You Suck by Christopher Moore
You Suck by Christopher Moore is funny, dead funny. That’s a bit of a joke since the main characters are vampires. This is actually the sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends, so we are reacquainted with Jody, the hot red-headed vampire and Thomas C. Flood, a sexually charged, slightly nerdy Indiana native who came to San Francisco to be a writer and now finds himself a vampire instead. Like all of Moore’s work, the plot is quick and snappy, the descriptions vivid, the dialog crackling and the satire first-rate. And while I enjoyed You Suck, it felt a bit like paint by numbers.
I couldn’t help but think that this was something Moore just came up with in between new material. It felt like the product of fans pestering him for a ‘what happened next?’ scenario, leading to a supercharged week of caffeine induced writing. The beauty of most of Moore’s work is that he creates these believable but ludicrous worlds that are rich in surreal nooks and crannies and populated by a side-show like zoo of characters. None of that is on display in You Suck because all that good stuff has already been developed.
Don’t get me wrong, there are still a few characters who rise to the occasion, including Abby Normal, an attitude laden Goth-like teen who gives the fuzz all they can handle, a hooker who is entirely blue and a shaved cat named Chet. See, if you haven’t read Moore before you’re already thinking this is one crazy dude - and you’d be right! Moore is not for the feint of heart, easily offended or politically correct. Everything is in play and nothing is sacred.
For one reason or another the following quote stuck in my head and still makes me smirk.
“Oh, someone made a comment about his cape being gray when we first got here, so he went home to redye all his blacks”
You’ll do your fair share of chuckling and smirking with You Suck, but dive into his other books for the full-on treatment.
