Price: $10.00

December 08, 2008.

Judas Kiss-Off.

Rating: 3
Will Christopher Baer definitely has potential as a new master of the darkest noir, displaying influences from the best of the old masters. This book starts out as a delightfully savage romp through the junkie narrator's misadventures with a femme fatale and other scumbags, with Baer delivering rip-roaring profanity and unconscionable violence that will really tickle the fancy of readers possessing a nasty dark side. But the book basically collapses under the weight of its own style, as Baer's obsession with being as noirish as possible overshadows effective plot construction and character development.

The second half of the book really unravels, with the narrative dissolving into incoherent snippets that reflect the protagonist's strung-out consciousness. That's surely creative on Baer's part but probably exasperating for the reader. The conclusion of this book is a bit disappointing too, only wrapping up a few subplots in a mood that is nowhere near the darkness of the rest of the story. There are a whole bunch of unsolved mysteries hanging off the conclusion as well, indicating that Baer was planning for a trilogy (which has since been completed) and didn't bother to make this first novel a coherent stand-alone entity. This book is still a mostly chilling and guiltily fun experience for the darkest of readers, but it accomplishes little more than showing that Baer has the potential for something bigger and better. [~doomsdayer520~]

December 06, 2007.

An urban legend brought into novel form.

Rating: 4
Remember the urban legend about waking up in a bathtub filled with ice and the note that tells you to call 911 right away? Well, Will Christopher Baer has written a novel length story about such an urban legend.

Phineas Poe, an ex-cop teetering on the edge of sanity, meets a prostitute in a bar. The next thing he knows, he's shy $200.00 and one kidney. The girl said her name was Jude, and Poe can't get Jude out of his mind. He wants to kill her, he wants to be with her, he wants to find her. And he wants to find his kidney.

When Phineas meets up with Jude, following a note she left for him, he finds her in possession of a green cooler with a lock on it. He boards a train with Jude, takes off in a plane with Jude, checks into a hotel with Jude, all while fending off strangers such as Blister, a man who presented himself as a cop but is relentlessly following Poe. A woman names Isabel who reminds Poe of his deceased wife Lucy. And a chameleon named Henry who keeps popping up in his life. Who is Blister and what's really in that cooler? Why has Henry and Isabel taken such an interest in him? And why is Jude so dedicated to keeping him alive with his deadly wound from the kidney surgery?

You'll have to read this story to believe it. It's written in a surrealistic style, using no punctuation for dialogue. It's written like a rambling fugue from Poe's point of view. What worked for Selby doesn't always work here. At times the prose became so vague that even I couldn't follow it. Poe's thoughts travel from past to present to dreamworld in random segments, and you're often left wondering where the story is going. Still, in spite of the surrealistic, dreamlike style, the book still flows in a nice smooth line. My other major complaint would be an unfulfilling ending, but I hear that Poe continues in another book. There were a lot of questions left unanswered at the end of the book.

Overall, I give this book a solid 4 stars, especially if you're into the strange and bizarre styles - and a viable tale spun from an urban legend. Enjoy!

December 30, 2007.

re: typos.

Rating: 5
For everyone wondering about the typos. This is a reprint from the original Viking release and as a consequence MacAdam/Cage had to retype the Books in full. After that, someone was paid to read the book and thoroughly check/fix typos.

This man didn't do his job and the book suffered. Don't blame the Author or dock the book because of this mistake. That's all about that.

It is a very good trilogy!

Keep an eye out for GODSPEED, and the Phineas Poe comic - out soon!

December 26, 2007.

Worth reading; dark, broody ,,,poignant.

Rating: 3
I think anyone else's review will be fine here. I just wanted to point out that I own the set of three matching covers (black, green, white) and enjoyed the book just fine, but was appalled to see "Kiss me, Judas" had in the upwards of 45 typos. The most shocking part was that this is republished and not even the original edition, which would've been acceptable. But you'd thnk they'd have worked out 45 typos (I quit counting) by the time a trilogy is reprinted as a set. Either way give it a read; it doesn't hinder the story.

December 28, 2006.

Ponderous, pedantic, and pretentious.

Rating: 1
It's not so much that this novel is both immoral and grotesque (which it is), but that the love that is supposed to bind it together is so preposterous as to make the novel unreadable. I found myself giving up around page 100, frustrated by the all-too-precious prose and the absurd idea of a man who's had his kidney removed by a woman only to fall in love with her. I don't know about you, but there's only so far I can stretch a metaphor. Take away my kidney, and that's where I draw the line.