Breakfast at Cannibal Joe's and the unexpected joy of dystopian comedy

This is one of those books that is both incredibly hard to describe and review, which if I'm perfectly honest has led to me procrastinating doing so. 'Breakfast at Cannibal Joe's' is described as a dystopian comedy, and I'd say that is a perfectly accurate description of this insane satire of Western capitalism and the Irish people. I found myself frequently and religioulsy highlighting both hilarious and hard hitting passages for later reference. Following Joe, the manager of a small firm producing article abstracts which doubles as a CIA intelligence gathering agency, we see look into the lives of the average Dubliner, foreign spies and the criminal underground. What Jay Spencer Green did so excellently in this novel was combining Joe's apathy and machismo with objectively horrible things to make both a poignant and amusing point.


While ~dystopian~, the setting of late-capitalist Dublin is so close to being within our own reality that at times it feels like a surreal look into the world in 20 years time. This made me incredibly uncomfortable but also left me laughing like an idiot while I read at the kitchen table, my family staring at me undeniably concerned. Coming off the heels of a research essay into the effect of deindustrialisation in Northern England, Green's discussion of deindustrialisation and unionism appeared particularly pertinent. While written in 2015, I found his commentary on globalisation in general especially interesting during a time when we are each seeing the consequences of our globalised division of labour and manufacturing.

This novel was fairly loose on plot, at least until you got around 60% of the way through, at which point it became an addictive mystery of sorts. At around 25% I had pretty much had enough, struggling to see the point. However, I am incredibly glad that I was able to push through as the satirical nature of the novel became more and more apparent. I was honestly quite taken aback by the brazen objectivisation and sexist remarks Joe made at times, but this appears to have been Green's intention, reflecting the coarse locker-room talk we so often hear excused. Furthermore, Joe's own self-doubt became apparent as we learned more of his past and tangled present which deepened my understanding of the way he chose to approach the world. Certainly, Joe was not always a likeable character and not necessarily 'good' either, but his humanity and complexity made him an excellent instrument through which we came to know his world.

As readers we start this book with 'The End'. It was so satisfying to finish the last written chapter and go back to the start, finally understanding everything that first chapter meant. I highly recommend this book for lovers of dystopian who ere on the side of weird, but I will say that it's not for everyone. I'll definitely be looking into Green's other novels and gave this 4/5 stars.

I would like to thank Jay Spencer Green, BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for review. You can pick up your own copy on Amazon, Kobo, BookDepository or Barnes and Noble.

WARNING: I don't normally do this but if books had age ratings this would be MA15+ or R-rated. Don't read this if you're not comfortable with strong language and imagery (both violent and sexual.)

Weird Dream Society - An anthology for the playful, dark and thoughtful

The Weird Dream Society anthology holds a host of wonderfully weird and weirdly wonderful stories. The contributing authors themselves originate from across the English speaking world, with varying notoriety and existing bodies of work. The profits from this collection are to go to RAICES, a Texas-based non-profit which provides legal and educational services to migrants which is certainly a great cause to support.

I absolutely loved the diversity of setting, from clear references to our current pandemic predicament to entirely new fantasy words somehow brought to life in just a few pages. So many of these stories left me wanting to read more in their worlds, from the scarred faces of 'Skin Like Carapace' to the floating ice whales of 'Glasswort, Ice'. I know that weird may at times be a rather intimidating moniker, but that each of the contributing authors was able to fully embrace it meant that the extraordinary became ordinary and the worlds and happenings far more unique and captivating. The short story format enabled even small ideas to be explored for their practicalities and implications. One example of this is 'The Hoof Situation', which explores how being faced with the realities of aging can affect our perception of youth through a society where old women grow hooves in place of feet.

Moreso than the worlds, many of these stories left me sitting, quiet and pensive, contemplating what on Earth had just happened (in a good way.) This is certainly not an anthology to be read in one sitting, as you will almost certainly need time to consider and imagine. The characters were overwhelmingly well developed and despite the format also often grew with the progression of the story. One thing that did annoy me was that a couple of the stories used 'they' as a singular pronoun, which for me at times made it harder to understand and didn't always feel necessary. Although this might just be a me thing. I ended up vehemently googling several of the authors following these reflection comas and will almost certainly be exploring more from A.C. Wise, Steve Toase, Emily Cantaneo, and Chip Houser; the authors of 'Crossing', 'Skin Like Carapace', 'Glasswort, Ice' and 'Meat for Skritches' respectively.

I have to give this a 5/5 stars, and though I read this as an eBook I am certainly looking to buy it in paperback when I can. You can pick it up on Amazon, Kobo, Weightless Books and for the Americans out there: B&N Nook, Barnes and Noble (Paperback), and Indiebound.org.

I would like to thank the authors of Weird Dream Society, Julie C. Day who was also the editor of the anthology, Reckoning Press and netGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sentient frogs you say? Chaos Drive by Jamie Brindle

Matt and Charlotte, are young, vivacious, and just married. They haven't started to hate each other yet. Waking up the morning after their very normal wedding, they each wake up to find a not-quite-right version of the other. Oh, and Charlotte's somehow managed to get on a space ship, with a humanoid creature that seems a lot like her very normal cat to boot. Everything is decidedly strange and the not-quite-right versions of their partner are even stranger, babbling of stories and sentient frogs. If this sounds like a solidly weird sci-fi/fantasy novel to you, you'd be correct, but boy does it wear it well.

Like the Grand Idiot that I am I didn't realise that this was sort of part of a series before picking it up. And you make ask, how can a book be sort-of-part-of-a-series? The answer is of course The Storystream. This novel takes place in a universe of Brindle's creation in which many versions of a 'story' exist, the notion we simpletons would call a 'life' with parallel universes. The collective of these infinite versions is The Storystream. While we follow Matt and Charlotte in Chaos Drive, most other stories of the series do not so it can be read first with a little extra concentration. Each story must find balance between Order and Chaos, but the two stories of Matt and Charlotte which we follow don't seem to be doing that very well (of course leading to more glorious chaos.) I'm not going to lie, this took me a little to wrap my head around (probably because I didn't read the series in order), but once I did it was something I couldn't stop thinking about because it could entirely apply to our own boring world. And honestly I really hope some other version of me isn't sitting in quarantine.


This book was awesomely weird. From the race of sentient frogs to the magical cat, it never failed to make me smile at the simultaneous sheer stupidity and genious of its context. The sentient frogs were a complete and complexly thunk out society which we get to explore from the perspective of Headfrog 127, a Captain looking for power in the deceptive and bloodthirsty society of the Frogopolis. Do not underestimate the ability for one to enjoy the perspective of a sentient frog, because it's great. Throughout the book Brindle is able to weave a unique, whole and consistent look into the thoughts of Headfrog 127, allowing us to gain full perspective of a society which most values qualities of deception and a drooping underbelly are prized. This was a load of fun to explore this along with the rest of the oddness of The Storystream. As a sidenote, I also spent much of the book pretending Headfrog 127's commentary was that of Donald Trump, something that Brindle most probably didn't intend but made it even more entertaining.

Another fantastic thing about this novel was the way the dynamic switched it up around halfway through. I had just started to get a bit sick of the relationship between the Matts and Charlottes, but Brindle seemed to know that I would, and created character growth and layers for each through this change. This would also go on to be integral to the progression of the plot and our understanding of the implications of the predicament which they have found themselves in. As above, one of the three viewpoints which we read from is Headfrog 127, and the other two are the normal Matt and normal Charlotte. It was fascinating to see how their perception of themselves and each other mushroomed through their interactions with the other version and strangeness itself.

About a third of the way through, I realised that Jamie Brindle might just be shaping up to be a new favourite author. He combines the humour and worldbuilding abilities of Derek Landy with a splash of nitwit, blubber, oddment and tweak. In fact, I'd highly recommend getting into The Storystream for fans of Landy. At this realisation, I promptly went to amazon and bought the first two books of The Storystream, and immediately read The Hardblokes of Sparta after finishing this, about to start Chaos Born and I loved it. Definitely look out for its upcoming review. To conclude this one, I think it's safe to say that I am a fan of Chaos Drive and what it brings to the table, I'm also now obsessed with frogs. I gave this book 4.5/5 stars.

Check out this book on Goodreads and Amazon.

The book that made me scared of the dark again.... Anna Dressed in Blood

Cas Lowood is a real life Ghost Buster, who also happens to be dealing with high school and the legacy of a father who died at the hands of a cannabalistic ghost. We learn early on that he tends to be a loner but the story would be depressing if he didn't pick up some friends at some point, and that he does. On arrival in Thunder Bay, Cas is expecting to kill Anna Korlov and soon learns that things were going to be a lot more complicated than the average stab-n'-go.

For my second time reading the book, I expected a bit of boredom. Some time had passed since I first picked it up, but the main surprises would still be gone. I was wrong. This story doesn't even know who boredom is. I was at times completely terrified and had to use a flashlight to save myself from the dark. I was sure that ghosts were hiding in the walls of a house which no one could possibly have died in (or so I choose to believe). I am not particularly fond of being afraid of my house, but the great thing about this book is that the horror was always balanced out with the humour. While I probably won't drop a dedicated review on Girl of Nightmares, the second part of the duology, I can say that it didn't disappoint on the horror either. Anna Dressed in Blood never takes itself too seriously, and you shouldn't either.

This world has stuck with me for the past four years. Blake has managed to bring complexity and humour to being a teenage ghost buster. Anna's relationship with our main characters is utterly ridiculous, but also completely reasonable for a world in which each murderous ghost is given a story and pain. Somehow this book manages to turn murderous rampages into pity, and I love that it does. From the first ghost we met I was hooked. And if ghosts and ghost-busters weren't enough to sell you on giving this a read - there's also an entire paranormal network to learn about. The fantastic world-building was coupled with fabulous characters and a fast-paced plot. Anna, Thomas, Carmel and Cas had me absolutely flying through the book (which only took me a couple days to finish thanks to pretending impending deadlines didn't exist.)

However, my one sticking point for making this God-tier would have to be the romance aspect. While it was great to see a ghost buster fall in love with a ghost, I did find myself getting a bit sick of it by the end. Despite this, I'm going to have to give this a 4/5 for being so damn memorable (and because I recommend getting it stuck in your head too.)