One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Series: Milrose Munce, Book 2
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 4081 Locations
Formats: Kindle



For the seditiously unpopular (among the living, anyway...the dead actually think quite highly of him) Milrose Munce, life couldn't be better. After triumph against an evil guidance counselor (and all around bad chap), he and his girlfriend Arabella are basking in the golden era of goodliness at school, firmly ensconced in their own superiority of all things wickedly weird. But life being what it is, something new and grotesquely horrific is quite literally growing in those not-so-hallowed halls...and in the vents, and across desks and blackboards and even...if they sit still long enough...the students.

This verdant oddity definitely attracts Milrose's attention; he even musters up some mild concern, but his darling Arabella seems peculiarly (which for the girl should make her almost normal in comparison, yet truly doesn't) unfazed by the creeping cornucopia. Then two of the people most dear to Milrose disappear, and more than his concern is mustered.

First, the new and beautiful principal, Caroline Corduroy is suddenly gone from her office, an office that is now completely overrun with flagrant flora, then his soul mate, the reason for every ounce of the happiness in his heart, his Arabella, disappears without a trace...or topiary. Disturbingly heartbreaking, her loss truly incites Milrose's panic and occasional despair, but also births his determination to deflower this current pernicious threat as it spreads through the school.

Milrose, along with his creepy coterie of grotesquely gruesome ghosts (great guys and girls, all...well...except maybe for Percival), must discover the cause of the spreading fungal malignancy and alter its aliveness before Arabella and the almost as wonderful Principal Corduroy are lost forever. Oh, yeah, and saving the school...again...would be nice, too. But mostly Arabella.

Welcome (or welcome back) to the world of Milrose Munce, my favorite overachieving underachiever, and the brilliant - if twisted - mind of author Douglas Anthony Cooper. I love this world. I wouldn't want to live in this world, but I do so enjoy visiting. Cooper has created a masterpiece of the hilariously macabre (again), and once again wowed me with his deliciously sarcastic and frighteningly lovable characters doing significantly sardonic and slightly terrifying things.

As far as heroes go, you can't get much better than the reluctant Milrose, who would much prefer being not at all heroic, but can't seem to help himself. Academically brilliant, he's less than the most intellectually superior in greenery hostage situations, and while I'm sure that says something horrific about the quality of education in public schools in a socially conscious way, I doubt social consciousness has ever been considered as rip-roaring a good time as Milrose's passionate pursuits.

Pursued passionately.

I love this book. I've loved both of them, actually, but this one offered up a more layered and cohesive plot than its predecessor (not that Milrose Munce and the Den of Professional Help wasn't layered or sticky or anything, this one was just more so), and Milrose got a chance to sneak beyond the halls of matriculation in several scenes I thoroughly enjoyed. Arabella's disappearance obviously lessened her appearance in this one, but I loved what Cooper did with some of the ghosts, making their roles more visible in the arc of the conflict than in the previous book.

Frankly, though, I've got to stop reading about Milrose when I'm in public, because the sound effects draw the most peculiar stares. Gaggled giggles, snickering snorts, chuckled chortles and the like come so fast and often that anyone within hearing range thinks I forgot to take my medication this morning. This is a funny, funny book. Galactically funny; universally funny. Not to mention sharply, intelligently funny (which is my favorite kind). It's that humor, along with the unique and original characters and story, which has turned me into such a rabid fan of these books (ignore the slavering, please...it's impolite to stare).

Douglas Anthony Cooper has, in the Milrose Munce exploits, created a reading experience that is simply but sublimely satisfying for me. It happens sometimes (if you're...you know...lottery-lucky). Sometimes you stumble across a book that hits on so many of your happy spots, or appeals on so many levels, or is so stylistically in sync with your reading preferences, that the book resonates with a bizarre sense of intrinsic rightness in your pleasure centers, whistling a jaunty tune as it makes you feel good. For me, that's Milrose Munce (or possibly gastric distress...but my money's on Milrose). Yes, it's a book that points in the YA direction - though I'm not convinced that's the right market. It's perfectly fine for them to read, as far as the material goes, but I actually think I appreciate this more as an adult than I would have when I was young (those many, many, many years ago). Hey, I would have loved it back then, don't get me wrong...I just don't know that I would have appreciated it (or...ahem... possibly understood it) as much as I do now.

Not to be repetitive or anything, but I repeat, I loved this book. Milrose Munce is like...the legitimate but disturbed love child of Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew...if those mystery-solving kids married, got rich on a pyramid scheme, relocated to the Twilight Zone, bought the House on Haunted Hill, munched down on a few of those funny-type mushrooms, and birthed progeny. Then named said progeny Milrose.

Milrose Munce and the Plague of Toxic Fungus is a funny, fast read with characters that are as entertaining as they are gruesome, has a plot that works a little better than it's predecessor but is still weird and occasionally incomprehensible (in the best ways), and is set in a world that's highly unusual. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves their inner sarcastic and wisecracking social outcast (who would probably be beloved by gruesome ghosts).

Some Favorite Quotes:

"Corporal punishment was abominable, yes, but the casual threat of illegal brutality was one of the few things that made life worth living."  ~ The Thoughts of Milrose Munce

"You're a sick man, Milrose Munce."
"Yeah, well, you're dead. Which is like sick to the power of ten."  ~ Hurled Harry and Milrose Munce

"Unhand me, you piteous filth-bedecked excuse for a mild infestation..."  ~ Milrose Munce

"I'm just a kid trying to lead an intelligent, entertaining, useless life."  ~ Milrose Munce

"With great frivolity comes great responsibility."  ~ Cryogenic Kelvin

"I've never felt that way about laws. Let's just ignore them."
"Sure buddy. Start with gravity. Let's see you ignore the law of gravity. As a kind of test case."  ~ Milrose Munce and Cryogenic Kelvin

A caution for Kindle readers: there are several sections of the book that have formatting issues and a typo or two can be found as you read along. Nothing so egregious that it pulled me out of the story, as it was mostly issues with random paragraph indentations, but that may bother some readers more than it did me.

Disclosure: An electronic copy of this book was provided to me by the author for my review. All ratings, comments, thoughts, and opinions are my own.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Nicki Styx, Book 1
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 384 Pages, 4329 Locations
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


A heart condition killed her. Fortunately for Nicki Styx, the condition wasn't permanent (being dead, I mean...she's stuck with the heart condition), though coming back from the dead isn't as simple as one might think. First, there was the near death experience (NDE) that left Nicki unquestionably changed on a soul-deep level, then there was the ghost of a woman needing a favor. As if those two things weren't enough, sexy ER doctor Joe Bascombe is very interested in her as a patient whose death didn't stick, and intends to use her as a subject for his paper on NDEs. He's also interested in her as a woman, and that's enough to make Nicki tingle in all the right places...until she finds out he's married and thinks his wife is the twin sister she didn't know she had.

Life was significantly easier when the most she had to worry about was being a vintage clothing shop owner with her lifelong friend Evan and having a good time whenever possible. The doctor being married is complicated...but not as bad as it sounds, the ghost of a woman who made a deal with a dark force and brought voodoo to Nicki's door is definitely as bad as it sounds, and Nicki's life doesn't even remotely resemble what it thought it would just a week ago.

Apparently, it took a little death to connect Nicki to all the messiness of life.

With a unique and surprising depth of meaning and importance, Dead Girls Are Easy wasn't even close to what I was expecting, nor is it typical urban fantasy fare. Well written and nicely populated by very realistic and layered characters, what I thought was going to be a comic romp was actually more of a thoughtful observation about a quirky and emotionally closed off woman and how she deals with suddenly having some of those closed doors and windows to soul and psyche forcibly yanked open. The tone stayed a bit lighter with the help of the flamboyant best friend Evan adding a touch of comic relief and a few cutesy relationship moments with the hunky doctor, and it dipped into a more traditional urban fantasy overcoat a time or two as Nicki dealt with the dark specter of a former friend, but beyond that was depth and weight and a serious message or two.

I was particularly impressed with the attention to detail given to both the religious themes and the psychiatric profession and appreciate what seemed to be quite a bit of well researched information. I felt that the religious themes and much of the ideology of the religion and practices of Voodoo were well represented and respected and the psychiatric sessions realistic and believable.

Nicki is a very complicated character. She's tough and brassy on the outside, a flaunter of all things "good girl," with a stylistic flair all her own, but wounded by a past filled with loss and heartache, and more than a little jaded in lots of ways. She's a mess about some things, relationships with people in particular, and she's spent a lot of years keeping best friend Evan as a shield between herself and the rest of humanity - even her customers. She's sometimes selfish, usually stubborn, cynical about some people, and definitely doesn't appreciate what feels like a forced responsibility for the souls of the not so dearly departed. In that, actually, I can't say I blame her. Despite her having traits I usually admire in a character, though, I found her difficult to like, and I can't quite put my finger on why. Maybe because she was a little too real, flawed in ways that I understood a little too well, that it was uncomfortable spending so much time in her head. Maybe that's it.

Unfortunately, and though I have nothing but the utmost appreciation for, and recognition of the intelligence of the book and the way it was written, I can't say I ended up liking the book very much either. Not because I have any criticism for it, because I don't...well, okay, I thought Joe was a little bland and uncomplicated when compared to Nicki (who but Evan wouldn't be?), and Evan was a bit of a stereotype caricature at times, but nothing egregious. They didn't affect my feelings on the book, anyway.

It just wasn't the type of story that I prefer. This is purely and totally subjective, I know, but for me, Dead Girls Are Easy seemed to be, at it's core, a story about Nicki's personal development and growth, her relationship, friendships, etc., and that sort of character-driven book and/or series isn't the style I prefer, especially in the urban fantasy/fantasy genre. Beyond that, I didn't care for Nicki enough to enjoy it despite my preferences, and the plot-driven aspects of the surrounding story just weren't light enough or full of enough action to really keep me entertained throughout. Parts were, don't get me wrong. I loved the parts about the Voodoo, really liked seeing Nicki come face to face with her old flame, and I thought several other scenes were perfectly pleasant and entertaining, but in the end, the character-driven nature of the story and my lack of feeling for the lead character took too much away for me.

Was the book well written? Absolutely. The narrative flowed well, dialogue had a natural conversational cadence, the world building was enough for the purpose of the story, the city of Atlanta (one of my favorites) was well described and its diversity captured well. The main character has flaws but struggles with them, felt real, and has some nice depth. Complex and valid religious and belief-based questions and themes were addressed thoughtfully and respectfully. There was a bit of romance, a bit of terror, and some humorous times. I know, without a shadow of a doubt that this is a very good book that most people will completely and thoroughly enjoy. It just wasn't to my tastes.

Genre:Young Adult Fantasy
Series: Milrose Munce, Book 1
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 224 Pages, 2907 Locations
Formats: Paperback, Kindle


Milrose Munce is an exceptional young man. At fifteen-years-old, he finds school mostly a bore, as he usually knows the material before...and much better...than the teachers. He relies on his closest friends...the gruesome, ghoulish ghosts of dead, and obviously, former students to entertain him during his educational experience. They're rather good at it, after all.

Unfortunately, Milrose's extraordinary behavior...and his habit of slapping his dead friends (invisible to everyone else) on the back and chatting amicably (to seeming nothingness) with them, has been noticed by various Powers That Be. Suddenly, Milrose's winsome, witty world is thrown off balance and he's being conscripted to the bowels of the school and relegated to endure Professional Help. A more ominous phrase Milrose Munce has never heard.

His trepidation is well placed, as he and another extraordinary student, Arabella Smith, quickly realize that Professional Help is handled nowhere near professionally, nor in any way is it to be helpful to their continued existence. Milrose Munce and Arabella Smith must hope for a far more ghoulish contingent to come to their rescue.

I loved this book. Despite being considered a young adult novel, and me being several miles past the "young" exit on life's highway, I both thoroughly enjoyed, and was consistently impressed with this smart, sharp, weird, wonderful - and gruesomely descriptive book. Oh, and it's funny, too. Genuinely, sickly, fabulously funny. Milrose was a joy of a lead character and Arabella was a fantastic sardonic counterpoint to his sarcastic point. The narrative was so intelligently written and the plot so deceptively simple that the characters were really able to shine to diamond brilliance.

I can't say enough about how much pleasure I had reading this. In point of fact, I didn't really expect it to appeal to me, but from the first sentence, and definitely the first paragraph, I was drawn in and gripped by the perfect peculiarity of it all. It was, in truth, rather difficult to look away (like a truly spectacular train wreck - but in only the best ways) from the first to the last. Cooper really showed off some impressive writing chops with this one. I'd be very interested in seeing his take on a more adult-themed novel. Taking Milrose Munce as evidence, it's quite clear his ingenuity and originality comes from a place a little left of center. It was charmingly gruesome and delightfully entertaining in every facet. I loved it.