Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Rotten Little Book

I've had the distinct pleasure of befriending Kevin Shamel over the past month. He's a groovy author breaking into the bizarro scene with his entry in the NBAS (as am I, though Kevin's been bizarroing it up a whole lot longer). His entry is Rotten Little Animals, which is...distubingly funny.
Let me first say this: this book has a lot of poop in it. No, not the bad kind of poop (like it sucks), I'm talking actual poo. Excrement, feces, ca-ca, shit. But then again, we're talking about a book filled with animals and if you've ever owned one, you know they poop a lot. So, now that that's out of the way...
Rotten Little Animals is a book about animals, but we ain't talkin' 'bout Charlotte's Web. This is not even Beatrix Potter style animals. Rotten Little Animals is what you'd get if Quentin Tarantino had a love child with Beatrix Potter. It's like merging South Park and Sesame Street.
So, animals live and breathe in our world, but are capable of things we can't even fathom. They speak, for starters, and they drink, cuss, enjoy human pornography, and are capable of working movie cameras. Their biggest goal, though, is to make humans feel like they are superior because they have thumbs, so they do their activities in secret (like the Animal Academy Awards).
Meet Itsy, Stinkin' Rat, Julio, Filthy Pig, and Dirty Bird, as well as the numerous zombie-cats and camera crew chickens. They're out to make the perfect Animal movie. Unfortunately, their plans are thwarted when they're spotted by the boy across the street, Cage. Cage is kidnapped, tortured, and videotaped for an entirely new project.
Later he offers, he used to like animals.
The anthropomorphic thing, I was a little skeptical, but soon after the first act, the story kicks into gear following Cage - through trauma, murder, psychological rehab, fame, and a brief fling with Paris Hilton. I don't want to give too much away, so I'll stop there and hope that I've whetted your appetite.
One thing, the book moves quick. I read it in a sitting and plan to revisit it. I realize as you're zipping through the thing, you tend to miss something. There are few books that I would revisit - more that I always intend to and never do - but Shamel's book is one I'll definitely recommend, gift, and revisit for years to come.
Help us authors out...visit amazon.com and pick yours up.

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