One Bloody Thing After Another
Jackie has a map of the city on the wall of her bedroom, with a green pin for each of her trees. She has a first-kiss tree and a broken-arm tree. She has a car-accident tree. There is a tree at the hospital where Jackies mother passed away into the long good night. When one of them gets cut down, Jackie doesnt know what to do but she doesnt let that stop her. She picks up the biggest rock she can carry and puts it through the window of a car. Smash. She intends to leave before the police arrive, but theyre early.
Ann is Jackies best friend, but shes got problems of her own. Her mother is chained up in the basement. How do you bring that up in casual conversation? Oh, sorry Ive been so distant, Jackie. My mother has more teeth than shes supposed to, and she wont eat anything thats already dead. Ann and her sister Margaret dont have much of a choice here. Their mother needs to be fed. It isnt easy but this is family. Its not supposed to be easy. Itll be okay as long as Margaret and Ann still have each other.
Add in a cantankerous old man, his powerfully stupid dog, a headless ghost, a lesbian crush and a few unsettling visits from Jackies own dead mother, and youll find that One Bloody Thing After Another is a different sort of horror novel from the ones youre used to. Its as sad and funny as it is frightening, and it is as much about the way families rely on each other as it is about blood being drooled on the carpet. Though, to be honest, there is a lot of blood being drooled on the carpet.
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I just now finished this book, sitting on the deck in the morning sun, with a fresh brewed coffee. If that's not a perfect situation, I don't know what is. It's the last day of a four day weekend, which is one of the most fabulous creations this government has ever made. It rained last night, but now the sun is shining (much like it did for this entire weekend). So, what better way to finish off the weekend, then blog about a book that scared the living crap out of me!!! (well, not quite, but I was suitably creeped out. So, here I am, sitting in the afternoon sun, with another fresh brewed coffee, and my laptop. Another perfect situation.
First of all, I love the cover of the book. The picture on the front is unsettling, a wee bit creepy, and definitely intriquing. The title of the book is written in shiny letters, and the cover itself is a matte picture. It's really cool, you kind of have to move the book around to read it. Joey Comeau, the author, is also the creator of a web comic called A Softer World, which is one of my favourites. I didn't realize it until after I read the book, tho, so don't worry about any bias I might have had. I received this book through ECW Press, because i'm a Shelf Monkey.
The description of the book on Amazon gives a little too much away right off the bat, but this sentence, I think, describes things well, without going too far.
"...a cantankerous old man, his powerfully stupid dog, a headless ghost, a lesbian crush and a few unsettling visits from Jackie’s own dead mother, and you'll find that One Bloody Thing After Another is a different sort of horror novel from the ones you're used to. It’s as sad and funny as it is frightening, and it is as much about the way families rely on each other as it is about blood being drooled on the carpet. Though, to be honest, there is a lot of blood being drooled on the carpet."
This book had me from the prologue, the "title" of which is "Ann's mother isn't feeling so good today". We find out that Ann and Margaret's mother is going for a job interview, which didn't go so well, because Ann's mother coughed up something bloody. Ewww... Really? Seriously? This introduction, written so matter of factly that you might have to read it twice to see if you really read what you thought you read, reminds me a bit of Stephen King. You know how he just drops in these gross bits of horror so casually into the 'conversation' that you're having with him, that its not until you've shaken his hand and said 'see ya later' that you realize how gross it truly was.
The book follows Ann, Jackie and Charlie, as well as their families, through a short period of time in their lives. A period of time when Ann finds out how far she'll go to support her mom and sister, a time when Jackie finds out how her mom's death affects her, and a time when Charlie experiences living with his dog, losing his dog, and getting reunited with his dog.
This book has more layers than I thought it would. The first aspect of the book is about love and committment. The way Ann sticks by her family, goes way out of her comfort zone to protect and care for them is understandable. It's rare that you feel sympathetic for someone who does the kinds of things she does, but I did. I empathized for Ann. I might be reading too much into this, but I think there are many people who will find an aspect of themselves in Ann. (But hopefully not a piece of themselves in her mom...)
Jackie is a young girl, discovering that she's different from her peers in so many ways, not the least of which is her emerging sexuality. Charlie is a man who loves his dog, and is charged with helping a neighbour find out about her daughter's demise. This aspect of the book really reminds me of the way Robert Wiersema writes. There's such a sense of family and connectedness in this book, you realy feel like these are people that you might know, and might care for, just a bit.
The other aspect of the book is the abject horror. Live animals being fed to ravenous beasts chained up in the basement. A young girl with the ability to call up the ghost of her dead mother to help her escape from police custody. A headless ghost with a message for a loved one.
I absolutely reccommend this book. Maybe it's a novella, I've never quite understood the difference. In any case, its a quick and horrifying read, something to make you shiver in the middle of a sunny day. I see that the author, Joey Comeau will be reading from his book on April 27, 2010. He's the inaugaral guest at the event series "The Toronto Literary Salon". Sounds like something I'd like to hear. But I'm just a little afraid of this man.
One Bloody Thing After Another by Joey Comeau is an amazing story about how families should stick together, parts of the story are distrubing to say the least.
But Ann what she does for her family it must have been very hard for Ann to deal with that. Jackie is trying to deal with the death of her mother and how much that affects her, not to mention her sexuality shes trying to deal with. Charlie has his dog and is seeing a headless ghost, who wants his help.
In the end you realize all the characters wanted was someone to understand them. They all didn't want to be alone. I have recieved this book from ECW press because I signed up to be a Shelf Monkey I also plan to put this review up on Amazon.com for others to see. I would recommend this to all my friends especially ones who aren't close with there families maybe they should read this book. I think this book could help alot of families would arent close, maybe they could become closer because of this book.
I have to say that I found this book to be a little disturbing, but did finish it in two days (it was hard to put down). I have not read anything by Joey Comedu before, and am not sure if this is the kind of book that he writes all of the time, but I would be willing to read another one of his books just to see.
I was interested to see how Ann would stand beside her mother and then her sister when they started to change. It was great to see that she continued to take care of them, even when things became difficult.
I felt sorry for Jackie, who had to deal with the death of her mother and the fact that her mother's ghost hung around all of the time and made her life a challenge. She had her own issues to deal with, and her mother did not help the situation.
I finished the book one bloody thing after another by joey comedu. I have to say that it was an interesting book to say the least but there were some disturbing parts, There is some twists that I think proves you would be willing to do anything for your family, In the book the charachters struggle with things. Jackie struggles with the death of her mother and her sexuality, Ann struggles with the choices to help her mother and sister margaret and she goes to great lengths to prove that she will do anything for her family, CHarlie struggles with seeing a ghost and not knowing what he is supposed to do about the ghost, I THink that it was a good book, but remember its a horror novel and some of the twists prove that. I would however recommend this book to my friends.
I devoured this book in a couple of days! I found it very strange and haunting, but at the same time, terribly interesting. The way the author uses sparse descriptions for his characters leaves lots tot he imagination of the reader, which i really enjoyed.
All in all, it is a fantastic story, and the little unsolved mysteries at the end kept me thinking about the characters and story long after I was finished. I'd recommend this to anyone who loves to be scared or freaked out, but still wants a good story.
One Bloody Thing After Another is a short, surprisingly touching sort-of horror story that simultaneously tugs at your heartstrings, throws bizarre twist curveballs at you, makes you nod in recognition, angers you, and totally creeps you out. Comeau even manages to keep the alt text of his web comic A Softer World going (in slightly altered form) as a well-hidden bonus element. While the character development isn't exactly complex, it doesn't need to be. A girl psychologically scarred by her mother's death struggles to deal with her visions of said parent & her emerging homosexuality, while the object of her affection is navigating the tribulations of a newly zombified mom. & that's just the beginning. The people in Comeau's book are true-to-life, deeply passionate, and, like the plot twists that veer off into the uncharted territory of impossible secret fears come to life, sometimes a little bit . . . well, wild.
I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting when I began reading this book, but it didn’t live up to them.
Billed as a humorous horror novel, One Bloody Thing After Another should have brought me laughter. But the humor is subtle, funny as an intellectual exercise rather than laugh out loud funny.
The horror aspect is definitely present, as the book opens with a character who coughs bloody chunks up on the table at a job interview. (Yes, all involved in the interview agree that it “did not go well.”) After that opening salvo, the gross factor is dialed back quite a bit and much more is left to the imagination. Comeau throws in disturbing scenes and elements, but they are on a psychological level rather than a visceral one.
Comeau uses a spare approach to writing that provides barely enough details to visualize the characters and the story. In fact, while I was reading, I felt as if I were watching a movie on an old TV set with bad over-the-air reception—full of ghosts and snow. Despite the lack of detail, the characters were well developed and interesting. I was surprised when I realized I cared about anyone other that the dog. (I am innately predisposed to love the dog in any book I read or video I watch. The author doesn’t have to do anything to make me emotional about the dog. This is why Marley & Me is now banned from our home.)
I don’t think I would read this book again, and I am not sure I would seek out future works by Comeau. But, if you are looking for a quick, macabre read, this might be the book for you. Fans of Comeau’s web comic, A Softer World, would also be a good fit.
Buy One Bloody Thing After Another at Amazon or Powell’s.
Disclaimer: I was sent a review copy of this book through the Shelf Monkey program. I received no compensation to read or review it. The purchase links are affiliate links.
Joey Comeau has written a funny, sad, and often gross horror novel, which while maybe not for everyone, was right up my alley.
Ann and Jackie are teenagers with the usual the usual angst going on. Charlie is an old man with a dumber than dumb dog named Mitchie, who are an integral part of the book.
Jackie has a crush on Ann, but Ann and her sister have a bigger problem....their Mom is a live flesh, eating monster. Nothing dead for her, no sir. As Ann and her sister struggle to feed Mom, and Jackie is mourning the loss of some of her special trees (first kiss tree, broken arm tree, dead mother tree), as she acts out in a very funny and violent way.
The book is very short, but it makes you think about how far you would go for family.
If you are squeamish, this might not be the book for you.
I received this book from Shelf Monkey, via ECW Press. Thanks!
Joey Comeau's "One Bloody Thing After Another" was a quick read at only 165 pages, yet managed to pack in a surprisingly large amount of absurd plot twists. Comeau begins the novel as a serial story following three character's seemingly unrelated lives and as the plot develops, their stories become more entwined as their actions begin to affect each other.
Jackie, a rebellious lesbian teenager spends much of the book smashing things destroying, and escaping danger, all while calling on her late mother's ghost and courting her best friend. Ann enters the scene and draws in the reader with her less than conventional family situation, to say the least. Charlie, his beloved dog, and the decapitated ghost haunting him spend most of the book on the periphery but crosses lives with Ann in a gruesome yet almost comical dog-napping.
Comeau classifies this novel as a horror story, yet provides so little description in his style that almost all of the imaginative work is left up the reader. For instance, he was even able to construct a scenes of a woman eating a live baby and a litter of kittens that barely disgusted me. His lack of description and rampant use of short, bland sentences detracted from what could have otherwise been a terrifying short novel.
Although I was somewhat unsatisfied with the short sentences, one to three page chapters, and lack of detail, I would still recommend this book to someone with a twisted, sick sense of humor or anyone looking for a quick quirky read.
I received a review copy of this book though ECW Press.
It's rare, I have to admit, that a book takes me so little time to read, a couple of hours, maybe, and not only because it's short.
Last night I was working but Comeau's book lay invitingly beside me on the table and finally I couldn't deny it anymore and picked it up—just to have a look, you understand. Before I knew it, I was on page 107, the manuscript I had been proofing still on my lap, red pencil still in hand. I couldn't believe it. I had got so caught up in the story I forgot about everything else.
I'm not all about horror. I don't read it, as a general rule. But this book was so unexpectedly engrossing, so sneaky about the horror bits, subtly, matter-of-factly slipping them in among tender scenes of love, loss, friendship, and family, that it wasn't like anything else I'd tried, and therefore not a deterrent. And yet, while the supernatural and even gory bits slyly weaved in and out of the story, they commanded quite a presence. I was unsettled, chilled, the hairs raising on my arms and back of neck when I put the book down. It was as though as long as I kept reading I would be okay, but when I closed my eyes those horrifying bits became magnified. Which is of course what makes the book great, among other things.
Comeau's writing was excellent: the present tense, the characterization, the mixture of humour with horror, the suggestion or ambiguity of many things, the short and powerful sentences, the poignancy, and his masterful choice of words all married to produce an impressive story that in its brevity finds more even more power.
The book's layout was superb as well, and the frisson I felt when I first realized there was that tiny spidery text on the bottom of some pages and what it meant and said — how clever, but more so, how spooky! — was enough to make me love this book. Well, is love the right word? I don't know; somehow it seems inappropriate for the subject matter. It was compelling, creepy, touching...ultimately *haunting.*
Haha. Well done, Comeau.
I scanned through the reviews above on my way down to the comment section, and the recurring theme seemed to be that overall it was an interesting, quick read, but certainly not for everyone. That pretty much sums up my experience of the book. As a point of comparison, I kept on thinking about the book Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk as I read One Bloody Thing After Another. Both dealt with similar macabre elements that pushed me just to that point of revulsion without ever tipping me over the edge.
Overall, the story moved along at a fast pace and made it easy to finish this book over the course of a couple of evenings. The story quickly veers into the supernatural and I really enjoyed how matter-of-factly they were incorporated into the story--as if seeing a bleeding, headless ghost was a common occurrence! I also enjoy 'quirky' personalities in literature so the characters in this story certainly appealed to me.
As I read the book, I kept on trying to figure out how all the disparate story lines would end up fitting together, and Comeau does an excellent job of weaving together the story lines into a shockingly appropriate finish.
On a side note, one nice little touch with the book was the single words found at the bottom of the blank left-hand pages. I found myself constantly flipping back to previous pages to piece together the ongoing message.
I found this to be far outside the type of book that I am normally drawn to, yet compelling nonetheless. It was a quick read with short chapters and minimal description that allowed the horrorific content to slide along just below the surface. The character of Jackie is somehow likeable, despite her penchant for breaking windows and evading the law. I'm not sure who I would recommend this book to, but for someone looking for an unusual, quirky, yet stirring read, this book might just fit.
I planned on reading this book over several days, but was unable to put it down after the prologue. One Bloody Thing After Another tells the tales of two sisters, caring for their flesh-eating mother, a teenaged girl in love with her best friend, and a cranky older man who lives with his bone-headed dog.
As Comeau describes the lives of his characters, you feel as if you know them personally... or know someone very much like them. They could live in your neighborhood or go to your school. Jackie is in love with her best friend, Ann, who has the unenviable task of taking care of her zombie mother. Charlie, an older man who lives in an apartment building down the street, has a "powerfully stupid" dog, Mitchie, and together, they have daily encounters with a ghost in their apartment building.
Comeau weaves his characters' lives together in such a way that the reader has no choice but to ride along on the emotional roller coaster that is One Bloody Thing After Another
I'd recommend this book for anyone who likes things that are slightly off the beaten path, fans of horror, and fans of classic pulp. This makes me want to read the rest of Comeau's works.
-Shelf Monkey for ECW Press
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I usually judge how much I enjoy a book by how hard it is to put down. Do I stay up far later than I should, until my eyes are burning with the need for sleep, or do I roll over and call it quits for the night? Do I forgo stopping for coffee in the morning in order to get ten more minutes of reading in before I have to leave for work? If I answer yes to these questions (particularly the later), then I know that I’m in possession of a great book.
This is where I found myself with Joey Comeau’s One Bloody Thing After Another. I received my copy in the mail last night, just before getting ready for bed, and I was finished by this morning. I absolutely didn’t want to put it down. Sleep be damned.
Despite being billed as a ‘horror novel’, One Bloody Thing After Another is a story about people and relationships, about love and growth…it just happens to take place in a world where seeing headless ghosts, having a zombie problem in the family, and blinking into invisibility with the help of your dead mother are par for the course.
The story focuses on three key characters each one afflicted and attempting to cope with one of the aforementioned supernatural dilemmas while also dealing with more normal social issues like growing old alone, sexuality, teen angst and keeping your family together. During the course of the novel, you come to care deeply about each of the characters, and become emotionally invested in their well being, which can be just as unnerving as the supernatural elements of the story.
I would, and will, absolutely recommend this book to friends and family, but bear in mind that although One Bloody Thing After Another does transcend genres, has a fantastic underlying story and great character development (which can’t be said of the majority of horror novels), it is still a horror novel. It is unsettling, slightly disturbing, and a damn good story!