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sausome's review
2.0
My interest in this book came from the description on the back, making it appear to be a post-apocalyptic, futuristic story. Upon reading it, I discovered that that assumption was way off base, and that the actual plot moves inside of some crazy guy's head, while he's actually doing bad things in reality-life. All in all, it wasn't my thing. It didn't make enough crazy sense to me, and sort of felt like the book only gave the middle and the end of the story. What the f*** happened? and what exactly was the point? Since I can't answer either of those questions, I can't give it any higher rating than the "it was ok" mark. At least it was short!
cerfluffled's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
kkehoe's review
2.0
Although the writing itself was very well-done, the story moved along at a good clip, and my interest was kept, the ending just didn't do it for me. It felt like much less of a reveal than the build-up demanded. A good read that let me down in the end.
xterminal's review
4.0
Andersen Prunty, Morning Is Dead (Grindhouse Press, 2010)
The big twist at the end of this novel has been revealed in a couple of other reviews I've read. I will avoid doing so here, but were I you, I would avoid reading other reviews of the book until after you've read the book itself in order to save yourself for the final chapter. Anyway.
Coming into this book, I thought I knew two things. The first was the word on the street that Andersen Prunty was poised to become the first bizarro author who could actually break into the mainstream, as opposed to mainstream authors who've been co-opted into bizarro (Robert Devereaux and Steve Aylett being obvious examples). The second is that there were zombies. Turns out the first is accurate, anyway. I can't claim to be anything remotely close to widely read in bizarro, but what I have read of it has often seemed the work of inspired amateurs; enjoyable, but lacking the sort of experience and polish that it takes to sell a novel to Doubleday or Grand Central or whoever the big publishing house is these days. (I've been out of the bookselling business for a while. When I was still in it, Random House was the big deal...) Prunty definitely has the enthusiasm of the inspired amateur about him, but there's also a bit of that spit and polish, as well. It's obvious there's an overarching theme here, there's a sense that Prunty really thought about where he wanted this book to go and what he wanted it to do, rather than just sitting down and seeing where the ride took him, and I cannot overestimate the importance of that in putting together a piece of professional-quality fiction. In short, I'm telling you that if you're intrigued by this whole bizarro thing and you're looking for your first intro to the genre, this is an excellent place to start.
Plot: Alvin Blue is in a coma in the hospital. His wife April is sitting beside his bed, waiting for him to either come out of said coma or die. The narrative goes back and forth between April conversing with her friend Maribel in the hospital room and pieces from Alvin's perspective. Are they horrific nightmares? Is he living some sort of purgatorical atonement in his head? Is something else entirely going on? Or, as it seems, has he truly slipped into an alternate dimension, where the local industrial plant (the Point) is actually a shadow government that controls all of Dayton, Ohio, where the sun never shines, where women make money by selling fetuses to Dr. Lucky's Abortion Clinic, where the cops are drugged-out sex fiends and radiation-scarred mutants walk the streets in search of fresh prey?
Morning Is Dead is a blissful, somewhat gross (though not nearly so much as most of the bizarro I've read) amalgam of Anthony Burgess' The Wanting Seed and Dark City, the Alex Proyas film. Those are two influences that it would be pretty darned difficult to screw up, at least as far as I'm concerned, given a writer with any talent whatsoever. And while Prunty's stuff does have the rushed, sometimes skeletal feel that's been common to the bizarro I've read over the past few years, he is undeniably a talented writer, and he does a solid job with this story. Well worth picking up, and as I said before, a very good introduction to this new-ish subgenre. *** ½
The big twist at the end of this novel has been revealed in a couple of other reviews I've read. I will avoid doing so here, but were I you, I would avoid reading other reviews of the book until after you've read the book itself in order to save yourself for the final chapter. Anyway.
Coming into this book, I thought I knew two things. The first was the word on the street that Andersen Prunty was poised to become the first bizarro author who could actually break into the mainstream, as opposed to mainstream authors who've been co-opted into bizarro (Robert Devereaux and Steve Aylett being obvious examples). The second is that there were zombies. Turns out the first is accurate, anyway. I can't claim to be anything remotely close to widely read in bizarro, but what I have read of it has often seemed the work of inspired amateurs; enjoyable, but lacking the sort of experience and polish that it takes to sell a novel to Doubleday or Grand Central or whoever the big publishing house is these days. (I've been out of the bookselling business for a while. When I was still in it, Random House was the big deal...) Prunty definitely has the enthusiasm of the inspired amateur about him, but there's also a bit of that spit and polish, as well. It's obvious there's an overarching theme here, there's a sense that Prunty really thought about where he wanted this book to go and what he wanted it to do, rather than just sitting down and seeing where the ride took him, and I cannot overestimate the importance of that in putting together a piece of professional-quality fiction. In short, I'm telling you that if you're intrigued by this whole bizarro thing and you're looking for your first intro to the genre, this is an excellent place to start.
Plot: Alvin Blue is in a coma in the hospital. His wife April is sitting beside his bed, waiting for him to either come out of said coma or die. The narrative goes back and forth between April conversing with her friend Maribel in the hospital room and pieces from Alvin's perspective. Are they horrific nightmares? Is he living some sort of purgatorical atonement in his head? Is something else entirely going on? Or, as it seems, has he truly slipped into an alternate dimension, where the local industrial plant (the Point) is actually a shadow government that controls all of Dayton, Ohio, where the sun never shines, where women make money by selling fetuses to Dr. Lucky's Abortion Clinic, where the cops are drugged-out sex fiends and radiation-scarred mutants walk the streets in search of fresh prey?
Morning Is Dead is a blissful, somewhat gross (though not nearly so much as most of the bizarro I've read) amalgam of Anthony Burgess' The Wanting Seed and Dark City, the Alex Proyas film. Those are two influences that it would be pretty darned difficult to screw up, at least as far as I'm concerned, given a writer with any talent whatsoever. And while Prunty's stuff does have the rushed, sometimes skeletal feel that's been common to the bizarro I've read over the past few years, he is undeniably a talented writer, and he does a solid job with this story. Well worth picking up, and as I said before, a very good introduction to this new-ish subgenre. *** ½
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