Happy Hour of the Damned by Mark Henry
Mar. 28th, 2008 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Seattle. One minute you're drinking a vanilla breve, the next, some creepy old dude is breathing on you, turning you into a zombie. And that's just for starters. Now, the recently deceased Amanda Feral is trying to make her way through Seattle's undead scene with style (mortuary-grade markup, six-inch stilettos, Balenciaga handbag on sale) while satisfying her craving for human flesh (Don't judge. And no, not like chicken.) and decent vodkatinis.
Making her way through a dangerous world of cloud-doped bloodsuckers, reapers, horny and horned devils, werewolves, celebrities, and PR-obsessed shapeshifters - not to mention an extremely hot bartender named Ricardo - isn't easy. And the minute one of Amanda's undead friends disappears after texting the word, "help" (the undead - so dramatic!) she knows the afterlife is about to get really ugly.
Something sinister is at hand. Someone or something is hellbent on turning Seattle's undead underworld into a place of true terror. And this time, Amanda may meet a fate a lot worse than death.
Mark Henry's debut novel is a witty take on zombies and 'see-and-be-seen' culture. Told in the first person by Amanda Feral, an ambitious and successful advertising creative, the reader is introduced to the undead Seattle underworld, populated by zombies, vampires, shapeshifters and demons who party hard and feed on the unsuspecting transients and vagrants living in Seattle's underbelly. Amanda is a sharp-tongued, pitiless character (and that's even before she's turned into a zombie) who's been conducting an affair with her psychologist (the pay-off for which is very amusing) but otherwise living an emotionally cold life when she finds herself turned into a zombie.
Henry's zombie mythology is carefully constructed - zombies are divided between those turned deliberately after being breathed on by another zombie (and who retain self awareness) and mistakes (mindless creatures driven solely by their need to feed and incredibly dangerous). Zombies can drink alcohol and eat human flesh but anything else goes right through them - literally (as evidenced by a number of scenes involving nappies). They also have to be careful about getting injured because with rare exceptions, they can't heal.
Amanda is accompanied by Gil, a needy gay vampire, and Wendy, a fellow zombie and fashionista. The plot hinges on the disappearance of a third friend, Liesl, a succubus and I did find this a little unsatisfying - firstly because of the lack of concern that Amanda et al display for their friend's disappearance (evidenced by their delay in actually looking for her) and also for the cursory way in which it gets resolved. Essentially, it's a hook to get to the main point of the story which is the creation of mistakes who are being unleashed on Seattle's unsuspecting population - who's creating them and why? - and I found myself wishing that Henry had gone straight into that rather than trying to create a hook that doesn't really grab. Given that this is the first in a series, there's a lot of backstory given on Amanda and her friends, which is engaging but again gets in the way of the main plot. To be fair, Amanda admits this in the narration (which makes it more forgiveable), but it does come across as padding. As a final criticism, I didn't like the use of footnotes in the text. For me there were too many and it detracted from the main story - in some cases by overkilling punchlines or providing needless back information.
That said, there is a fine macabre humour to many of the set-pieces. In particular a scene where a load of mistakes run amok in a Starbucks made me laugh out loud. A torture scene towards the end of the book is also well-handled, with sufficient gorey detail to make me squirm in my seat. If the villains are a little obvious, the path to their unmasking is entertaining and the final battle is fast-paced and action-packed. I admired Henry's attention to detail when it came to the fashion and beauty regimes advocated by his main characters, not least because it reminded me of several people I know. I also enjoyed the reapers - angelic looking little girls who eradicate the mistakes and are genuinely chilling.
All in all, it's an enjoyable read that made me go "ew!" almost as much as it made me chuckle.
The Verdict:
Worth a look, particularly if you enjoy zombie books (it's effectively Sex and the City meets Night of the Living Dead). There are a couple of structural issues that I think come from the fact that this is a debut novel and which I think won't be a problem going forward in the series (notably in terms of backstory introduction) but it's funny, gory and imaginative.
Seattle. One minute you're drinking a vanilla breve, the next, some creepy old dude is breathing on you, turning you into a zombie. And that's just for starters. Now, the recently deceased Amanda Feral is trying to make her way through Seattle's undead scene with style (mortuary-grade markup, six-inch stilettos, Balenciaga handbag on sale) while satisfying her craving for human flesh (Don't judge. And no, not like chicken.) and decent vodkatinis.
Making her way through a dangerous world of cloud-doped bloodsuckers, reapers, horny and horned devils, werewolves, celebrities, and PR-obsessed shapeshifters - not to mention an extremely hot bartender named Ricardo - isn't easy. And the minute one of Amanda's undead friends disappears after texting the word, "help" (the undead - so dramatic!) she knows the afterlife is about to get really ugly.
Something sinister is at hand. Someone or something is hellbent on turning Seattle's undead underworld into a place of true terror. And this time, Amanda may meet a fate a lot worse than death.
Mark Henry's debut novel is a witty take on zombies and 'see-and-be-seen' culture. Told in the first person by Amanda Feral, an ambitious and successful advertising creative, the reader is introduced to the undead Seattle underworld, populated by zombies, vampires, shapeshifters and demons who party hard and feed on the unsuspecting transients and vagrants living in Seattle's underbelly. Amanda is a sharp-tongued, pitiless character (and that's even before she's turned into a zombie) who's been conducting an affair with her psychologist (the pay-off for which is very amusing) but otherwise living an emotionally cold life when she finds herself turned into a zombie.
Henry's zombie mythology is carefully constructed - zombies are divided between those turned deliberately after being breathed on by another zombie (and who retain self awareness) and mistakes (mindless creatures driven solely by their need to feed and incredibly dangerous). Zombies can drink alcohol and eat human flesh but anything else goes right through them - literally (as evidenced by a number of scenes involving nappies). They also have to be careful about getting injured because with rare exceptions, they can't heal.
Amanda is accompanied by Gil, a needy gay vampire, and Wendy, a fellow zombie and fashionista. The plot hinges on the disappearance of a third friend, Liesl, a succubus and I did find this a little unsatisfying - firstly because of the lack of concern that Amanda et al display for their friend's disappearance (evidenced by their delay in actually looking for her) and also for the cursory way in which it gets resolved. Essentially, it's a hook to get to the main point of the story which is the creation of mistakes who are being unleashed on Seattle's unsuspecting population - who's creating them and why? - and I found myself wishing that Henry had gone straight into that rather than trying to create a hook that doesn't really grab. Given that this is the first in a series, there's a lot of backstory given on Amanda and her friends, which is engaging but again gets in the way of the main plot. To be fair, Amanda admits this in the narration (which makes it more forgiveable), but it does come across as padding. As a final criticism, I didn't like the use of footnotes in the text. For me there were too many and it detracted from the main story - in some cases by overkilling punchlines or providing needless back information.
That said, there is a fine macabre humour to many of the set-pieces. In particular a scene where a load of mistakes run amok in a Starbucks made me laugh out loud. A torture scene towards the end of the book is also well-handled, with sufficient gorey detail to make me squirm in my seat. If the villains are a little obvious, the path to their unmasking is entertaining and the final battle is fast-paced and action-packed. I admired Henry's attention to detail when it came to the fashion and beauty regimes advocated by his main characters, not least because it reminded me of several people I know. I also enjoyed the reapers - angelic looking little girls who eradicate the mistakes and are genuinely chilling.
All in all, it's an enjoyable read that made me go "ew!" almost as much as it made me chuckle.
The Verdict:
Worth a look, particularly if you enjoy zombie books (it's effectively Sex and the City meets Night of the Living Dead). There are a couple of structural issues that I think come from the fact that this is a debut novel and which I think won't be a problem going forward in the series (notably in terms of backstory introduction) but it's funny, gory and imaginative.
