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kotep's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
tdtrumble's review
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
sanddanz's review
4.0
Jordan Krall's first bizarro release through Eraserhead Press, Piecemeal June, is a strong first novel. It is the story of a guy named Kevin who lives above the town's one and only porn shop with his cat, Mithra. Said cat has a habit of bringing various things to Kevin, typically tarot cards, but one day he brings Kevin an ankle... and it's sweating! In the following days Mithra brings Kevin more body parts, and eventually Kevin has the complete makings of a full female. When he puts the female together, to his surprise, she comes to life and tells him her name is June. However, little does Kevin know, but Max Alexander, evil pornographer, and his three crab-human assassins are looking for June and will stop at nothing to get her back. Based on the blurb of the back of this book, I went into Piecemeal June thinking it might be heavy in regards to sex, but after reading it realized there honestly wasn't much to do with sex in the book at all. The book is actually more focused on a deeper love story between the characters in the book as you will see as you read it. Despite this being a "love story", however, Piecemeal June also is quite grotesque in parts. There is one character called Simon, the God of Whores, who is pretty darn foul! The scenes describing him and the things he does may make some readers retch a bit. For those accustomed to reading gross-out kinds of scenes, these parts shouldn't phase them one bit, but to others... I'm just giving fair warning that you might not want to eat right before reading this. All in all, this is a great first novel and I'm looking forward to reading the other works by Krall. Highly Recommended!
Contains: Adult Language, Adult Situations
Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com
Contains: Adult Language, Adult Situations
Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com
cheesygiraffe's review
4.0
Definitely worthy of the Bizarro genre. I was laughing out loud when Pop get attacked by crap. Now that was messed up.
dantastic's review
3.0
When Kevin's cat starts bringing parts of a sex doll into his apartment above the porno store, things start getting strange. Kevin assembled the parts and the doll comes to life. But who did the doll belong to before she came into Kevin's possession?
After reading and enjoying Jordan Krall's Squid Pulp Blues and Fistful of Feet, I decided to give his debut novel a try. Piecemeal June is an odd little book that's chock full of fetishes, bizarre sex acts, and lots of fecal matter. It wasn't quite what I expected after reading two other Jordan Krall books but it was still enjoyable.
The characters were pretty memorable. Kevin and his foot fetish, Mushy and his concussion-induced delirium, the crab men assassins, Max the porn shop owner. I don't think I'll forget Latrina the oracle for a very long time. I thought the connection between Piecemeal June and June St. Eclair could have been explored a little more but Krall had already crammed so much into 72 pages it's understandable that it wasn't.
For a book about a sex doll that has suddenly come to life, Piecemeal June is surprisingly deep. The nature of reality is explored. I liked how Simon, God of Whores, and his hellish dimension overlapped with ours.
So, Piecemeal June is fun in a disgusting way but not quite as good as the other two Krall books I've read. If you decide to give it a try, make sure you have a high tolerance for weird sex and feces.
Click here to read my interview with Jordan Krall.
After reading and enjoying Jordan Krall's Squid Pulp Blues and Fistful of Feet, I decided to give his debut novel a try. Piecemeal June is an odd little book that's chock full of fetishes, bizarre sex acts, and lots of fecal matter. It wasn't quite what I expected after reading two other Jordan Krall books but it was still enjoyable.
The characters were pretty memorable. Kevin and his foot fetish, Mushy and his concussion-induced delirium, the crab men assassins, Max the porn shop owner. I don't think I'll forget Latrina the oracle for a very long time. I thought the connection between Piecemeal June and June St. Eclair could have been explored a little more but Krall had already crammed so much into 72 pages it's understandable that it wasn't.
For a book about a sex doll that has suddenly come to life, Piecemeal June is surprisingly deep. The nature of reality is explored. I liked how Simon, God of Whores, and his hellish dimension overlapped with ours.
So, Piecemeal June is fun in a disgusting way but not quite as good as the other two Krall books I've read. If you decide to give it a try, make sure you have a high tolerance for weird sex and feces.
Click here to read my interview with Jordan Krall.
bladeaok's review
5.0
i LOVED this book. gross out gore, weirdo romance and masturbating crabs, what more could u want?
sheldonnylander's review
4.0
I've been reading Jordan Krall's books out of order. I'm not sure why. I seem to have started with the longer ones of late and have worked my way down to the shorter books. After reading Beyond the Valley of the Apocalypse Donkeys, Fistful of Feet, Squid Pulp Blues, and King Scratch, in that order, I've finally gotten around to reading Piecemeal June.
This book was Krall's rookie effort for Eraserhead Press, and you can definitely see why people have paid attention to his work from the beginning. If there's one word that comes to mind when trying to describe this book, it would be “solid.” The plot is solid, the world is solid, and the characters are solid, even if we don't see all of it.
Piecemeal June is the story of Kevin, a loner in a dead-end job who lives above a porn shop with a tarot-card obsessed cat named Mithra. Mithra begins bringing home what appears to be trash at first, until Kevin realizes that they are parts of a realistic sex doll who, when assembled, comes to life and identifies herself as June. In the meantime, they're pursued by a pornographer who believes the doll belongs to him and a god of the Second World (we are in the First World) who loves her.
For a book about a sex doll, a pornographer, and beings cobbled together from various body parts, I'm surprised that there weren't more graphic adult situations in this story, but the amount worked just right. It's actually not gratuitous, but is really what is necessary to drive the story. Again, however, Krall seems to have an affinity for writing characters who have trouble controlling their bowels.
While the story is short and there's not a whole lot of space to develop the characters, it felt as though there was a lot going on under the surface that we don't see, giving them some depth. And the story, as I said, is quite solid and ties together quite well...sort of.
Let me explain this by saying that there are two main problems with this novel. The first and most obvious is that there are editing problems. Usually, I can overlook a few errors, but the errors here are numerous enough to be distracting, and I have to take a half-star off the final score in this case.
The second problem is the aforementioned issue with the plot. It's really good and absorbing all the way through...and then ends suddenly. I mean very suddenly. It's like the plot slammed into a brick wall at 70 MPH. I almost wonder if Krall either wrote himself into a corner or simply got bored with it and just decided to end it then and there. This is really disappointing because it was such a great story and I was ready to give the book a higher rating up until that point.
Piecemeal June is definitely worth your time, especially for it being a rookie effort from a talented bizarro author. Just keep in mind that it will end very abruptly and not in the most satisfying manner.
Piecemeal June by Jordan Krall earns four sex doll parts out of five.
This book was Krall's rookie effort for Eraserhead Press, and you can definitely see why people have paid attention to his work from the beginning. If there's one word that comes to mind when trying to describe this book, it would be “solid.” The plot is solid, the world is solid, and the characters are solid, even if we don't see all of it.
Piecemeal June is the story of Kevin, a loner in a dead-end job who lives above a porn shop with a tarot-card obsessed cat named Mithra. Mithra begins bringing home what appears to be trash at first, until Kevin realizes that they are parts of a realistic sex doll who, when assembled, comes to life and identifies herself as June. In the meantime, they're pursued by a pornographer who believes the doll belongs to him and a god of the Second World (we are in the First World) who loves her.
For a book about a sex doll, a pornographer, and beings cobbled together from various body parts, I'm surprised that there weren't more graphic adult situations in this story, but the amount worked just right. It's actually not gratuitous, but is really what is necessary to drive the story. Again, however, Krall seems to have an affinity for writing characters who have trouble controlling their bowels.
While the story is short and there's not a whole lot of space to develop the characters, it felt as though there was a lot going on under the surface that we don't see, giving them some depth. And the story, as I said, is quite solid and ties together quite well...sort of.
Let me explain this by saying that there are two main problems with this novel. The first and most obvious is that there are editing problems. Usually, I can overlook a few errors, but the errors here are numerous enough to be distracting, and I have to take a half-star off the final score in this case.
The second problem is the aforementioned issue with the plot. It's really good and absorbing all the way through...and then ends suddenly. I mean very suddenly. It's like the plot slammed into a brick wall at 70 MPH. I almost wonder if Krall either wrote himself into a corner or simply got bored with it and just decided to end it then and there. This is really disappointing because it was such a great story and I was ready to give the book a higher rating up until that point.
Piecemeal June is definitely worth your time, especially for it being a rookie effort from a talented bizarro author. Just keep in mind that it will end very abruptly and not in the most satisfying manner.
Piecemeal June by Jordan Krall earns four sex doll parts out of five.
sarahconnor89757's review
5.0
Undoubtedly weird, but this book has a great amount of intelligence and heart in it as well. Krall has given his characters and concepts depth that a lot of Bizarro books lack.
The writing is great and the gross out moments are perfect:
"...the colon itself was filled with sores that were on the verge of busting. I wonder what disease will sneak out. I could use another one."
Unusual enough to actually BE gross and so well put that it has a romantic edge.
The writing is great and the gross out moments are perfect:
"...the colon itself was filled with sores that were on the verge of busting. I wonder what disease will sneak out. I could use another one."
Unusual enough to actually BE gross and so well put that it has a romantic edge.
iamthez's review
4.0
I don't know what kind of review one can give a book about a anthromorphic sex doll ... other than it delivers exactly what it promises.
As a courtesy, I'd like to remind all readers to not be eating while reading this book -- not because it's that disgusting (although I suppose that could be argued), but it's easier to choke if you're eating when you read some of the descriptions. In fact, I made such a wide variety of faces that my boyfriend was actually scared to ask me what was reading ...and he's asked for me to read him some passages from [b:Succulent Prey|5825416|Succulent Prey (Leisure Fiction)|Wrath James White|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1267850462s/5825416.jpg|2580130].
All in all, definitely a must if you like bizarro randomness. Not as bad as Ass Goblins, but definitely not a Disney novel.
As a courtesy, I'd like to remind all readers to not be eating while reading this book -- not because it's that disgusting (although I suppose that could be argued), but it's easier to choke if you're eating when you read some of the descriptions. In fact, I made such a wide variety of faces that my boyfriend was actually scared to ask me what was reading ...and he's asked for me to read him some passages from [b:Succulent Prey|5825416|Succulent Prey (Leisure Fiction)|Wrath James White|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1267850462s/5825416.jpg|2580130].
All in all, definitely a must if you like bizarro randomness. Not as bad as Ass Goblins, but definitely not a Disney novel.
xterminal's review
3.0
Jordan Krall, Piecemeal June (Eraserhead, 2008)
If you're unfamiliar with the relatively new subgenre of literature known as bizarro...well, you're probably not reading this review. But just in case, bizarro is a kind of bastard child of splatterpunk and the subgenre of psychedelic rock known as blanga, wherein weird mysticism combines with hard-rock guitar to create a kind of commercial version of outsider art (think of Hawkwind or Blue Oyster Cult here). Bizarro revels in the grotesque, the mystic, and the mystical grotesque, oftentimes to the point of sacrificing such traditional artistic values as plot, character, and theme. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make bizarro pretty hard to get right. I've read some bizarro work that would make your hair stand on end (not because it's gruesome, but because it's just awful). Piecemeal June, from premier bizarro imprint Eraserhead Press, is thankfully not one of those books. It's not going to go down in history as timeless, granted, but for a seventy-two page book, it delivers the goods quite nicely.
The book concerns Kevin, a loser who lives above his small town's sole porn shop. One day his cat, Mithra, comes home with a piece of a love doll in its mouth. This become a regular occurrence, and pretty soon Kevin can assemble his very own lifelike pal. However, once the last piece falls into place, the doll comes to life, introduces herself as June, and tells Kevin she's on the run from a psychotic pornographer who's equipped with otherworldly enforcers. But really, how much do Kevin and June have to fear from what may be the most inept criminal enterprise ever committed to paper?
Above all, Piecemeal June is a fun book. It's the kind of thing that will have you alternately laughing and retching (and doing both simultaneously on occasion). As with all the bizarro work I've read, Krall not only never shies away from an opportunity to gross the reader out, but instead goes for the gusto. If it's offensive, he's found a way to work it in here somehow. Because of this, it does require a certain sensibility to really enjoy this (if a quick trip through the collected book titles of bizarro godfather Carlton Mellick III doesn't faze you, then you should be able to stomach anything found in these pages). But hey, if that sort of thing is up your alley, then get yourself acquainted with Jordan Krall right quick. ***
If you're unfamiliar with the relatively new subgenre of literature known as bizarro...well, you're probably not reading this review. But just in case, bizarro is a kind of bastard child of splatterpunk and the subgenre of psychedelic rock known as blanga, wherein weird mysticism combines with hard-rock guitar to create a kind of commercial version of outsider art (think of Hawkwind or Blue Oyster Cult here). Bizarro revels in the grotesque, the mystic, and the mystical grotesque, oftentimes to the point of sacrificing such traditional artistic values as plot, character, and theme. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make bizarro pretty hard to get right. I've read some bizarro work that would make your hair stand on end (not because it's gruesome, but because it's just awful). Piecemeal June, from premier bizarro imprint Eraserhead Press, is thankfully not one of those books. It's not going to go down in history as timeless, granted, but for a seventy-two page book, it delivers the goods quite nicely.
The book concerns Kevin, a loser who lives above his small town's sole porn shop. One day his cat, Mithra, comes home with a piece of a love doll in its mouth. This become a regular occurrence, and pretty soon Kevin can assemble his very own lifelike pal. However, once the last piece falls into place, the doll comes to life, introduces herself as June, and tells Kevin she's on the run from a psychotic pornographer who's equipped with otherworldly enforcers. But really, how much do Kevin and June have to fear from what may be the most inept criminal enterprise ever committed to paper?
Above all, Piecemeal June is a fun book. It's the kind of thing that will have you alternately laughing and retching (and doing both simultaneously on occasion). As with all the bizarro work I've read, Krall not only never shies away from an opportunity to gross the reader out, but instead goes for the gusto. If it's offensive, he's found a way to work it in here somehow. Because of this, it does require a certain sensibility to really enjoy this (if a quick trip through the collected book titles of bizarro godfather Carlton Mellick III doesn't faze you, then you should be able to stomach anything found in these pages). But hey, if that sort of thing is up your alley, then get yourself acquainted with Jordan Krall right quick. ***
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