The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (2002)

Fun and sometimes funny, and really good for a light read that doesn't take itself seriously. I'm not an enormous fan of Robert Rankin based on this book, but I'm certainly willing to pick up another should it cross my path. Which it will, since there's one on my shelf already.

The overall idea isn't that unusual: nursery rhyme characters being murdered, nursery rhyme characters investigate. (Hi, Jasper Fforde!) But this is a more cynical, more adult version, with a certain sting in the humour sometimes. ( )

see http://www.sfsite.com/02a/cb145.htm ( )

Young Jack travels to the big city to seek his fortune, to find that he is in Toy City, where most of the inhabitants are living toys and the city's elite are nursery rhyme characters, or Preadolescent Poetic Personalities. Jack meets a teddy bear named Eddie Bear, and agrees to help him solve the mystery of the murder of Humpty Dumpty.

The book is very silly and funny, and Rankin's playful writing style is delightful. The book is seedy and dark - very reminiscent of Roger Rabbit. Murder, gore, underage drinking and sex, discussions of the functioning of teddy bear genitalia.... it's all very irreverent and funny. It is also very similar to Jasper Fforde's Jack Spratt series, although it's not as clever.

All in all, a really fun light read. ( )

This book has the distinction of having my favorite novel title EVER. This is the story of a boy who decides to move to the city to find his fame and fortune. He happens on a city inhabited by living, breathing TOYS where, unfortunately, nursery rhyme characters are being snuffed by a serial killer. Somehow he ends up being tasked with solving the murders, with the help of a drunken teddy bear who begs for someone to turn him upside down so he can make better use of the alcohol that has collected in his feet. This book has it all and I seriously recommend it to anyone who wants a straight up out-of-the-box read. You won't be sorry. ( )

Quirky? Check.
Anthropomorphic toys? You betcha! And drunk to boot.
Murder most foul? Most definitely.
Chocolate? Rabbit shaped.

I really didn't know what to expect with this book, and as soon as I read the first chapter with the cannibalistic farmer with animals named after deadly diseases, I was hooked.

There are many young boys heading to the big city to find their fortune in literature. Very few of them discover that the city is inhabited entirely by toys, however, and stumble across a serial killer's plot to take out Toy City's old rich, the nursery rhyme characters.

Loved it.

Though the book never answered a question I had which was: "Was Humpty Dumpty really an egg?" ( )