Jerry’s Book Sucks: The Book: Jay Sigler & Justin M. Woodward
Reviewed By Steve Stred
- Paperback: 298 pages
- Publisher: Independently published (11 Sept. 2019)
Hold onto your jockstraps kids, this isn’t a train ride into goat infested woods.
Most of us know these authors names – one wrote a devastating coming-of-age horror novel, the other wrote a brutal, psychological story. But at their heart, these two are adults who lived through the ’80s and ’90s. With that in mind, all shackles of genre have been removed.
Most of us growing up who are now in the mid to late 30’s/early 40’s all had the same experiences and the same cartoons/movies and toys. We’ve all gravitated to that nostalgia nerd period of GI Joes, Transformers and sci-fi/fantasy movies.
Then along came The Simpsons, which opened the door for Family Guy, South Park and after that, the more bongo type shows like Futurama, Bo Jack Horseman and Rick and Morty. It even opened the door to shows like Archer, Workaholics and People of Earth.
There’s a reason I mention all of those shows. I can’t see how they didn’t influence the story included in the pages of Jerry’s sucky book.
The premise is simple – two colleagues wager against each other. When Rob loses he has to edit Jerry’s book, the book you are about to read. Jerry doesn’t have a title, so Rob names it ‘Jerry’s Book Suck: The Book,’ and off we go.
The beauty of all of this is that the book completely reads as though only a single author wrote it. There are no jarring scope shifts or changes in POV’s that would feel like an author took over and was writing singularly. No – Justin and Jay or Jay and Justin write as though they were named Jaytin or Justay. A single voice. Fantastic and utterly hard to pull off in a serious story, let alone a story as all over the place as this one.
For those expecting a ‘horror’ story, the base story or the story running underneath the entire narrative is dark and filled with scenes of gore. So for those readers, you’ll be happy. But the authors do a great job of stacking a gut-busting, absurd as all hell plot on top of it.
The truth is, this one is going to be a love it or hate it read. There really will be no in-between, but I think it’s an absolute must-read if you like a well written, fun story that will have you laughing as well as enthralled.
I flew through this and I’m hoping we see more from these two authors writing together.
I’d also like to find out what the hell that horses name is.
KR: You can read an interview Steve held with Jay and Justin HERE
Jerry’s Book Sucks: The Book
Rob and Jerry were merely co-workers until one happy hour changed their lives forever.
Both trying to impress a girl, they enter into a bet – Jerry’s sweet office up against Rob’s editing services. The competition was fierce until – Okay, seriously, I can’t continue with that crap. As you can probably guess, I lost the stupid bet and had to edit this stupid book. I’ve written (but never edited) a book before. But a bet is a bet, so here it is.
An intergalactic tale filled with absurd (yet somehow very familiar) characters and an even more ridiculous, but predictable plot – guy loves girl, girl loves guy, monster loves girl, monster steals girl and tries to kill guy.
And oh yeah, there’s the whole thing about the universe hanging in the balance of potential destruction.
Jerry didn’t care too much about the editing process, heck, he didn’t even give the thing a title. He left that part up to me, so I came up with the most accurately truthful title I could think of: Jerry’s Book Sucks: The Book
You can buy Jerry’s Book Sucks: The Book from Amazon UK & Amazon US
Steve Stred
Steve Stred writes dark, bleak horror fiction.
Steve is the author of the novels Invisible & The Stranger, the novellas The Girl Who Hid in the Trees, Wagon Buddy, Yuri and Jane: the 816 Chronicles and two collections of short stories; Frostbitten: 12 Hymns of Misery and Left Hand Path: 13 More Tales of Black Magick, and the dark poetry collection Dim the Sun.
On September 1st, 2019 his second collection of dark poetry and drabbles called The Night Crawls In will arrive. This release was specifically created to help fund the 1st Annual LOHF Writers Grant.
Steve is also a voracious reader, reviewing everything he reads and submitting the majority of his reviews to be featured on Kendall Reviews.
Steve Stred is based in Edmonton, AB, Canada and lives with his wife, his son and their dog OJ.
You can follow Steve on Twitter @stevestred
You can visit Steve’s Official website here
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