The Unnoticeables: A Novel (The Vicious Circuit)

This is exactly my can of tuna - filthy, funny, violent contemporary paranormal fiction. Now I can go back to reading picture books for a while.

File under: 'If you like Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey.'

I have been a fan of Mr. Brockaway's work at Cracked for quite some time, and though I found this a little gross, as in sustained creepy body horror gross, it didn't feel as though it worked all that well. I really enjoy secret history, occulted reality and not that it wasn't a good read, I just wanted it to be better.

I really liked the command of setting, and it was probably the strongest part of the book. '70s punk rock NYC went really well with contemporary LA, and they are really a natural fit. I was onboard with this before I started and This really worked.

This is a clever book.

This is a fiendishly clever book.

This is a book with one of the cleverest plot gimmicks I have seen in a loooooong time.

And, by God, it knows it!

And therein lies the problem

Let me be clear; I LOVE Snark

Snark is one of my favourite argumentative fall-back positions

I am the original Snarky Parker! (well, not actually the original, that was a puppet)

Give me a choice of Snark or a BLT, and I will choose Snark... every time

The problem is, you see, you simply can't write an almost 300 page novel based ONLY on Snark (well, actually, you can, or at least Robert Brockway can)

If you're going to hope to have a book regular mugs like yrs. truly will want to read, you've got to have at least one character in it that people can care about (not "like", necessarily,. You can HATE the git, but you've got to care)

This one... not so much

And, as you read this... and TRULY admire its cleverness... the lack of ANYBODY "careable" in it, gets real old, real fast

This book taught me everything I will ever need to know about New York. If and when I go there, I will do no further research and will bring my lighter, knowing that they already have the cheap beer in stock

If you enjoy hilarious gross outs, this is for you. The novel follows two characters in two time periods, 1977 and 2013, alternating between the two. The humor is what you would expect from Cracked, originally a magazine competing with Mad and now a website.

This is fun, but of course not for everyone. A weird sense of humor is a requisite for total enjoyment of the book. It's well worth a try.

This book will turn your stomach and make you laugh out loud in an awkward crowded train, all on the same page. The author writes like a darker, twisted Christopher Moore, and the story feels right at home with fans of the Evil Dead. Pick this book up, you won't regret it!

I loved this book. Scary, but doesn't sacrifice the humor you expect from a cracked editor (especially Brockway). Will cement your distrust for someone who totally isn't Mario Lopez. I also enjoyed the cameos from Geoff and Chaz.

Really interesting and one of the most unique books I've read in years. It's dark and suspenseful but also hilarious at the right points. The horror and the humor don't bleed over onto each other and both are really well done.

It takes a bit to really get going but once you do you're hooked. One of the characters is a scumbag you really shouldn't like but do anyways and the other is a girl who gts your sympathy right off the bat. Overall a great read.

I thought this book about "angels" who use the excess energy of the messy human life to power the universe was okay but I didn't love it. It is told mostly from two perspectives, a punk rocker from 1970s New York City and a Hollywood stunt woman from present day California.

The premise is original and the characters were interesting, but I never understood enough about what the "angels" and the "unnoticeables" were doing to find my way in this unusual tale.

I have been a fan of the author's writing style ever since he was slack reviewer at Khaki lllistrated. The man knows writing like he knows slacks. That is a huge compliment. This book is cray to the max. I ended up reading the book in one "s***ting" (reading while pooping). 10/10 would bang

It's rare that I'll pick up a book and then sacrifice an entire evening because I refuse to put it down until it's done, but this book was one of those rare exceptions. Now that I've finished it, I can say with certainty it was time well spent. I had a blast reading it, and I highly recommend it to anyone in the mood for a dark, funny, gruesome, and spectacularly weird story. It's every bit as compelling as it is crazy, and MAN is it crazy.

A truly brilliant (and terrifying) concept marred by a narrative split in time, one thoroughly unlikable main character, and an ending that didn't really explain all that was going on, in a book that does not appear to be the start of a series.