Kevin L. Donihe

The original Night of the Living Dead is one of my favorite horror movies, so when I heard of Kevin L. Donihe's bizarro parody, Night of the Assholes, I knew I'd have to read it.

Basically this book is a zombie novel. Only instead of people who are bitten by zombies and turning into zombies, people who are assholes to assholes turn into assholes. All of this is done while more or less following the plot of Night of the Living Dead.

It all starts of with Barbara and her brother taking a trip. show more In this version, Barbara's brother is a Hare Krishna, and they're going to the mall instead of the cemetery. AS you would expect, the brother is soon turned into an asshole, and Barbara runs. She ends up in the old farmhouse and soon meets Todd, the black guy who begins to board up every door and window in the place. They soon meet the various other characters from the movie: the young couple and the (non-supernatural) asshole couple whose daughter has been turned. If you've seen the movie, you more or less know much of what is going to happen.

The book has a lot of funny moments. My favorite has to be when Barbara fist goes upstairs in the farmhouse and finds a note that reads, "THERE SHOULD BE A BLOODY SKELETON HERE. SORRY." I really loved the heck out of this book. show less

Sometimes bizarro harbors weaker writers whose extravagant imaginations make up for a lack of skill, and that isn’t necessarily a criticism. I feel some of the most admired writers, Tolkien for instance, could tell a unique story but were not so amazing technically. This is not the case with Donihe. His words are well-chosen, his plot familiar yet bizarre, and his treatment of characters absorbing and interesting. The transformation of Carlos, from hopeful lover to quest-taker to mentally show more defeated cog in a brutal machine, is what makes this book so superior to many of the books I have read recently, including mainstream novels. It is no small feat to make a character so sympathetic and understandable in the midst of the chaos Donihe creates. So the bulk of this discussion/review will be me recounting passages in which Donihe makes us understand the mind of a man who loves his home like a wife and who descends into incredible, frightening and violent situations.

Read the rest of my review here: http://ireadoddbooks.com/house-of-houses-by-kevin-l-donihe/ show less

I've enjoyed some of Donihe's other books, but this one not so much. It's a bizarro novella, so it's supposed to be weird, but this is weird in a way that doesn't entertain.

It's all about a muscular guy named Marcus who's a big fan of Super Mario Brothers. He goes to a Super Mario Brothers convention, where nobody ends up liking him because he's kind of pushy and annoying. He ends up getting in a fight, is brought before the real Mario, and is banned from the convention for life. After that show more he somehow ends up in the game Super Mario Brothers, and things start getting weirder and weirder in a way that seems dream-like or possibly the result of a hallucinogen. This was definitely not one of my favorite bizarro books. show less

Grape City was a fast, entertaining read about a demon named Charles who has to live on earth after Hell has closed down. The earth in this book is entirely different from earth now, with check-out girls putting bombs in your bags, bang-murdering, and hack-raping your dates. Charles has a hard time adjusting and spends a lot of time at home day-dreaming and e-mailing Satan.
Though Grape City may not be the next classic or a genius, literary gem, it is still a great book, nevertheless.