3.5

Charlie Asher is a normal guy. Despite being painfully average (or in the words of Charlie: a “Beta Male”), he’s been pretty lucky in life. He has a beautiful wife, runs a secondhand shop/apartment complex that’s been passed down from his father, and is expecting a baby girl soon. Charlie is doing better than he ever anticipated. If only it lasted. After baby Sophie is born, Charlie seems to be losing his mind. Random objects are glowing red, shadows are following him around, and voices reverberating in the sewer threaten to eat his baby, and refer to him as “New Meat”. Confused and terrified, Charlie tracks down a man by the name of Minty Fresh who informs Charlie he’s a Death Merchant, like himself. Being (a) Death proves to be a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it!

This is my first Moore read following heavy pushes from friends and family. Horror comedy is just *so* fun, there’s something about the opposing themes that mesh so well together to create an over-the-top narrative. Moore did that here and did it well. The plot points intertwined with the humor perfectly, resulting in imagery that is downright hilarious. With that being said, it’s very evident this novel was written in 2006. There are some attempts at humor that are extremely dated + in poor taste and it shows. Specifically, a Black character states cabs won’t stop for him bc he is Black and it’s supposed to be funny, Charlie speaks with a blaccent complete with the word “wigga” ((MEGA CRINGE…like 9-1-1)) and a freshly 18 year old character who the reader has known since she was 12-13 has graphic sex with a character in his mid-40’s…who’s also known her since she was 12-13. When I read these portions, my thoughts ranged from “this isn’t funny, how could this have gotten approved, disgusting, no like rlly who said this is ok, uh tf?”. My takeaway from this is that I’m happy to exist in a time and space where “jokes” that use racism + grooming as the punchline are immediately recognizable, unfunny, unacceptable, and don’t get swept under the rug. These jokes alone brought the book from a 5-star read to a 3.5.

I can only assume that existing as a white male author in 2006 there wasn’t much feedback from women, Black, or POC peeps while writing but, I hope like hell Moore is receiving that feedback now and adjusting accordingly.

If you don’t like humor + horror don’t reach for this one. It definitely leans more closely towards humor vs horror, with horror elements peppered in every so often. It worked for me despite the issues I had with it but, if those will turn the novel into a DNF for you—don’t say I didn’t warn you