Books Tasted - Everything bookly (and a few other things)

At the same time as I was reading Maurice, I was listening to the audio book You Suck: A Love Story, by Christopher Moore. Okay, not at the exact same time on the clock, but during the same week and same days. Sheesh, you don't have to be so exact.

You Suck is a sequel to Moore's novel Bloodsucking Fiends, but can be read as a standalone, as evidenced by moi, since I haven't read Bloodsucking Fiends. We're given to understand that You Suck begins where the last book left off. Tommy, a 19-year-old grocery store night stock crew manager is turned into a vampire by his slightly older, sarcastic girlfriend Jody. The book details their adventures in finding a minion, dealing with the other night stock crew members "The Animals" and the blue prostitute they brought back from Vegas, and an 800-year-old vampire that they bronzed and is consequently very much PO'd at them.

As you can imagine, switching from the one book to the other was quite jarring.

If you've read Christopher Moore before, this outlandish and perverse story line is no surprise to you. If you haven't read Moore before, be prepared for some outlandishly blunt descriptions of sex and bodily functions, crazy plot twists, and shifts of narration. There are some great new characters in this book -- although I originally found her quite annoying, I quickly came to find the new minion, a 16-year-old goth girl named Abby Normal, to be my favorite character. Her turns at narration are completely hilarious and I found myself mimicking her voice at any opportunity. Even if you read this book instead of listening to it, you'll probably find yourself doing the same, because Moore writes exactly as you'd imagine a 16-year-old goth who has previously been through a Hello Kitty phase would.

This wasn't my favorite Christopher Moore book, (that would be Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal) but it's definitely a fun one. Recommended.