Christopher Moore (1) (1957–)

hristopher Moore is pretty much crazy and unrepentant. Forget being a fly on the wall, I'd love to spend the day inhabiting his brain because I don't think there's ever a boring minute in it. I first started reading Moore's novels many years ago now when my book club was looking for a non-sentimental Christmas read (hello The Stupidest Angel). Intrigued by his wonderfully warped view on things, we later moved on to his hilariously irreverent novel Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's show more Childhood Pal. I've since moved so I have no idea if that book club continues to periodically visit the weird that is Moore's creative output, but I do. Secondhand Souls, the sequel to A Dirty Job, is his latest entry into the wacky and bizarre world he has conjured up and it is as quirky, funny, and insane as I've come to expect from Moore.

At the end of A Dirty Job, the world was saved (if you haven't read it and think this is a spoiler, get your knickers out of a twist and get over yourself) but that doesn't mean it had to stay that way. The cast of characters from the first novel notices that things seem to be heading a little (a lot) off kilter again. And when a banshee comes to warn them of the impending doom coming their way, a doom unlike that which they've seen before, they will have to come together to fight the forces of darkness again. This time there are ghosts congregating at the Golden Gate Bridge, the meat puppets have something slightly sinister going on amongst themselves, the remaining Death Merchants are so far behind on their soul collections they'll never catch up, and the Morrigan have a smooth talking, dangerous supernatural companion on their side. How Charlie, Sophie, Minty Fresh, Inspector Rivera, Lily, and Audrey will face all of this makes for a completely madcap read.

As downright zany and convoluted as this sounds (and it is), Moore is a master at weaving his strange plot threads together to form a coherent and entertaining story. There is humor here as well as chaos and hijinks. The story and some of the situations are twisted (encouraging a person to commit suicide for the greater good?!) but everything works so well in the service of the story that even the questionable is forgiven. As a sequel, this is best read after A Dirty Job, otherwise some of the characters and their current situations take some adjusting to but for people who already appreciate Moore's offbeat mythology, this is a welcome addition to his canon. Even though there's absolutely nothing about a Moore novel that fits into my regular reading preferences (no to fantasy, no to paranormal, and a huge no to Death), they are like crack; once you've read one, you can't wait for the next hit and I appreciated Secondhand Souls for the rollicking and fast ride it was. show less

Knowing this book was a surprise in the planning of this series, I went into it unsure of how it would fit into the idea that this was supposed to be a trilogy. But now having finished it, I can't imagine going into the next book without knowing the information of this one.

Tamsyn is a master of sentence crafting. The poetic emotion dripping from the words had me lost between grief and love, pulling my heart in every direction. Even the scenes that would be info dumping by any other author show more are beautifully strung together leaving me on edge for the next paragraph. The way the characters are body swapping / sharing, with zero weirdness of wondering who is who is masterful. I am in awe of how each personality is crafted. The meanings woven into the lines even when Nona is in the dark on the past. Ugh. It's pure magic and makes me weak just contemplating how amazing Tamsyn is. Seriously going to be one of the greatest of our time.

Nona is nothing like Giedion and Harrow, but at the same time it is every thing like the previous two books. I adored and wanted more of every aspect of this story. I loved getting a view of 'what if' these ultimate badasses were living all domestic for a bit. It's whimsical with a touch of gothic thriller written in.

The first part of the book takes you on a fairy tale ride into Nona's child like mind, while the last part of the book is back to necromancy goodness and on with the series plotline. It's shocking and left me wishing I had waited to read it because now I'm just dreaming of the fourth books release and wow.

Also, let's just take a minute to talk about how well Tamsyn builds characters. The fluidness of writing in every time of personality, gender and make up of each person no matter how small they are to the plot is so fantastic. The description and world build made me feel like I walked the streets along side Nona. I could rave about this book forever.

If you enjoy series with multiple strings, many POVs and hidden meanings, deeply complex plots with twists you'll probably miss the first read through you're going to love The Locked Tomb.

Also, how can anyone resist the charm of lesbian necromancers? show less

It’s likely been over a decade since I last read You Suck (definitely pre- managing my Goodreads account), and I had completely forgotten how absolutely ridiculous Christopher Moore’s second romp through vampire lore is. Continuing the tale of two starcrossed lovers turned recently into vampires by an ancient in search of entertainment and companionship, Moore does his best to string together one hilarious highjinx after another until we finally close the pages on the story, wondering show more what exactly it was that we have read but sure that we’ve been entertained throughout. While technically the story does make sense narratively, Moore is all over the place in terms of action, with multiple groups of characters coming in and out of each other’s spheres of influence, and the book is a veritable whirlwind of randomness. Everything that can go wrong does (newly made vampires are a perfect recipe for drama), and we have to just settle in and accept the random if we’re going to make it out the other side. He does do a decent job of playing with the traditional vampire lore as well, while juxtaposing it against the challenges of being a modern human and having very little idea of what it takes to be a member of the undead, which earns him a decent (if arbitrary and unserious) place in the rankings of vampire stories throughout the ages. Could we have maybe had a little less problematic chauvinistic themes? Definitely. But Moore was writing at a time when the rude boy aesthetic was popular and largely accepted amongst the reading populace and publishers - and his characters are so overblown and ridiculous that we can hope that his point was meant to be sarcastic and at least a little bit critical of idiot male behaviour. All in all, a fun vampiric romp through San Francisco. show less

A whale researcher and his attractive young assistant (assuming there is such thing as a young researcher that isn't attractive) are cruising the waters off Hawaii when a whale surfaces with "Bite me" written across its fluke. Nathan Quinn, the researcher, has a bit of a mental breakdown as he tries to wrap his mind around how something like that could happen. Little does he know what sort of completely absurd slope he's about to slip down.

First his place is broken into. Then the research show more funder, lovingly referred to as The Old Broad, tells him she talked to the whale and it wants a hot pastrami and Swiss on rye. You'd think it couldn't get much stranger when Amy (that's the attractive young assistant) locates a whale by sticking her head under the water and listening for its call...but that's really only the beginning.

I really liked it. It's charming, it's witty, a little quirky, and of course incredibly dirty, but in a charming/witty/quirky way. Moore seems to consistently have strong protagonists, and once again I loved all the ones in this book. Even the ones that I didn't at first, like the annoying white Rastafarian/surfer guy.

It did, however, make me sad that I don't have a prehensile penis. show less