DVD Review: Ghosts: Season One (US)

Ghosts: Season One
(hopefully on order soon!)

Ghosts is a half-hour comedy airing on the CBS network, which premiered in 2021 and is currently in its second season (with a 3rd already ordered). It is an Americanized version of a British show with the same name, which premiered in 2019 and is currently in its fifth season in the UK.

 

I encountered the US version first, though I’ve since watched the first season of the UK version on DVD, in the libraries’ collection. They both have their own strong points, but I’ll have to admit, I like the American version better.

 

A young couple, Samantha (“Sam”) and Jay discover that she has inherited a run-down country estate, after a distant relative of Sam’s recently passed. They take possession of the property and decide to invest their life savings into renovating the crumbling building and turning it into a Bed & Breakfast. This doesn’t sit well with the building’s current occupants — a group of ghosts of people who’ve died on the property during many different eras in history, from a Norse Viking, to a sensitive but sarcastic Native American, to the wife of a robber baron, an American revolutionary soldier, a Prohibition-era singer, a drugged out 70’s hippie chick, a boy scout trooper leader from the 80s, and a 90s Wall Street prodigy. (There’s also a headless biker, but he shows up only occasionally). Each of these ghosts appears as they did at the time of their death — the troop leader has an arrow through his neck, and the 90s yuppie is pants-less.

 

In the premiere episode, Samantha has an accident on the stairs, suffers a near-death experience, and subsequently can see and hear (and talk with) all of the ghosts, much to the consternation of her husband but to the relief of all the ghosts — who can finally communicate with the world of the “Living”. The humor of the series then stems from the experiences of Sam and Jay as they try to ready Woodstone Mansion as a B&B, versus the ghosts, who grudgingly acknowledge that their “lives” must change if the mansion is to remain a home to them. There’s a terrific cast of supporting characters, both ghosts and living people, that all of these regulars interact with, including Mark Linn-Baker (“Perfect Strangers”) and Kathy Greenwood (“Whose Line is it Anyway?”) as Sam and Jay’s stuffy next-door neighbors.

 

All of the ghost characters are fabulous, and during the course of the first season, each of them is given an episode that tells their background story, very much “humanizing” them. Sam’s ability to see ghosts is not limited to just the mansion, as she now sees ghosts wherever she goes, including the ghost of her late mother, in a special first-season episode. Performances are excellent across the board, but especially from Rose McIver as Sam and Utkarsh Ambudkar as Jay. I have a personal fondness for Richie Moriarty as perpetually cheerful punctured troop leader Pete Martino, and Brandon Scott Jones as Captain Isaac Higgintoot, who can’t believe his former rival, Alexander Hamilton achieved such fame in life! The writing features snappy dialog, and can verge between extremely comical, to emotional and poignant.

 

I really can’t recommend Ghosts highly enough, and if you haven’t tried it already, this first season DVD set (18 episodes) is a great place to start. Then, watch the first season (only 6 episodes) of the UK version to compare and contrast. Many of the same comic writers who produced the UK version are also involved in the production of the US version.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Ghosts: Series One, or the old classic, Topper.)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this series ) | ( official Ghosts page on the CBS web site )

 

See Scott C.’s review of the first season of the UK version of Ghosts, in the May 2022 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Relish - My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen
by Lucy Knisley (Biography Knisley)

Lucy Knisley loves food — she is the daughter of a chef and a gourmet. This is a forthright, thoughtful and funny memoir. She traces key episodes in hr life — framed by what she was eating at the time, and lessons learned about food, cooking and life. Each chapter is book-ended with an illustrated recipe — many of them treasured family dishes — yummy!

 

Recommended for adults, teens, and people who like to cook!

 

( official Relish page on the official Lucy Knisley web site )

 

This was one of dozens of Graphic Novel reviews submitted by library staff during our 2022 In-Service Training day on 9/23, all collected on A Day Full of Graphic Novels

 

Recommended by Pamela C.
Gere and South Branch Libraries

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Motion Picture Teller by Colin Cotterill

The Motion Picture Teller

by Colin Cotterill (Cotterill)

I was fortunate enough to luck into an Advance Readers Copy of this title several months ago, prior to its official January 2023 release. Having enjoyed the Colin Cotterill “series” titles I’ve previously read (see review link below), I was excited to dive into this stand-alone novel.

 

The Motion Picture Teller is set in 1996 in Bangkok, Thailand. Supot is a somewhat lackadaisical postal delivery man, just going through the motions of life. The one bright spot in an otherwise bland world, is the time he spends with his friend Ali, who runs a video rental store (and tinkers with being a screenwriter). The two men are obsessed with films — especially foreign films, and the exotic women who star in them. They have a small viewing area at the back of the store, where they regularly spend hours upon hours viewing videotapes. When they discover a previously unknown film, entitled “Bangkok 2010”, mixed in with a box of VHS tapes they purchased from a scrounger, they watch it and and are stunned to realize it is a masterpiece — perhaps the greatest Thai-made movie of all time — but nobody has ever heard of it and it was apparently never released.

 

Supot becomes obsessed with finding the makers of this film, and with meeting the beautiful female star of the film, Siriluk, whom he develops a crush on. The majority of this novel features Supot’s efforts to uncover the film’s mysterious origins, which takes him to the backwoods of Thailand, and a commune full of people that have many secrets to hide.

 

This book was absolutely charming — it is a mystery novel, without a crime having been committed, and Supot and Ali are fabulous characters. But they’re not the only ones — every single supporting character is fully realized, colorful and intriguing. The dialog is humorous, sharp and snappy. The plot is complex. And the setting, in various different parts of Thailand is exotic and distinct. I really enjoyed this one, and strongly recommend it for fellow cinephiles! And I love what the title of the book refers to — Supot verbally telling the stories of motion pictures, from memory, to a rapt audience — an intriguing twist on the traditional “storyteller”.

 

(Author Colin Cotterill has lived in Thailand for many years, and has had two long-running mystery series set there — those featuring Dr. Siri Paiboun (a series which ended with a 15th entry in 2020), and those featuring Jimm Juree (2011-2019). Those are all worth sampling if you can track them down! I’ve particularly enjoyed the three Jimm Juree entries the libraries have as audiobooks.

 

I also recommend the film Be Kind Rewind, which also features somewhat quirky characters who inhabit a video rental store.)

 

( publisher’s official The Motion Picture Teller web page ) | ( official Colin Cotterill web site )

 

See Scott C.’s review of the audiobook of Killed at the Whim of a Hat by Cotterill, in the June 2020 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Midnighters by Hana Tooke

The Midnighters
by Hana Tooke (j Tooke)

The Midnighters by Hana Tooke was recommended to me by a fourth-grade reading fanatic, and I was not disappointed. The book tells a peculiar story of an odd young girl who doesn’t fit in. But in order to save a friend, she finds the courage to embrace her oddities and discover the exceptional person that she is. (The Midnighters juvenile fiction book is not to be confused with the young adult Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld.)

 

Ema Vaskov is the 12th born of her siblings, born at the 12th hour on the 12th day of the 12th month in 1877 in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia. Her grandmother forebodes that all these twelves are hellish and will result in dark shadows—and a single eyeball.

 

The odds are stacked against Ema. Each of her siblings are extraordinary in the study of whatever sparks their interest—philosophy, anthropology, zoology, archeology, and physics. Even her parents are renowned for their work in meteorology and climatology. But Ema doesn’t have any scientific passions that others find worthwhile. Instead of passions, she has fears. She fears birthdays and the number 12. She senses dark emotions as shadows, studies bones, investigates facial “twitchology,” and is often forgotten and walks unseen. As each of Ema’s siblings leaves home, she fears that the things that she thinks are remarkable, aren’t really worth remark at all. Her only accomplishments are disappointing her parents and herself.

 

On her 12th birthday, Ema temporarily moves in with a quirky uncle and meets another girl named Silvie hanging like a bat in her window, right at midnight. Mysterious Silvie shows up around the same time every month at midnight to challenge Ema to face her fears and explore the city. Just when Ema is starting to gain confidence, Silvie disappears. Can fearful Ema be the only person who can save her?

 

The Midnighters is filled with secret societies, bats, cats, eyeballs, séances, flying whale skeletons, cemeteries, kolaches, and a murder mystery. Of course only someone with Ema’s exceptional abilities can uncover the truth. And perhaps she can finally earn the notice and respect of her parents, friends, and family as she discovers her own potential.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Winterhouse by Ben Guterson or City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab.)

 

( official The Midnighters book trailer ) | ( official Hana Tooke web site )

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

DVD Review: The BFG

The BFG
based on the novel by Roald Dahl (DVD j BFG)

This delightful film version of Roald Dahl’s classic story, The BFG (Big Friendly Giant), is incredible — directed by Steven Spielberg with music by John Williams, this is one of the best children’s movies I have seen in many years, particularly with the special effects and computer graphics. The best performances in this production are from Mark Rylance as the BFG, Penelope Wilton as Queen Elizabeth II, and Ruby Barnhill as Sophie. I highly recommend this film for children and adults.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try E.T. the Extraterrestrial, Annie, The Secret Garden or Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.)

 

(Also available in traditional print format.)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film ) | ( official The BFG Facebook page )

 

Recommended by Kim J.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Music Book Review: Primus - Over the Electric Grapevine by Greg Prato

Primus: Over the Electric Grapevine
by Greg Prato (Music 781.66 Pri)

Primus is a quirky band that has been a part of pop culture since the grunge days of the 1990s, and their bandleader Les Claypool is generally regarded as one of the best bass players of his generation. Their music often sounds melodically strange but rhythmically sophisticated, and somehow it all comes together to be incredibly catchy. A great book about the band and Claypool himself, called Over the Electric Grapevine by long time music journalist Greg Prato, was recently published in paperback for the first time, and you can borrow it from Polley.

 

From a writing and editing standpoint, this book is a great example of how to edit oral history accounts into a narrative that has flow and direction. After conducting extensive interviews with band members and participants in a variety of Claypool-related acts, Prato carefully edited interviews to create the whole shape and form of this book. It works beautifully, and I’ve rarely seen this technique handled so well. This usually comes off clunky without some connective sections penned by the author, but if you want to see it done well, consider this book a great place to start.

 

In terms of content, the book progresses chronologically, starting around high school-age for Claypool. We dive into his life story before he started playing bass, but he was interested in music more generally because of a high school friend, Kirk Hammett, who would go on to become the lead guitarist in Metallica. Like a lot of high school kids interested in music, both of them ended up playing in lots of high school bands, and both seemed to have that luck of having natural affinity for their chosen instruments, and a lot of enthusiasm for playing and learning. They weren’t in bands together, though: Hammett’s high school band became the well-known thrash band Exodus before he joined Metallica, and Claypool started out in a progressive metal band called Blind Illusion. But Claypool wasn’t overly smitten with metal music: he reports that his early influences quickly expanded into rhythm and blues music, progressive rock, and funky bands like the Meters, and his own writing started to combine these disparate sounds into the unique blend that became Primus.

 

While the book mostly centers around the band Primus, the trio has undergone lots of lineup changes over the years, and earlier members often return to work with Claypool in other bands, or sometimes even rejoining Primus. Early drummer Jay Lane and guitarist Todd Huth, for example, were members of the band during the period where their earliest songs were written, but had left the band by the time their debut album was released in 1990. However, the two returned to join Claypool in a band called Sausage in 1994 (named after the first Primus demo tape), Jay Lane has played with Primus in more recent years, and Todd Huth has joined Claypool in the Flying Frog Brigade. Claypool has created a quirky musical world where bandmates come and go, but everyone seems to remain friendly and open to future collaborations.

 

With their fairly unconventional sound, it still seems kind of surprising that Primus became a commercial act during the grunge era in the 90s, but their story is a classic tale of hard work and perseverance paying off. After self-releasing their first album and doing their second on a one-record deal, the band simply played as much as they could, touring the country in a small van. It’s the stuff of clichés, but in their case it really worked. The young record label Interscope signed the band on the strength of live performances, which clearly demonstrated that audiences were already deeply into the music. With the release of their singles “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver” and “Tommy the Cat,” from their Interscope debut, both of which received lots of radio airplay and video play on MTV, the band found themselves touring with the largest rock bands of the era. Like other 90s alternative rock acts that are still playing, the band isn’t topping charts these days, but they continue to tour and record regularly.

 

While the book largely tracks the history of Primus, focusing on elements like all of the bands they befriended on tours and the zany music videos that helped to keep their career moving along, bandleader Claypool has also been active in a wide range of side projects as mentioned earlier, and the sheer volume of those projects requires a hefty proportion of the book’s page count to document. The second half of the book investigates these, starting with the Sausage project that essentially reunited an earlier iteration of Primus, followed by the first Claypool solo album, “Highball With the Devil,” where he explored more of his funk, soul and R&B influences. Later, during a lull in Primus activity, he started the band Oysterhead with Trey Anastasio of Phish and Stewart Copeland of The Police. Then he got more involved with the jam band scene with his big band, the Fearless Flying Frog Brigade. While touring with the Brigade, he ended up sitting in for bassist Bill Laswell, which led to another band, Col. Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains. And more solo albums trickled out between these projects as well.

 

Toward the end of the book, there’s a chapter just made of reflections and compliments about Claypool’s bass playing from a variety of his bandmates and musical peers over time. The final full chapter builds on this idea, featuring similar quotes from a variety of artists about their thoughts on the influence and relevance of Primus to popular music of the last few decades. These reflections do a good job of outlining the importance of this band: their unique combination of originality and musicianship with a fun-loving kind of approach has no doubt influenced lots of musicians who have followed them. But they still sound incredibly unique all these years later.

 

My only complaint about this book is that this new paperback edition hasn’t been updated from the original 2014 printing. Without this update, we miss out on a couple of Primus releases, for example, but I was especially hoping for an update including the Claypool/Lennon Delirium project that Claypool has started with Sean Lennon. They’ve done two very interesting records and an EP in the time since this book was first published. Nonetheless, it’s a great read if you’re curious about the unique world of music around Les Claypool.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Lived Through That: 90s Musicians Today by Mike Hipple or Now is the time to invent! Reports from the Indie-Rock Revolution, 1986-2000 by Steve Connell.)

 

( publisher’s official Over the Electric Grapevine web page ) | ( official Greg Prato Twitter feed )

 

Recommended by Scott S.
Polley Music Library

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Check out this, and all the other great music resources, at the Polley Music Library, located on the 2nd floor of the Bennett Martin Public Library at 14th & "N" St. in downtown Lincoln. You'll find biographies of musicians, books about music history, instructional books, sheet music, CDs, music-related magazines, and much more. Also check out Polley Music Library Picks, the Polley Music Library's e-mail newsletter, and follow them on Facebook!

DVD Review: Magpie Murders + Just Desserts meeting reminder for tonight

Magpie Murders
(DVD Magpie)

This is a whodunit that takes place in present day and the 1950’s. Both the original book and this Masterpiece Theatre production were written by author Anthony Horowitz.

 

In the present-day story, author Alan Conway, who is famous for the fictitious Atticus Pünd murder mysteries that take place in the 1950’s, has recently died, apparently of a suicide. He had just turned in his most recent manuscript, but the final chapter is missing! Now his editor is trying to locate that chapter or figure out whodunit in the book so she can publish his final mystery, and also determine what happened in real-life to Conway. Did he actually kill himself?

 

This dramatization constantly criss-crosses between the mysteries of the two time periods – the 1950’s characters in Conway’s book and present-day. Everyone in the Pünd manuscript is based on someone in Conway’s life — and the same actors play them both. It was fascinating to watch how seamlessly this story moved between the two timelines. One of my favorite transitions was watching our contemporary character take a left turn in her car and drive out of our view, and the oncoming car contains our 1955 Pünd and we continue the manuscript’s 1955 story with him.

 

Both storylines kept the suspense going as we tried to solve all of the mysteries. The DVD version did an excellent job of abridging the book while remaining true to the characters and the mysteries.

As usual, an excellent production from the folks at Masterpiece Theatre. You can easily binge this two-disc, six-episode series in an afternoon and evening.

 

If you decide to read the original Magpie book (which I also enjoyed), keep in mind that the presentation is different from the DVD. The first part of the book tells the 1955 mystery as told in the manuscript (but we won’t know its ending yet because that chapter is missing), and the second part follows our editor as she tries to find that missing chapter and sort out Conway’s death. I actually preferred the DVD version of moving between both storylines at the same time.

 

And yes, we find out whodunit in all the mysteries including that missing chapter.

 

(Also available in traditional print format.)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this mini-series ) | ( official PBS page for Magpie Murders on Masterpiece )

 

See Scott C.’s review of Magpie Murders in the June 2021 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

 

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

 

The print version of Magpie Murders was used as the book for discussion at a Just Desserts meeting in 2021.

 

If you're a mystery fan, you're invited to join us for this month's Just Desserts meeting tonight, February 23rd, at 6:30 p.m. in the 4th floor auditorium of the Bennett Martin Public Library downtown at 14th & "N" St. -- this mystery-themed discussion group meets on the last Thursday of each month, January through October. This month's book assigned topic of discussion is the first three novels by American author S.A. Cosby.

 

Even if you haven't read anything for this specific discussion, you can still participate, and learn about great new mysteries to try! For more information, check out the Just Desserts schedule at https://lincolnlibraries.org/bookguide/book-groups/#justdesserts

Book Review: Goblin by Josh Malerman

Goblin
by Josh Malerman (Malerman)

I picked up Goblin from a “Goblincore” library display, then looked up what “goblincore” means. According to Collins: “a fashion style that celebrates aspects of nature that are not considered traditionally beautiful, e.g: mushrooms, insects.” I’d say this book counts because of its motifs of near-constant rain, forbidden woods, and dark-plumed owls with creepier than usual eyes.

 

This book bills itself as “A Novel in Six Novellas” though I suspect only one of the stories — “Happy Birthday, Hunter!” — is long enough to count as a novella. The good news is that this long story midway through is truly the star of the collection. Neal Nash is a big game hunter in the small city of Goblin, where it’s almost always raining. It’s his 60th birthday party and everything is pushed to excess (his cake is made from a dozen kinds of game meats). The narrative itself feels like Ray Bradbury’s exuberance. Nash’s house is filled with animals from around the world, but he doesn’t have one of the legendary owls from the forbidden woods north of Goblin. No one has ever killed one. Tonight he’s going to be the first, no matter the cost.

 

The other five stories are all connected to this community in the style of an anthology horror with a wrap-around narrative about delivering a mysterious box. If you liked Clive Barker’s Books of Blood, I’m pretty sure the story “Presto” is a direct tribute. Reading the whole collection straight through adds a lot in terms of setting and vibe, but if you have limited time, I would still recommend “Happy Birthday, Hunter!” as a great standalone experience.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Books of Blood by Clive Barker, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury or A Taste of Honey by Jabari Asim.)

 

( official Goblin page on the official Josh Malerman web site )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Everything We Didn't Say by Nicole Baart

Everything We Didn’t Say
by Nicole Baart (Baart)

Juniper Baker returns to the small town where she was raised, trying to solve a murder from the summer after she graduated. Modern-day threats and dangers to her and her family members are almost surely connected to her brother being the main suspect from that long-ago murder.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Little Broken Things by Nicole Baart or The Other Daughter by Karin Slaughter.)

 

( official Everything We Didn’t Say page on the official Nicole Baart web site )

 

Recommended by Jodi R.
Anderson and Bethany Branch Libraries

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns

Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder
by Valerie Burns (Burns)

The first in the new Baker Street Mystery series, this is a culinary-themed cozy mystery. Maddy Montgomery inherited her aunt’s bakery, large house, and 250-pound English Mastiff, all in a small town in Michigan. There is a clause for her to keep all three, though, and that’s to keep the bakery running and live in the house for at least a year. Before her second day in town has come to a close, there is a murder in the bakery, and Maddy has to work with her new neighbors and friends to clear her own name. A marketing genius but baker newbie, Maddy entertains the reader while also bringing business to the bakery with her series of trending hashtags.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich.)

 

( official Baker Street Mysteries series page on the official V.M. Burns web site )

 

Recommended by Jodi R.
Anderson and Bethany Branch Libraries

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Cryptid Club by Sarah Andersen

The Cryptid Club
by Sarah Andersen (741.5 And)

Cryptid (definition): an animal (such as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster) that has been claimed to exist but never proven to exist.

 

Web cartoonist Sarah Anderson (Sarah’s Scribbles, and Fangs) launched a new four-panel web comic The Cryptid Club on Webtoon in September 2021. This little hardback book compiles all of the cartoons from the run of that web comic from the beginning through May 2022. The strip features a rotating/recurring cast of characters, from Bigfoot (Sam) and Nessie to a chupacabra, ghosts, a Kraken, aliens, the Fresno Nightcrawlers, Cthulhu, Mothman, The Flatwoods Monster, the Slender Man, a Jackalope, a Siren and a Sirenhead, and a Sleep Paralysis Demon. But, though many of those might be considered “monsters” in modern pop culture mythology, in this strip, they’re all just “normal” people trying to live “normal” lives.

 

The strip is a cute little “slice of life” from the world of these slightly creepy creatures, and Andersen does an absolutely marvelous job of capturing a mix of both the mundane and the macabre. I felt little hints of Charles Addams classic “The Addams Family” comics in these pages. I’ll have to admit, I occasionally find some of Andersen’s extremely simplistic art a bit off-putting, but in this collection, she’s at her best.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the other cartoon compilations by Sarah Andersen, I particularly recommend Fangs, or The World of Charles Addams by Charles Addams, containing many of the cartoons that inspired various iterations of The Addams Family.)

 

( official Cryptid Club web site ) | ( official Sarah Andersen web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!