...and the title pretty much sums it up. I took a break from the 100 greatest novels of all time to tackle something lighter.
Boo, by Rene Gutteridge.
I picked it up from the library because the cover was cute and it is the first of a series... sequels mean good stories, right?
Anyway, this book falls under the label Christian Fiction, all of which I hope is not as forced and predictable as
Boo. The idea is that a horror novelist, living in a small town, bringing loads of tourism money into the small town, gets saved. And then what's going to happen to his career? what is going to happen to the town? ack! If he is saved how could he possibly write scary stories anymore and how is the town going to get any income off those dark and twisted tourists?
Crafty townspeople try thier best to bring the new Christian back to the dark side (dispite the fact that they are themselves self-proclaiming Christians) to save thier town. Surprise, sruprise none of the rediculous schemes work and Wolfe Boone, the horror novelist, not only teaches them all a little something about a real walk with the Lord, but he also gets the town darling on his arm.
The book boasts twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the last page, which is... untrue. The plot and characters lacked depth and any sort of surprises at all. I would liken this story to a TV sit come that you just happen to have on. You don't even have to pay attention to see what's going on and it's really best suited for background noise.
Ironicly: The enire conflict of the novel steams from Wolfe's conversion and how moving from the dark to the light would keep him from writing the morbid stories he penned in the past. Yet, Gutteridge herself, a Christian writer, has created a slew of morbid bits and pieces to pepper her story with. The enire town is horror themed. Resturants serve "grave dirt" (a ground beef dish with mushroom sauce and toped with a daisy) and "vampire sodas" which come with an eyeball floating in them. She outlined two horror plots -- via wolfe's last published novel and a movie based on one of his books. And she sticks a pathetic and tramatized character on the couch at a party with a dead cat in her lap and has her rub her face on it.
That's pretty morbid by my way of thinking. So, it seems that she debunks her conflict by writing the story.
The best I can muster up for this one is, indeed, Boo.
