Brian Yansky

The Librarian of the Haunted Library by Brian Yansky is exactly as advertised: a supernatural suspense horror comedy. It was strangely scary and funny with more than a nod to Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett with its exuberant prose full of word play and groan-worthy puns. I loved it and already have the next one on the Kindle. They are all available via Kindle Unlimited.

The book starts very much in media res as we meet the librarian of the title as he wanders from place to place, seemingly show more called to help people. In this case, it is a clown that sends him into the woods where he comes to the town of Eden, populated by all sorts of demons, ghouls, dead and undead people and a headless woman who may be one or the other. The first task is for him to figure out who killed the previous librarian. We also get a hint of the coming apocalypse brought about by this new librarian who may or may not be the son of Karl, or Satan. show less

Every once in a while a novel comes along and you read it and you think holy crap, why didn’t I think of that?

I wasn’t even through Chapter One of Brian Yansky‘s latest, ALIEN INVASION & OTHER INCONVENIENCES when I started to feel this way. Oh, the plot envy. It can be soul-sucking.

But of course this novel was so good — so very, very good — that the plot envy was overcome. And I just wanted to hug and squeeze this book and tell all my friends about it and show my cats who just sort show more of stared at me and maybe rubbed their faces on the corners or took a nap on it. Siiiiigh.

ALIEN INVASION & OTHER INCONVENIENCES is the story of Jesse, an average Texas high schooler who goes from carefree to living a nightmare in the mere ten seconds it takes for Lord Vertenomous and his alien race, the Sanginians, to conquer the planet. The Sanginians only saved a select few of Earth’s people, the rest of whom simply stopped. They sort of looked asleep, until the clean up crew came and took all the bodies. Now a slave, Jesse is transported to Lord Vertenomous’ HQ in Austin, where he meets former superstar football player, Michael, save-the-earth-y do-gooder Lauren, and aspiring supermodel Lindsey. Just kids, they’ve watched their world crumble to pieces around them, as the aliens destroy all machines and make them paint everything green.

The aliens communicate only with their minds and refer to humans as “product.” And it seems that this will be their life, without hope of escape, until Jesse dreams his way to Catlin, a girl who claims to be there in the house with them, a prisoner, and who knows things about the Sanginians that can help Jesse and his friends. That’s when the really weird stuff starts to happen. Jesse starts hearing his friends’ thoughts. And together they realize that they all are developing telepathic abilities, as if the aliens have awoken something in them. It may be too late to save their friends and famillies, but joined together, this group of kids who probably wouldn’t have ever even talked to eachother before the invasion think they might have found hope for humanity.

ALIEN INVASION is science fiction — a genre that I love and that so many readers enjoy and which could definitely use more fab books like this — but I think it will beyond its niche to enchant readers of contemporary fiction as well. The honest and real friendships, the sense of failure in the face of imminent doom. the blurry line between friend and foe — these are the things readers will connect with. Of course there’s also the wry humor with which Jesse tells the story, the silliness of the oddly polite aliens, the diverse cast of characters. Or there’s the fact that when CERTAIN THINGS WHICH I CANNOT MENTION happen you will want to throw the book against the wall while you hold back tears…and then go grab it and pet it and say you’re sorry so you can find out what happens next. These are things that make ALIEN INVASION & OTHER INCONVENIENCES a must-read. And I’m not just saying that ’cause Brian Yansky is awesome. But, just so you know, he is. show less

Really fun and creative read! I loved the magical take on libraries and the idea of a librarian battling a mysterious book thief. The story moved quickly and had a great mix of humor, action, and imagination. A few characters could’ve been more developed, but overall it was an entertaining and unique book. Definitely worth a read for fans of bookish fantasy!

I really enjoyed this book. It's really just a stream of conciouness around what sounds like a weird dream someone had, probably after imbibing on halucinagenic substances :).

If you like structured plots, well defined characters and abhor loose ends, this is not the book for you.

This has more loose ends than a ball of yarn after a heard of cats have finished with it. But it is also very entertaining.