly count and, almost every time someone has asked me to describe what it's about, I almost always say, "It's about a guy whose wife dies shortly after giving birth to their daughter, leaving him to raise the girl all by himself before proceeding to deal with the brand new information that he is now a a grim reaper and must collect the souls of the dead and dying." Almost everyone has then responded with a casual, enthusiastic, "I'll have to check it out!" Then I usually pepper in something along the lines of, "Yeah, it's one of the funniest books ever written!" which immediately throws the person off.
My point here is that this book is something with an amazing premise, one of my favorite premises ever put to paper (or film or music or whatever else), something which hooks in just about anyone who enjoys books about grim reapers, death dealers, and all other manner of such characters, lets that hook reel in the reader, and then the real magic of the novel begins. We're told this book is going to be something serious and cool and, through the literary equivalent of smoke and mirrors, Moore pulls a switcheroo and all that serious cool turns into Moore's brilliant brand of weird, geeky absurdist comedy painted on the backdrop of Moore's favorite city to write about, San Francisco. Through his eyes, we see San Fran for all its breathtaking, goofy, and just plain strange glory, and because of this novel, I see Moore's rose-tinted version of this beautiful insane city.
I am full of love for this book and I always will be. It's not perfect and anyone who isn't a fan of the absurdism is not going to have a good time trying to read this book, but this book is perfectly imperfect. It's given me great, deep lung-aching laughs, it's made me cry sympathetic tears, and it, as well as the rest of Christopher Moore's bibliography, has gotten me through a lot of rough times in my life, and will almost definitely continue to get me through the best of times and the worst of times.
Thanks for everything, Author Guy. This book is truly a blessing.
lethaldose's review
2.0
I was hoping for something akin to David Wong, some crazy dark humor, this book had its moments but I can't really recommend it.
thisisthelion's review against another edition
3.0
I expected more from this book. It was supposed to be a dark humor story, but I didn’t laughed that much. Charlie, the main character, is not very compelling and I didn’t like how the story played out. The whole being a Death Merchant affair had so much wasted potential along with other stuff like Sophie being the Illuminatus. The parts I enjoyed more were Charlie’s interactions with his sister and his employees. I could have spare the whole “The forces of darkness are rising and someone needs to stop them or we will perish and the world will go to hell (no pun intended).” and just read their story. It’s an enjoyable book and I had a few good laughs, but I could go on with my life without reading it.
grubbyfeet's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of my favorite books! I love his humor and characters. Love Love Love!
dqbookish's review against another edition
Even in the first 10 pages there were too many descriptions of the MC as a Beta. Nope not for me.
goobdiddy's review against another edition
4.0
I think this is the third book I've read that deals with someone becoming an incarnation of Death, and is probably the most enjoyable (although Terry Pratchett's 'Mort') was very good!).
After a bit of a rough start, the hero becomes quite likable, and the supporting cast is awesome, "like bear". I very much liked (and identified a bit too closely!) with the division of the world in alpha, beta and omega males.
Plus, the book has a glow-in-the-dark cover! How can you not like that?
After a bit of a rough start, the hero becomes quite likable, and the supporting cast is awesome, "like bear". I very much liked (and identified a bit too closely!) with the division of the world in alpha, beta and omega males.
Plus, the book has a glow-in-the-dark cover! How can you not like that?