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?
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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.
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 :)
ReplyDeleteThank you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
DeleteI need to buy this book asap! Fab review :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jesse! Definitely worth getting.
DeleteI read Rockoholic and enjoyed it. I'll have to add this one to my tbr.
ReplyDeleteIt's very different from Rockoholic. Much darker.
DeleteWARNING! Do not read this book (particularly the chopped off hand bits) whilst eating enchiladas!
ReplyDeleteHahaha. I can see why that might have caused problems!
DeleteI 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