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anjana's review against another edition
3.0
This tale is quirky and written well and with a lot of emotion thrown in, with sly digs at a lot of the current political goings on.The story begins with a weird poem but then goes on to tell the story of the poem in prose. There is a yellow fog that is enveloping the world, starting with western USA. This fog is deadly in a strange sort of way ( notice the similar tone of the descriptions used by me, such as strange and weird). It is not a very big story and revealing any more of it will take the fun out of actually reading it.
The most fun can be derived if you can look past the words at the politics that is being discussed. The only reason that I give it only three stars was because I liked the starting poem so much that I expected something different from the rest of the book. I am sure most people who read it would like it more than I did!
The most fun can be derived if you can look past the words at the politics that is being discussed. The only reason that I give it only three stars was because I liked the starting poem so much that I expected something different from the rest of the book. I am sure most people who read it would like it more than I did!
alisonkertis's review against another edition
3.0
Weirdly enjoyable. Thank you to NetGalley and Vegetablian Books for the free advanced copy.
I am still not quite sure how to frame my review of The Book of Dog by Lark Benobi. The novel took me about 40-ish pages to get into, but once I started reading the story flew by. Essentially, the story follows six women during an apocalypse: a giant yellow cloud - the result of a chemical agent negligently released (I think...? I don't know if this was ever fully resolved) and is turning women into animals. While women are turning into animals, the Rapture happens, and most of the men are raptured into heaven. A teen girl, Stella King, is impregnated by the Devil, but she doesn't know the man was the devil. She runs away from home to get to the city of Nethalem in Northern California. Along the way, she meets various characters who all eventually turn into animals. The American Government is in chaos and doesn't know why women are turning into animals, but decides to bomb tons of countries in retaliation and also tries to kill all the women-turned-animals. The President of the United States turns into the Beast of the Apocalypse and tries to eat Stella's baby, but she stabs him in the balls, and along with the five women who have turned into animals, defeats the beast. No men remain and the women live in a newly established Eden and procreate without the aid of men.
The Book of Dog reminded me a lot of a more modern Doctor Strangelove in novel form. There were a lot of hilarious absurdities and subtle (some not so subtle) references to current events. The Beast of the Apocalypse was clearly Donald Trump (thanks to the illustrations and the fact that the Beast was orange and the Beast yelling "WITCH HUNT!" upon his death). I also appreciated Benobi's many literary references.
What I appreciated was that the characters that had the most intelligence as animals (the dogs) were the first to recognize that they had been infected by the chemical agent. The animals that were slower to develop intelligence and an ability to communicate with other animals were the ones who denied the apocalypse the longest - and eventually die along with the Beast. This is a good analogy to the nature of "truth" that keeps getting bandied about in current politics. Even with - take your pick, climate change, the current president's collusion, etc. - no matter how many blatant and objective facts are presented, some people will still continue to deny the fact that such facts exist. Hopefully, however, once the Beast of the Apocalypse is gone, only women will remain to rule the world.
The Book of Dog would be an excellent book club read - I had the feeling upon finishing that I would either need to read it again or discuss it in a group to fully digest the analogies and metaphors Benobi presented.
I am still not quite sure how to frame my review of The Book of Dog by Lark Benobi. The novel took me about 40-ish pages to get into, but once I started reading the story flew by. Essentially, the story follows six women during an apocalypse: a giant yellow cloud - the result of a chemical agent negligently released (I think...? I don't know if this was ever fully resolved) and is turning women into animals. While women are turning into animals, the Rapture happens, and most of the men are raptured into heaven. A teen girl, Stella King, is impregnated by the Devil, but she doesn't know the man was the devil. She runs away from home to get to the city of Nethalem in Northern California. Along the way, she meets various characters who all eventually turn into animals. The American Government is in chaos and doesn't know why women are turning into animals, but decides to bomb tons of countries in retaliation and also tries to kill all the women-turned-animals. The President of the United States turns into the Beast of the Apocalypse and tries to eat Stella's baby, but she stabs him in the balls, and along with the five women who have turned into animals, defeats the beast. No men remain and the women live in a newly established Eden and procreate without the aid of men.
The Book of Dog reminded me a lot of a more modern Doctor Strangelove in novel form. There were a lot of hilarious absurdities and subtle (some not so subtle) references to current events. The Beast of the Apocalypse was clearly Donald Trump (thanks to the illustrations and the fact that the Beast was orange and the Beast yelling "WITCH HUNT!" upon his death). I also appreciated Benobi's many literary references.
What I appreciated was that the characters that had the most intelligence as animals (the dogs) were the first to recognize that they had been infected by the chemical agent. The animals that were slower to develop intelligence and an ability to communicate with other animals were the ones who denied the apocalypse the longest - and eventually die along with the Beast. This is a good analogy to the nature of "truth" that keeps getting bandied about in current politics. Even with - take your pick, climate change, the current president's collusion, etc. - no matter how many blatant and objective facts are presented, some people will still continue to deny the fact that such facts exist. Hopefully, however, once the Beast of the Apocalypse is gone, only women will remain to rule the world.
The Book of Dog would be an excellent book club read - I had the feeling upon finishing that I would either need to read it again or discuss it in a group to fully digest the analogies and metaphors Benobi presented.
jenblei's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this so much- I actually couldn't put it down, and read it in one sitting. So wickedly funny, and the illustrations are beyond fantastic. Definitely a one of a kind book.
catdad77a45's review against another edition
4.0
Even as an avowed cat lover (which species gets a bit of short shrift towards the end of the book!), I couldn't help but be charmed by this sui generis parable. Others have invoked Orwell, Kafka, and Thurber (for the droll drawings) in attempting to find authors with similar themes/styles, all of which are certainly germane - I'd add in Tom Robbins and Jeff VanderMeer - but Ms. Benobi is in a class by herself and believe me, you've never read ANYTHING close to this. In these perilous times, it is heartening to read a book that wholeheartedly opts for goodness overcoming evil.
My sincere thanks to Netgalley, Vegetablian Books, and the author (a very recent GR friend!) for their generosity in providing an ARC in return for this honest review.
My sincere thanks to Netgalley, Vegetablian Books, and the author (a very recent GR friend!) for their generosity in providing an ARC in return for this honest review.
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