Scan barcode
morv92's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
tetsueki's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.75
premium_huhn's review against another edition
2.0
Noch so ein Buch, das einen Titel mit durchs Dach brechendem Cringe-charakter hat. Im Original heißt es "Evil?", was sehr viel weniger beknackt klingt und auch sehr viel mehr mit der Handlung zu tun hat. Anhand des deutschen Titels und Klappentextes habe ich ja eine nette Story um einen dämonenbeschwörenden Teenie erwartet und war dann irgendwie etwas überfordert mit der anfänglich wirklich plump daherkommenden Religionskritik und diesem ganzen Gemeiere um irgendwelche Sünden. Tatsächlich gewinnt die Geschichte aber noch etwas an Tiefgang und wird so ab der Hälfte ganz nett, als der Protagonist feststellt, dass nicht alles ganz so einfach ist, wie er dachte. Der gemeine und vermeintlich so freie Dämon ist allerlei Gesetzen unterworfen, der freundliche Pfarrer hat eine dunkle Vergangenheit, die Dorfgemeinschaft steht unter dem Bann eines gefallenen Engels, der ihnen sein striktes Weltbild überhilft. Am Ende (Achtung, Spoiler!) schafft Stuart es zwar, den Engel mit der Abneigung gegen Onanie zu besiegen, muss aber aufgrund der Geschehnisse dennoch seine Familie und sein Heimatdorf verlassen.
Alles in allem war das Buch nicht so meins. Hab was anderes erwartet, bin offenkundig nicht die Zielgruppe und fand die Erzählung zu hektisch (und dadurch voller Logiklöcher).
(Oh und bei der Lektüre einer anderen Rezension fiel mir auch wieder ein, dass Stuart schwul ist, was aber, von zahllosen Erwähnungen, dass er übrigens schwul ist mal abgesehen, so mega irrelevant für die Handlung ist, dass ich es prompt auch wieder vergessen hatte. Die einzige Bewandnis ist vielleicht der absichtlich merkwürdige Kontrast zwischen dem entspannten Umgang der Gemeinde mit Stuarts Homosexualität im Gegensatz zu ihrer Überreaktion in Bezug auf die ganze Selbstbefriedigungssache. o__o)
Alles in allem war das Buch nicht so meins. Hab was anderes erwartet, bin offenkundig nicht die Zielgruppe und fand die Erzählung zu hektisch (und dadurch voller Logiklöcher).
(Oh und bei der Lektüre einer anderen Rezension fiel mir auch wieder ein, dass Stuart schwul ist, was aber, von zahllosen Erwähnungen, dass er übrigens schwul ist mal abgesehen, so mega irrelevant für die Handlung ist, dass ich es prompt auch wieder vergessen hatte. Die einzige Bewandnis ist vielleicht der absichtlich merkwürdige Kontrast zwischen dem entspannten Umgang der Gemeinde mit Stuarts Homosexualität im Gegensatz zu ihrer Überreaktion in Bezug auf die ganze Selbstbefriedigungssache. o__o)
shrrawat's review
4.0
I decided to read Evil?, thinking it a humorous book. And I was right. It was hilarious. Not only that, but it had some character development, it was well written, and it had an interesting and original plot. Everything I look for in a book. But there were three things that kept me from giving this book a perfect five stars:
1. The total lack of chemistry between the romantic couple. I felt like Carter was trying to push the romantic factor too much, and was just trying to end it. In my opinion, there was less love between the two characters and more lust.
2. The randomness in plot that came up from time to time. This comes up in most humorous books, so I was not surprised when I saw it here as well. But I was shocked that it appeared so blatantly in this book.
3. THE COMPLETELY UNRESOLVED ENDING!!! This was what irked me the most and led me to write this review. The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, with no sequel in sight. It leaves a feeling of emptiness, TOTAL FRUSTRATION, and overall disappointment.
Honestly, Evil? is a great read. It's just the ending that leaves you dissatisfied, as well as the reasons stated above. But if you're looking for a light, yet action-packed book, Evil? is definitely the book to turn to.
1. The total lack of chemistry between the romantic couple. I felt like Carter was trying to push the romantic factor too much, and was just trying to end it. In my opinion, there was less love between the two characters and more lust.
2. The randomness in plot that came up from time to time. This comes up in most humorous books, so I was not surprised when I saw it here as well. But I was shocked that it appeared so blatantly in this book.
3. THE COMPLETELY UNRESOLVED ENDING!!! This was what irked me the most and led me to write this review. The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, with no sequel in sight. It leaves a feeling of emptiness, TOTAL FRUSTRATION, and overall disappointment.
Honestly, Evil? is a great read. It's just the ending that leaves you dissatisfied, as well as the reasons stated above. But if you're looking for a light, yet action-packed book, Evil? is definitely the book to turn to.
blaarrosir's review
1.0
This book was terrible. It was more of a joke than an actual book. It was as if the author didn't even take the book seriously and wrote it while making fun of it. The book wasn't at all what I was expecting. The acknowledgement page at the end begins with the author congratulating himself on his "own creative brilliance" and exclaiming about how "super" he is for being so brilliant. Yikes. There is no creative brilliance here, only a ridiculous plot badly pulled off.
librariann's review
4.0
Ages 12+ (no major language, but the plot centers around masturbation. That might make some parental-types uncomfortable, so I'm erring on the side of caution. Oh, and of course it pokes fun at America's Favorite ReligionTM)
Right up my alley. Teenage Stuart is caught masturbating by his younger brother. Soon, the whole town is in an uproar, and teenagers are their target. High school students can face expulsion if they are even suspected of engaging in the sin of Onan. With the help of a murderous little demon named Fon Pyre who he's been summoning for the past year (he's making a film where he gets the real deal on what God cares about - fortunately for Stuart, being gay isn't an issue for God) he sets out to discover what's behind his town's irrational hatred of those who spill their seed to the ground. Answer: a fallen angel, of course.
A tongue in cheek angel-slam that pokes fun at the blind (and illogical) devotion that sometimes accompanies Christianity. A sharp satire for people who make signs like this: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/09/18/gay-people-can-quote-the-bible-too
Right up my alley. Teenage Stuart is caught masturbating by his younger brother. Soon, the whole town is in an uproar, and teenagers are their target. High school students can face expulsion if they are even suspected of engaging in the sin of Onan. With the help of a murderous little demon named Fon Pyre who he's been summoning for the past year (he's making a film where he gets the real deal on what God cares about - fortunately for Stuart, being gay isn't an issue for God) he sets out to discover what's behind his town's irrational hatred of those who spill their seed to the ground. Answer: a fallen angel, of course.
A tongue in cheek angel-slam that pokes fun at the blind (and illogical) devotion that sometimes accompanies Christianity. A sharp satire for people who make signs like this: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/09/18/gay-people-can-quote-the-bible-too
shinychick's review
3.0
Already, this reminds me of [a:Christopher Moore|16218|Christopher Moore|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1200095788p2/16218.jpg].
Yup. Definitely [a:Christopher Moore|16218|Christopher Moore|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1200095788p2/16218.jpg] - surrealist ridiculous fiction. A teensy bit less satisfying than Moore, but, in all fairness, this is only [a:Timothy Carter|326675|Timothy Carter|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]'s second book.
Yup. Definitely [a:Christopher Moore|16218|Christopher Moore|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1200095788p2/16218.jpg] - surrealist ridiculous fiction. A teensy bit less satisfying than Moore, but, in all fairness, this is only [a:Timothy Carter|326675|Timothy Carter|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]'s second book.
aira_reads's review
5.0
I bought this book on a whim. The title itself was intriguing. The back was confusing at first (a lot of 'And lo!' words) but all that does not matter what I think about the book.
The book, to put in simple english, is da shizz.
No, I'm not kidding! It's got humor and adventure, a little Biblical references here and there, demon and angelS.
This book is going on my fav shelf.
Not a lot of books get to be on there.
The book, to put in simple english, is da shizz.
No, I'm not kidding! It's got humor and adventure, a little Biblical references here and there, demon and angelS.
This book is going on my fav shelf.
Not a lot of books get to be on there.
dtaylorbooks's review
3.0
How did we end up here?
I really can’t remember how I came across EVIL?, whether it was from another blogger or something I saw on a passing website, I have no idea. I know I did get this one from PaperBackSwap (hooray for free!) but other than that I can’t remember how it came to fall into my lap. Only that I read that blurb and immediately knew I had to read it. When I finally got around to it. Seeing as how it’s been on my to-read list for a couple years now, I’ve finally decided to get around to it.
Okay, book. You've got 50 pages. Go!
Instantly the tone of voice, the sardonic sense of humor and the poking and prodding Carter does at religion in general really made me a little giddy. It unapologetically rips apart the mob mentality that the super serious can get and puts it into this hilarious, albeit somewhat terrifying, light that redefines one’s concept of evil and just how bastardized something like the bible can get. Who needs context when you’ve got fanatics? Since I have an unabashed interest in the psychology of religion I felt this would be a good foray into the minds of the irrationally intolerant without getting uncomfortably serious. The tone, despite the underlying topic, stayed light.
What worked . . .
I thought Carter’s poke at the rape of religion was excellent and so incredibly poignant in today’s world where context is what people make of it and only that. Stuart is a gay boy in a hyper-religious town but that’s okay. The fact that he was caught masturbating? Well now that’s worthy of tying him to a stake. Doesn’t make sense? It’s not supposed to. It’s about picking and choosing what’s good, what’s bad, what’s tolerable and worthy of patience and what needs to be eradicated now. Certain elements of the bible that would otherwise provide greater context for the “lessons” that it teaches are ignored to serve a purpose.
The sin of Onan, as the townspeople are so readily able to pounce on top of, is supposedly the sin of masturbation. Unless you listen to the reverend, you know, the dude that does this shit for a living, when he says that if you read more than just the one sentence it’s actually about greed and keeping familial wealth for oneself instead of “doing the right thing” and knocking up your dead brother’s wife so she can have an heir. I mean, you can totally see where masturbation came from that, right? O_o
This is the point and it snowballed to a terrifying effect that left Stuart and his friends ostracized from society and fearing for their lives. A bit ridiculous but I loved the POINT EVIL? kept trying to hit home.
What didn't work . . .
The voice and the “kitsch” wore thin on me after a while. It got me all amped up in the beginning but how Carter developed it I don’t think was sustainable in its current incarnation. Enter Chester and it became almost unbearable. He was supposed to be this uber dumb jock that Stuart had a crush on and at first his stupidity was almost kind of funny but the more the joke wore on, and the more Stuart kept having to drag his sorry ass out of problems because he tried to save his own skin, I just couldn’t take it anymore. And yet Stuart kept going back. Chester almost gets them caught and killed yet Stuart won’t leave him behind. Chester was constantly more concerned with himself and he never grew as a character as a result (except for his final admittance to himself and Stuart at the end). But Stuart still insisted on helping him time after time after time. I’m sorry, and maybe this makes me an awful person, but if someone causes me to get my ass toasted REPEATEDLY because they can’t be bothered to think of anyone but themselves, they’re getting left behind. Screw conscience and guilt. There are only so many times a person can reasonably try before their self-preservation kicks in.
And Carter had a bad habit of having Stuart think something and them immediately say that exact same thought out loud. For instance Stuart would think ‘that guy doesn’t get what I’m saying at all’ and then he would actually go and say to said person ‘you don’t get what I’m saying at all, do you?” Redundancies like that bother me and it looks like someone was struggling for word count with how often it happened.
And in the end . . .
It was an entertaining enough story but I’m glad it wasn’t longer than what it is. The voice just ended up grating and I kept wishing for Chester to just light himself on fire for all he was worth so I wouldn’t have been able to tolerable much more than what was already on the pages. I liked the allegory Carter set up with the misrepresentation of religion and how Stuart kept trying to find the truth in the world through a means many would otherwise find just a touch evil. What I liked even more was that EVIL? didn’t have a fairytale ending. The end was definitely conclusive but it wasn’t happy times for everyone so despite how unrealistic the plot was the ending grounded it a bit and ended up being just a little bit sad but it was satisfying. The story came full circle and ended where it needed to.
I didn’t feel preached to in the process. Even though Carter was sending an otherwise obvious message it was done in jest, with a light-hearted tone that merely begged to ask why? What is it about people that we let ourselves be manipulated by others instead of finding our own truths? Why do we give in to mob mentality instead of thinking for ourselves? I think if it weren’t for Chester I would have enjoyed the book much more but he was such a drain. I just wish authors would deal with those characters realistically instead of idealizing the situation and making their main character out to be a humanitarian (despite the fact that such altruistic moves would get someone killed faster than being struck by lightning while being eaten by a shark).
But yes, it was enjoyable enough without being something to really write home about. While EVIL? is a mock of Christianity it strikes some good poses and asked some good questions that really get you thinking.
I really can’t remember how I came across EVIL?, whether it was from another blogger or something I saw on a passing website, I have no idea. I know I did get this one from PaperBackSwap (hooray for free!) but other than that I can’t remember how it came to fall into my lap. Only that I read that blurb and immediately knew I had to read it. When I finally got around to it. Seeing as how it’s been on my to-read list for a couple years now, I’ve finally decided to get around to it.
Okay, book. You've got 50 pages. Go!
Instantly the tone of voice, the sardonic sense of humor and the poking and prodding Carter does at religion in general really made me a little giddy. It unapologetically rips apart the mob mentality that the super serious can get and puts it into this hilarious, albeit somewhat terrifying, light that redefines one’s concept of evil and just how bastardized something like the bible can get. Who needs context when you’ve got fanatics? Since I have an unabashed interest in the psychology of religion I felt this would be a good foray into the minds of the irrationally intolerant without getting uncomfortably serious. The tone, despite the underlying topic, stayed light.
What worked . . .
I thought Carter’s poke at the rape of religion was excellent and so incredibly poignant in today’s world where context is what people make of it and only that. Stuart is a gay boy in a hyper-religious town but that’s okay. The fact that he was caught masturbating? Well now that’s worthy of tying him to a stake. Doesn’t make sense? It’s not supposed to. It’s about picking and choosing what’s good, what’s bad, what’s tolerable and worthy of patience and what needs to be eradicated now. Certain elements of the bible that would otherwise provide greater context for the “lessons” that it teaches are ignored to serve a purpose.
The sin of Onan, as the townspeople are so readily able to pounce on top of, is supposedly the sin of masturbation. Unless you listen to the reverend, you know, the dude that does this shit for a living, when he says that if you read more than just the one sentence it’s actually about greed and keeping familial wealth for oneself instead of “doing the right thing” and knocking up your dead brother’s wife so she can have an heir. I mean, you can totally see where masturbation came from that, right? O_o
This is the point and it snowballed to a terrifying effect that left Stuart and his friends ostracized from society and fearing for their lives. A bit ridiculous but I loved the POINT EVIL? kept trying to hit home.
What didn't work . . .
The voice and the “kitsch” wore thin on me after a while. It got me all amped up in the beginning but how Carter developed it I don’t think was sustainable in its current incarnation. Enter Chester and it became almost unbearable. He was supposed to be this uber dumb jock that Stuart had a crush on and at first his stupidity was almost kind of funny but the more the joke wore on, and the more Stuart kept having to drag his sorry ass out of problems because he tried to save his own skin, I just couldn’t take it anymore. And yet Stuart kept going back. Chester almost gets them caught and killed yet Stuart won’t leave him behind. Chester was constantly more concerned with himself and he never grew as a character as a result (except for his final admittance to himself and Stuart at the end). But Stuart still insisted on helping him time after time after time. I’m sorry, and maybe this makes me an awful person, but if someone causes me to get my ass toasted REPEATEDLY because they can’t be bothered to think of anyone but themselves, they’re getting left behind. Screw conscience and guilt. There are only so many times a person can reasonably try before their self-preservation kicks in.
And Carter had a bad habit of having Stuart think something and them immediately say that exact same thought out loud. For instance Stuart would think ‘that guy doesn’t get what I’m saying at all’ and then he would actually go and say to said person ‘you don’t get what I’m saying at all, do you?” Redundancies like that bother me and it looks like someone was struggling for word count with how often it happened.
And in the end . . .
It was an entertaining enough story but I’m glad it wasn’t longer than what it is. The voice just ended up grating and I kept wishing for Chester to just light himself on fire for all he was worth so I wouldn’t have been able to tolerable much more than what was already on the pages. I liked the allegory Carter set up with the misrepresentation of religion and how Stuart kept trying to find the truth in the world through a means many would otherwise find just a touch evil. What I liked even more was that EVIL? didn’t have a fairytale ending. The end was definitely conclusive but it wasn’t happy times for everyone so despite how unrealistic the plot was the ending grounded it a bit and ended up being just a little bit sad but it was satisfying. The story came full circle and ended where it needed to.
I didn’t feel preached to in the process. Even though Carter was sending an otherwise obvious message it was done in jest, with a light-hearted tone that merely begged to ask why? What is it about people that we let ourselves be manipulated by others instead of finding our own truths? Why do we give in to mob mentality instead of thinking for ourselves? I think if it weren’t for Chester I would have enjoyed the book much more but he was such a drain. I just wish authors would deal with those characters realistically instead of idealizing the situation and making their main character out to be a humanitarian (despite the fact that such altruistic moves would get someone killed faster than being struck by lightning while being eaten by a shark).
But yes, it was enjoyable enough without being something to really write home about. While EVIL? is a mock of Christianity it strikes some good poses and asked some good questions that really get you thinking.
bookishlish's review
3.0
Good and funny, a little weird and dark. I liked the elements of fantasy interspersed within. Very short read.