I started getting Scarfolk posters popping up in my Pinterest feed and since their absurdist, dark humor is exactly my thing, I checked out this book. While reading it I was always thinking two things: 1. this is brilliant and it takes a special mind to come up with a world like this that's consistently funny, and 2. boy, a person can only take this in small doses. The "narrative" of the book isn't quite strong enough to make it something you want to read for an extended period of time and jokes tend to run together after a few pages. That's fine, but I think overall the gag works better as random posters in my Pinterest feed. ( )

Dark comedy based on a blog. Lots of 70s style graphics about a weird English village - there is a vague storyline to it but it's more just a parody of style of the70s combined with an extra layer of horror. It's quite good fun read in short bursts. ( )

Great weird book about a future (or past? unclear) in the grip of total government surveillance. The photoshopped images of 1970s graphics are perfect and make the whole thing believable. ( )

Based on the popular blog, this is essentially an opportunity for the author to enjoy making parodic facsimiles of 1970s graphic design: posters, book covers, product packaging, etc.

The underlying premise is to recall the grimness of that decade, and make it far, far grimmer by imagining a town community in the grip of a supernatural cult backed by a totalitarian government.

Brainwashing, drugging, torture, constant surveillance (especially on members of society deemed under-productive or suspicious - viz. children, the elderly, and outsiders) all are turned into one long dark and creepy joke.

Imagine Summerisle under the watchful eye of a local Big Brother, as written by Charlie Brooker and the League of Gentlemen team ... and you'll have the general idea. If you like them, you'll like this. If you don't ... then steer well clear.

The book has a plot of sorts threaded through it - a man called Daniel Bush loses his two sons during a rest-stop on his way to a home relocation, and the bizarre/incompetent/childlike behaviour of the local police draws him into the town, where he attempts to find the boys whilst becoming subject to the community's disturbing ways. The story doesn't have a particularly satisfying conclusion, but in this sort of work, that's not really the point. ( )