If you’re familiar the works of Phipps and Kafer you already know you’re in for a good book and frankly I don’t know why you’re here, just go buy it.
For those of you who haven’t yet experienced the snarky, yet thought provoking, writing full of geeky love that is C.T. Phipps and the amazingly talented voice of Jeffery Kafer bringing his characters to life, you’re in for a treat.
I will admit I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect going into this book though. I love Phipps’ work (as is probably obvious by now), but I don’t normally like horror much and so I was curious how I’d come out the other side of this. And I had so much fun with this book. I’m sure most of the horror movie references went over my head, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the book. It read like a movie, which was very appropriate given its homage to slasher movies. The pacing was quick without leaving holes in the plot, heavy on the dialogue for telling the story and keeping it moving, and just generally made it hard to not stay up all night with “just one more chapter” being said repeatedly.
Phipps has this amazing way of making you love his anti-heroes. This isn’t new for me, but it still sometimes surprises he can do it. I really did not think there was going to be a way I could find a spree killer likable, but here I am, liking William and Carrie. Carrie reminds me a lot of Cindy from Supervilliany and two of them together could be terrifying and hilarious.
It was fun to see a bit of the United States of Monsters before everything is out in the open, there’s a couple fun nods to the other books but nothing you need to know about before going in. I liked the mythology around the slashers and the origin of monsters in general in the world, and I’m definitely curious to learn more about Nancy and the Artemises as a whole.
So stop debating, get the book, and fill your ears with Jeffery Kafer voice telling you this psychotic love story.