First sentence: 'There are questions that run through your head when you find out that you're a serial killer.'
Plot: Let me introduce you to our main man Baxter Zevcenko, he's the youthful chap with the questionable insignia on his forehead! Alongside running a successful pornography business within his school in Cape Town, Bax is bossing rival gangs with the help of his odd-ball, yet loveable, wolf pack of friends. In this adult novel, Esme, his girlfriend, is pronounced missing and everything he knows, becomes incredibly weird. Basically, shit starts to go wrong and strange, dark, bizarre things leak into Baxter's life, with a pinch of apocalypse to add flavour! As any responsible teenager would, Baxter embarks on a mission to find who took Esme, with the unconventional aid of a supernatural bounty hunter. Yes that's right! You heard me right! Walk, and sometimes frantically dart, with Bax and Ronin as they explore Cape Town's twisted underworld.
Review: Now, I urge you to scroll back up and take a look at that cover. For a debut, Human does not scrimp on the wild appearance of his vision. I picked this book up at my local bookshop because of the artwork. Before peeling the first page, we are treated to comic illustrations of dark creatures embossed with blood, maroon tentacles circling praying mantises and a selection of gothic characters dwelling firearms. I mean damn, this book hit the spot for me. It screams gothic, urban fantasy, which is essentially what it is.
Apocalypse Now Now reads like butter, the quality of writing cannot be knocked. It is infused with wild imagination and gave me the similar feelings as Neil Gaiman's Coraline. The prose is weird and violent, yet compelling. Not dissimilar to watching someone start a fire inside a house, or try to make friends with a feisty cobra. The pace is fantastic and the chapters are short, allowing the story to move comfortably. The author is eloquent in capturing Baxter's twisted, adult sense of humour in dialogue, which complimented mine like cheese to wine. I read chapters thinking, does this Charlie guy know me, does he read my blog or summa?! When I laughed, of course, I grew a relationship with Bax and the equally hilarious Ronin; I often myself, gleefully pondered the real life consequences of hanging out with a middle aged, gun dwelling, alcoholic, unpredictable hunter.
Readers learn how Baxter deals with unconventional family life (very relatable), help him face otherworldly decisions and dive into a chaotic underworld. Reading this book felt like walking down a darkened street when you should be in bed, lined with shady gentlemen and the occasional hooker, not knowing what you're going to be greeted with. One aspect I found incredibly charming was the incorporation of Baxter's psychiatrist's reports; including these, which gave the reader an honest insight into Bax's twisted personality, also balanced out the high amounts of contrived fantasy and made up beasties.
Give it a go, I highly recommend. Great, original story that's funny and relatable. There is a book 2, called Kill Baxter that I found just as compelling, may review soon! Funny side note; please remind me not to awkwardly use social media as a vessel for showcasing my admiration of books. I don't think Charlie Human appreciated my sickeningly sweet compliments on Twitter...or maybe he did. Maybe he's too cool and awesome to reply...
Sarah
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