This week sees the second instalment in my dark humour book series. Here are five darkly humorous books that I have read and one that I have written. Click on the links to read my reviews.
Damned by Chuck Palahniuk
Damned is a light-hearted satire of hell, punctuated with comical details, pop-culture references and Theological irony.
My Review: The protagonist is thirteen-year-old Madison, the daughter of wealthy alternative parents. The privileged Madison studies at an exclusive Swiss boarding school and spends her holidays alternating …(more)
Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis
Lunar Park is a self-indulgent suburban horror that forces the reader to travel back through Easton Ellis’s old books.
My Review: Lunar Park is a mock memoir that begins with a parodic account of Bret Easton Ellis’s early fame. The young New York resident’s existence consists of endless parties, casual relationships, spiralling drug use, embarrassing book tours and …(more)
Skagboys by Irvine Welsh
Skagboys is a work of Transgressive Fiction whose main focus is many of its characters increasing obsession with heroin.
My Review: Skagboys is the prequel to Trainspotting. Its colourful, mostly young characters hail from the Edinburgh port suburb of Leith. There is the bookish, unambitious Mark ‘Rents’ Renton, and his best friend, the verbose, predatory womaniser Sick Boy …(more)
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk
Rant challenges our own traditions by demonstrating how we contort our recollection of events in accordance with our desires, motives and beliefs.
My Review: Rant is the oral history of Buster ‘Rant’ Casey, recounted by an array of people including his relations, friends, enemies and lovers. Rant’s childhood companions from the small rural town where …(more)
An Ice-Cream War by William Boyd
An Ice-Cream War’s motif is the absurdness of war. This unpredictable serio-comedy’s blend of tragedy and black humour appealed to this reader.
My Review: After much tension and speculation, World War I begins. The main campaign is contended on the Western Front, but there is also a less well-known offensive in colonial East Africa, where the British and their native conscripts are …(more)
Sepultura (#2 Necropolis Trilogy) by Guy Portman
Sepultura is a caustic black comedy featuring an unforgettable sociopath. Click here to get #1 for FREE. 800+ Ratings for Necropolis Trilogy on Goodreads.
Dyson Devereux is a busy man, with a challenging new job at Paleham Council and a young son. He would be coping just fine were it not for crass colleagues, banal bureaucracy and contemptible clothes. He is not going to take it lying down …(more)