The story of two competing gangs, the elite NOLA and eponymous Crud Masters, this novella crossbreeds 1970s exploitation movies—turf
wars, sordid sex, a high-tech, dystopian future in which the noble poor are
pitted against the undeserving rich—with some classic, Toho-style kaiju action.
I love the setting: a coastal tourist hotspot whose waters are alive with giant
monsters of every mutation. And, even more, I love the array of filthy yet
sympathetic characters, whose perversions and personal habits are akin to those
of the characters in a Jordan Krall novel: Boogers, the anti-hero with a nasal
spray addiction; Soda Can, the sexbot with a pelvic fire hose; Bovy, the girl
with big breasts and an even bigger body odor; Uncle Grandpa, the stubborn old redneck
who is neither an uncle nor a grandpa; Pvssy Bear, the bear with…fur. Unlike
the characters, the prose is clean. It reads very smoothly, and the narrative moves
swiftly, building to a satisfying and gloriously over-the-top climax (the last and
largest of many, um, climaxes, I might add). A book which is a distillation of all
my favorite movies into sixteen short chapters of non-stop literary bedlam, and
one I’ll definitely return to in the high-tech, dystopian future awaiting us
all.
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