Wednesday 13 February 2013

Dead Romantic by C.J. Skuse

Pages - 325
Published by Chicken House in February 2013
It had been the worst night in the history of the world ever ever ever. A giant mistake, a BFG meets Hagrid kind of big mistake. I shouldn't have even gone to the fresher's party, full stop, let alone done what I did there. Ugh. The smell was making me feel sick. Every now and again as I walked along the dark streets from college it would me and for a split second I'd wonder where it was coming from. And then I'd remember. It was coming from me.
Goodreads Summary
Camille wants to find the perfect boy, with an athlete's body and a poet's brain. But when she's mocked at a college party, she kows there isn't a boy alive who'll ever measure up. Enter Zoe, her brilliant but strange best friend, who takes biology homework to a whole new level. She can create Camille's dream boy, Frankenstein-stylee. But can she make him love her?
*********
This is one of the funniest books I have read in a long time. The author has an excellent knack of writing extremely comical one liners that appeal to my dark side. The following line had me in tears.
‘I was dripping with the poo of a thousand cows.’ Childish I know, but just so funny.
This book has a serious tone to it, but the author has managed to turn a dark Gothic tale into a hilarious, entertaining comedy of errors. Zoe is determined to make her own boy out of the parts of others. Camille is naïve, gullible and shallow enough to go along with it – anything for a perfect date who won’t make snide remarks about her ability to consume large amounts of food and still be considered hot.  Zoe comes across as being rather dark and disturbed and I loved her for it. She was one of my favourite characters within the book. What she needed was someone to take an interest in her; loyal friends and family to put her on the right pathway. Camille could be a little too innocent at times, but I think that was due to her older parents. She wasn’t as experienced with life as her peers. The only character I didn’t like was Damian. He goes through a major transformation within the story and I did find it difficult to imagine such a prat becoming that lovely in a short space of time. Saying that I did prefer him at the end of the book to the beginning.
I loved the secondary character names too. From Josie With The Humungous Handbag to Hindu Josh With The Headphones – completely ingenious, allowing you to easily imagine what type of person they would be.
I know the abbreviated words bothered some readers, but they didn’t even hit my radar. I live with teenage girls who talk like that all the time, so I’m used to that kind of language.
The ending was a bit of a surprise and was left quite open ended, so now I am wondering whether there will be a sequel to it.  The ending was lot more serious than the beginning which changed the tone of the story quite a bit.
This book reeks with dark humour as you watch Camille and Zoe dash from one body to another. The whole scene involving extra feet was the most side splitting thing I had read in ages.
A mad cap, hilarious body snatching book that will appeal to fans of Six Feet Under and The Pie Maker. If you like your humour a little on the dark side, then step right up for this modern twist on Frankenstein.


9 comments:

  1. I did enjoy CJ Skuse's debut novel, so I really should add both Dead Romantic and Rockoholic to my TBR pile. Thank you for this wonderful review, Vivienne :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I need to buy this book asap! Fab review :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I read Rockoholic and enjoyed it. I'll have to add this one to my tbr.

    ReplyDelete
  4. WARNING! Do not read this book (particularly the chopped off hand bits) whilst eating enchiladas!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I asked CJ over twitter and apparently sequels aren't her style...so many possible headcanons can arise from that ending! Great to see you enjoyed it :)

    ReplyDelete

Hiya, thanks for stopping by, it is always nice to hear what you have to say, so do leave a comment if you have time.