You Suck
YOU SUCK (Christopher Moore) - Three Stars
I really wanted to give the sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends four stars, because I like Moore's writing and the book was very funny and tremendously entertaining, but...
Well, one of the main problems in creating wonderful characters is that readers get annoyed when you under-utilize them. Part of Moore's problem here is that he tries to wedge a cast of thousands into a 328-page book: Jody, Tommy, Elijah, Blue, Abby, Jared, Steven, Rivera, Cavuto, William, the Emperor, the Animals (what, 5-6 of them)... that's, what, eighteen people with the better part of at least one chapter dedicated to them. The book comes across as a little unfocused, and the ensemble play doesn't quite work.
The best new character, by far, is "Abby Normal," a brilliantly written stereotype of a teenage goth. Even still, she kind of usurps the main character duties from Jody and Tommy in the last several chapters and becomes a bit overused. I was disappointed that the two most interesting characters in the book, Jody and Elijah (not Tommy, who is whiny and never knows what to do, but always conveniently makes a bad snap-judgment when the plot needs it), did not get even more face time.
The ending to the book was tremendously disappointing, but it did leave the door wide open for another sequel (which, hopefully, will be written).
Finally, this book was a bit of a let-down for its change of tone from its predecessor. Bloodsucking Fiends was first and foremost a vampire novel, with detailed, quirky characters that I found great affection for. Vampirism, a concept that has been done and overdone a million times in literary circles, was given a little twist and treated in a fairly novel, interesting fashion. Comedy was thrown in on top of that in large quantities, but it was still only icing on the cake. The formula worked marvelously. You Suck is simply a comedy; all of the atmosphere and creativity of the first novel is disdainfully abandoned for an overdose of wacky hijinks, and vampirism is no longer treated as a complicated aspect of a character's personality but rather as a clothesline upon which to hang cheap gags.
I really wanted to give the sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends four stars, because I like Moore's writing and the book was very funny and tremendously entertaining, but...
Well, one of the main problems in creating wonderful characters is that readers get annoyed when you under-utilize them. Part of Moore's problem here is that he tries to wedge a cast of thousands into a 328-page book: Jody, Tommy, Elijah, Blue, Abby, Jared, Steven, Rivera, Cavuto, William, the Emperor, the Animals (what, 5-6 of them)... that's, what, eighteen people with the better part of at least one chapter dedicated to them. The book comes across as a little unfocused, and the ensemble play doesn't quite work.
The best new character, by far, is "Abby Normal," a brilliantly written stereotype of a teenage goth. Even still, she kind of usurps the main character duties from Jody and Tommy in the last several chapters and becomes a bit overused. I was disappointed that the two most interesting characters in the book, Jody and Elijah (not Tommy, who is whiny and never knows what to do, but always conveniently makes a bad snap-judgment when the plot needs it), did not get even more face time.
The ending to the book was tremendously disappointing, but it did leave the door wide open for another sequel (which, hopefully, will be written).
Finally, this book was a bit of a let-down for its change of tone from its predecessor. Bloodsucking Fiends was first and foremost a vampire novel, with detailed, quirky characters that I found great affection for. Vampirism, a concept that has been done and overdone a million times in literary circles, was given a little twist and treated in a fairly novel, interesting fashion. Comedy was thrown in on top of that in large quantities, but it was still only icing on the cake. The formula worked marvelously. You Suck is simply a comedy; all of the atmosphere and creativity of the first novel is disdainfully abandoned for an overdose of wacky hijinks, and vampirism is no longer treated as a complicated aspect of a character's personality but rather as a clothesline upon which to hang cheap gags.
posted by Kevin at 4:24 PM
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