A Dirty Job: A Novel
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 9/23/2017
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 9/23/2017 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
I've enjoyed Moore's books since first introduced to them (via a BookCrossing copy of Lamb as it happens). I found this fair-condition softcover at a local Goodwill thrift shop, and was glad of another release copy - all the more so as there's now a sequel, Secondhand Souls.
The jacket blurb explains that protagonist Charlie Asher winds up being recruited as some kind of assistant to or replacement for Death - which made me think of the Terry Pratchett book with a similar premise, Mort: "Death comes to all men. When he came to Mort, he offered him a job." Moore's version plays out somewhat differently, but the book's still great fun!
The book's set in the same fictional universe as Moore's Bloodsucking Fiends and its sequel You Suck - in fact the events of this book take place in parallel with the events of You Suck, with some characters (and one or two scenes) appearing in both for a very amusing touch.
The premise for this book sounds rather grim: Charlie, an ordinary guy who runs a secondhand shop in San Francisco, is awaiting the birth if his first child, only to notice a strange man hanging around his wife's hospital room. When he approaches the man, the stranger is surprised that Charlie can see him - but as odd as that sounds, Charlie has more pressing worries when the happy event becomes a personal tragedy...
Eventually Charlie finds that the reason he could see the stranger was that he's become a kind of Death Merchant, charged with collecting the soul-objects of the departed - well, the details don't matter. He's reluctant to play along at first, but finds that failing to do so leads to... problems of a different kind, and besides, it gives him something to think about besides his loss. But his new job isn't the only weird thing that happens, and when strange voices start hissing at him from the sewers, things get very weird indeed.
The mix of supernatural and mundane is very funny (and sometimes disturbing); trying to house hellhounds in his apartment, trying to track down his fellow death-merchants (it's against the rules but he can't resist), trying to deal with some very bizarre little zombie-squirrel-type critters...
The tribulations of the secondary characters are fun, too, whether it's the police detective worrying about what to get his boyfriend for a present or the goth-girl who stumbles across the book that's supposed to tell Charlie how to go about his new avocation. And the climax - well, if anyone ever tries to film this, it should make for one heck of an action sequence!
[There's a TV Tropes page for the book, but beware of spoilers if you haven't read the book yet.]
The jacket blurb explains that protagonist Charlie Asher winds up being recruited as some kind of assistant to or replacement for Death - which made me think of the Terry Pratchett book with a similar premise, Mort: "Death comes to all men. When he came to Mort, he offered him a job." Moore's version plays out somewhat differently, but the book's still great fun!
The book's set in the same fictional universe as Moore's Bloodsucking Fiends and its sequel You Suck - in fact the events of this book take place in parallel with the events of You Suck, with some characters (and one or two scenes) appearing in both for a very amusing touch.
The premise for this book sounds rather grim: Charlie, an ordinary guy who runs a secondhand shop in San Francisco, is awaiting the birth if his first child, only to notice a strange man hanging around his wife's hospital room. When he approaches the man, the stranger is surprised that Charlie can see him - but as odd as that sounds, Charlie has more pressing worries when the happy event becomes a personal tragedy...
Eventually Charlie finds that the reason he could see the stranger was that he's become a kind of Death Merchant, charged with collecting the soul-objects of the departed - well, the details don't matter. He's reluctant to play along at first, but finds that failing to do so leads to... problems of a different kind, and besides, it gives him something to think about besides his loss. But his new job isn't the only weird thing that happens, and when strange voices start hissing at him from the sewers, things get very weird indeed.
The mix of supernatural and mundane is very funny (and sometimes disturbing); trying to house hellhounds in his apartment, trying to track down his fellow death-merchants (it's against the rules but he can't resist), trying to deal with some very bizarre little zombie-squirrel-type critters...
The tribulations of the secondary characters are fun, too, whether it's the police detective worrying about what to get his boyfriend for a present or the goth-girl who stumbles across the book that's supposed to tell Charlie how to go about his new avocation. And the climax - well, if anyone ever tries to film this, it should make for one heck of an action sequence!
[There's a TV Tropes page for the book, but beware of spoilers if you haven't read the book yet.]
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Little Free Library, South St. in Milford, New Hampshire USA on Monday, October 30, 2017
GoryDetails at Little Free Library, South St. in Milford, New Hampshire USA on Monday, October 30, 2017
Released 6 yrs ago (10/30/2017 UTC) at Little Free Library, South St. in Milford, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I left this book in the Little Free Library on this blustery afternoon; hope someone enjoys it! [See other recent releases in NH here.]
*** Released for the 2017 Spooktacular October release challenge. ***
Just started it - very entertaining so far!
Journal Entry 4 by Chrisw1114 at Little Free Library, South St. in Milford, New Hampshire USA on Friday, May 19, 2023
Released 11 mos ago (5/19/2023 UTC) at Little Free Library, South St. in Milford, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Enjoy! Fun book - kind of crazy - mad me laugh out loud a few times - kind of dark humor. Definitely going to read more of his books!!
