Go, Mutants! audiobook

Reading the other reviews of Larry Doyle's follow up to I Love You, Beth Cooper got me thinking two things:1. Why the hell aren't I getting free books from Good Reads?2. Have these people never read sci-fi before? Many of them complain that the first 75 pages or so are slow going, that he's taking forever to set up the characters and the setting. Helloooo, he's creating an alternate universe here. God may have done it in 6 or 5 days (depending on your religion) but in a book it takes time. And I found those pages the most enjoyable of all. When the plot picks up, it becomes just that - plot. Character and setting takes something of a back seat, altho there are lots of jokes about Nixon, Kissinger, Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, et al, later on.Ultimately, it's not as affecting a book as Beth Cooper, but I still enjoyed it. Doyle's humor is less slapstick and more allusionary, which I appreciate. And he obviously loves '50s monster movies as much as he loved '80s teen movies (the structure for Beth Cooper). A light read, but still a fun read.

Like Doyle's previous novel, I LOVE YOU BETH COOPER, GO MUTANTS contains a mind-boggling number of jokes, several per page. So much of the humor is understated that I purposely had to slow down my reading to make sure I didn't miss anything. I'm a horror geek but not really a SF geek, so I'm sure there are plenty of references I didn't get, and I can't honestly say that I was truly invested in the story...but as a pure comedy novel, it works brilliantly.

Way more fun than my last trip to the drive-in.

I hope Guillermo Del Toro directs this movie, y'all. From plotting robotic lawn gnomes to unforgettable semi-sentient shed skin, this world is chock full of pop culture references. Lost points for gross misogyny throughout that even a 1950s theme can't excuse.

Super duper fun!It's Rebel Without a Cause with Extraterrestrials.

           Okay, so, the rundown is as follows: This is a book that is at times funny, and at times very clever. It's a good look at being a teenager and at the same time being a monster, and while the metaphor for puberty and understanding one's body is a little heavy-handed, I can't say it's exactly un-clever, either. The book's a teen comedy that turns very weird, and I can't say I don't get behind that, especially with the kind of stuff I read, and my love of retro-future and B-movies. It's clear that Larry Doyle has a clear interest in a lot of the culture, and he loves both his audience and the world he's created. Add to this some very good narrative voice and some incredible imagery, and you have a book well worth the read.               The problem is, this is a book for a very specific audience, and when it misses, it misses pretty badly. The tone gets really in-jokey at times, bringing famous monsters and concepts in with nary a thought, and while most of them actually work, occasionally they wind up being more "Really? You put that in there?" Apart from the self-conscious referencing, I felt there were a few gags that needed to have a payoff but...didn't (The one involving The Brain Who Wouldn't Die as a reference in particular). Overall, though, this is a great book, one I'd suggest reading as soon as you can get it out of the library.More, as always, below. "I come in peace." *beat* "A bit awkward. Is this a bad time?" - Andi Ra'             It comes as no great surprise to any regular readers (all four of you) that I am something of a B-movie and horror movie fanatic. It's something I've had with me since an early age, when I dutifully sat down in front of the TV and watched the WPIX Saturday Afternoon Movie (Giving a little of my location away when I say that. Ah, well, the network had a decent coverage). I was raised, even, on a steady diet of black-and-white horror flicks that never failed to both freak me out and fascinate me. And to this day, I still hold a soft spot for those movies and their offspring. And so, one day when I looked through the public library, I happened upon a copy of Go Mutants, and immediately I was intrigued.             Well, okay, first I had to read the jacket flap to make sure it was the sort of book I thought it was. But then I was intrigued. The book created a weird mix of film references, snarky self-referential humor, and  a pretty good insight into being a teenager and having weird issues with a changing body and issues you no longer quite understand. It also kept a lot of the same beats as the films, which is something essential to the process. In short, as I read this book, I found myself actually wishing I could write something like it. And while that definitely informs my bias, the book being written for someone like me, I have to say I liked what Larry Doyle has done.                Go, Mutants! is about J!m Anderson, a big-brained blue alien who was the son of a would-be conqueror of Earth, Andi Ra. And if the combined bad feelings of having both a father who is responsible for most of the destruction of the earth and a hot cat-person mother wasn't all, J!m is shedding his skin on a regular basis and an outcast at school. His only friends are the girl next door, a radioactive half man half-ape, and a large sentient blob trying very hard to pose as a fat kid. He spends his time listening to rock over the "domes", a device sort of like futuristic headphones, and working at the local drive-in theater while dreaming of the movies he wants to make. While he's hassled by the local sheriff's kid and tormented by children singing nursery rhymes about the death of his father ("It looked just like Chow Mein!"), he tends to get by okay.And then things get weird.                  J!m's body is going through its final stages of puberty, causing "brainstorms" that may be fatal to his health. The local human boys get rougher than normal and their teasing may be turning a little vicious and possibly fatal. But no one can predict what happens when J!m finally emerges from puberty, throwing the lives of friend and enemy alike into chaos.               I think the thing I like the most about this (and this seems to be a theme this month. Shhhhh) is the atmosphere behind it. Doyle captures some of the 50s and 60s teenage monster movie feel, but somehow makes it not feel too hokey. While it may not have much of the stylings of the actual decade behind it, Go, Mutants! doesn't need to. Instead, it hits all the pop culture notes, things that people would remember from the movies and even the movies at the time. While this may normally lend itself to a certain artificial quality, it actually helps to familiarize the setting-- One can tell where it takes place because one has all the right visual references. It creates a very odd but believable setting where things like radioactive biker apes and a gigantic firebreathing lizard running for public office are things that could feasibly exist. It's colorful, a kind of odd cross between old sitcom and old monster movie, with some bizarre modern touches here and there (the nightclub where J!m's mom waitresses, for example). Overall, the setting handles most of the load, and while it's shorthand, it's at least shorthand that works.                Doyle populates his book with interesting characters, as well. J!m is suitably surly, and since we see most of his difficulties through his eyes, at least somewhat relatable. The villains are harmless until the end of the story, where they suddenly pull out the big guns and kick off the last bit of the conflict. The one weak character seems to be Marie, who while a POV character for a bit in her own way is kind of less an effective heroine and more someone whom the plot happens around. While this is true to the source material, it does kind of suck for Marie. And I know, time period appropriacy and all that, but still, give her some knowledge, some idea of what's going on...something. Larry "Jelly" Sweeney (the blob monster...he's adopted), and Johnny Love (the biker ape) are given wonderful characterization, as well as just about all the supporting cast, so the Marie issue is a little more glaring.                  And in a book like this, that there's a glaring issue stands out, but isn't too terrible. The book knows its audience and handles its subject matter with gentle (if occasionally dark) humor. At the center of the book is a narrative voice that is warm, friendly, and has a lot of heart. And that Doyle knows his way around a joke helps immensely. He handles the subject matter and dialogue with a lot of wit, and knows his way around a joke. One in particular took a long time to build, but when it finally got where it was going, it was well-received. Also, the alien invader learning his humor and english from British comedies was a nice touch. Even if it did make me want to see a movie with Stephen Fry playing Andi Ra'. And then get disappointed because in all likelihood, that wouldn't happen.                      But despite its nature of being steeped in nostalgia and the like (or in spite of), there were some issues with the book I have to address. While I liked a lot of the in-jokes, the book did get too in-jokey at times, mentioning references from Day of the Triffids or It Conquered the World just seemingly to keep in the setting, not for much of a real purpose. While this creates a fun game of spotting references in the work, and trying to figure out what came from where, it does detract from the story. Also, while I was pleasantly surprised by the climax, I felt like things were wrapped up in kind of a weird way. It fit the setting and all, but it just felt kind of odd to me. And again, I wish Marie had more characterization than being the one normal human being in the story. Yes, she was needed as a rock and a safe spot to anchor things, but, and this is something I find myself repeating, not every story needs an audience surrogate.                  In the end, however, it's charming. Go, Mutants! knows its audience and how to play to them, and while that audience isn't everyone, it's an audience that I happen to be part of. The book pulls itself off with relative grace, and it's well worth the read. Take this one out of the library, it's not a classic, but since this is summer and the book is relatively light fun, I'd say read it as soon as you can. LATER THIS WEEK:Pop Hits of the Showa Era by Ryu MurakamiAND THEN:Everyone Loves You When You're Dead by Neil Strauss

Really enjoyed this book. It is sci-fi and retro but ultimally a book about accepting people for who they are be they blond and blue eyed, half human/half blue alien, or just a manufactured blob of jelly with sentience. This book takes place in an alternate universe 50'S era town where Aliens and mutants are living together with humans. Our protagonist is the son of a former starlet who fell in love with an alien. The alien father has died, leaving his son to navigate in a world where he is regarded with suspician and everyone regards his father as evil. He has a few friends, some human, some not and is trying hard to win the live of the girl next store.

Call this "science fiction adventure." Doyle's second novel is a fun read not only for its brisk story, but for the visuals that are an homage to 1950s sf movies. I found it hard going at first because Doyle creates a chaotic alternate history full of aliens (drawn to Earth by our first atomic bomb tests) and mutants. He lets the details unfold gradually through his main character, J!m, who struggles with normal teenage problems along with some unique alien-mutant hybrid problems. Give the book a chance, though, and you'll be rewarded with a fascinating and often hilarious scenario, likable characters, and lots of surprises.

It had charming moments and humor, but in my opinion the complexity of the plot detracted from the lighthearted and amusing aspects.

Sci-Fi pulp with witty irony makes for a fun read!

Or, "I Was A Teenaged Mutant Alien Monster Baby from Beyond."Larry Doyle's Go, Mutants! pops from the page in lurid, livid 3-D, a nearly pitch-perfect sendup of the Fifties of our imaginations (the 1950s, that is), as they never were but always should have been.It all starts with J!m, just about as normal a teenager as could be (never mind that exclamation mark in the middle of his name)—working up his nerve to ask pretty Marie Rand to the big harvest dance; nodding off in classes at Manhattan High after staying up late at the drive-in; dodging big, mean Russ and the other bullies on the football team; worrying about his straight-leg Lees jeans and plain white tee-shirt; hanging out with his friends Johnny and Larry over fried carbohydrates at Googie's... Of course, Johnny's a radioactive ape-boy, and Larry's nickname is Jelly because he's a mountain of gelatinous goo—and J!m himself is a blue-skinned double-domed being whose father once tried to take over the world and whose mother is a catwoman named Miw—but that's as normal as life gets, in the bucolic town of Manhattan in the glorious tenth year E.I.See, J!m was born on Earth, but he's not from this Earth. J!m's planet Earth got invaded—multiple times—by pretty much all of the aliens, giant monsters, radioactive mutants and ridiculous B-movie menaces that in our timeline were confined to the silver screens of the local cinematheque or drive-in. Every thing, from Gojira and the 50-Foot Woman to the deadly Mantis and the Ro-Man, seems to have put in an appearance. These cataclysmic events both spurred this Earth's technological development and, paradoxically, held back its social evolution. All the best stuff from the future of the Fifties, the things we didn't get, like the nuclear-powered Ford Fissionaire, houses you can hose down to clean inside and out, and 3-D color home visualizers (herein called the Plex), are realized—but America's pretty much frozen into its big-finned, paranoid, jingoistic Atomic Age mindset as well.Doyle used to write for The Simpsons, and it shows. By turns raunchy, bloody, touching and tender, radioactive, toxic and vitriolic, Doyle manages to keep up the hectic pace pretty much throughout this satiric novel, mixing in cinematic effects like script fragments, title cards, and even an Intermission in the middle of the book.Sometimes it's really hard to see how J!m's going to get out of the scrapes he gets into, and sometimes all that typographical exuberance comes across as trying too hard... but there are also occasional moments of brilliance, like this one from p.97:The world never stopped spinning, though, except that one time.The website for the book is also worth a look (warning: embedded autoplaying YouTube video!). Doyle's collected snapshots of the movie posters, music and other cultural detritus that inspired him—what isn't already a remembrance of things past may be a guide to further entertaining research. And, who knows, maybe being familiar with this stuff will help you when the flying saucers attack our dreaming Earth.Keep watching the skies...

So you think it’s tough being a teenager these days? Alienation, oily skin, watching your childhood sweetheart go out with your lifelong enemy; it’s all part of the package. Try putting yourself in the shoes of J!m (no, not a typo), the hero of Larry Doyle’s hilarious send-up of the B-movies and pop culture of the fifties and sixties, “Go Mutants!” (HarperCollins, 2010). J!m is the son of an alien who appeared on earth during Bobby Thomson’s 1951 “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” game-ending home-run to win the National League pennant game for the New York Giants against the Brooklyn Dodgers. J!m’s father came to tell the world that he could offer them scientific and technological advances, if only they agreed to destroy their atomic weapons. This being the Cold War era, the proposal went over like a plutonium balloon. Nuclear war left in its wake a world populated by humans, B-movie monsters, and aliens. J!m’s father soon “disappeared,” but not before mating with a lovely cat-woman and creating J!m, a blue-skinned son whose “forehead was quite high, approximately ten inches, and bulging with brains, but even this evoked the slick upswept hairstyle favored by singers and delinquents, without the hair.” J!m, a James Dean-style rebel, is in love with his childhood sweetheart, Marie, the human daughter of a mad scientist, Dr. Rand, and his wife, a severed head who constantly nags her husband for that new body he’s been promising her for years. Along with Johnny, a half-human radioactive biker ape with strong connections to King Kong, and Larry “Jelly” Sweeny, a gelatinous blob posing as a fat kid, J!m navigates the politics of high school with humans, mutants, and aliens. The book abounds with pop-culture references in this alternate universe. Democratic presidential nominee Jack Kennedy denies that he is having an affair with his running mate, Marilyn Monroe. Elvis performs with his conjoined twin Jesse (a reference to Elvis’s real twin brother who died at birth). Even the construction of the novel is fun. Each chapter title appears in the style of old B-movie taglines: “Your flesh will crawl.” “A SAVAGE LUST…to Kill!” There’s even an intermission. Larry Doyle, the author of “I Love Your, Beth Cooper” (which was made into a movie starring Hayden Panettiere and Paul Rust) and former writer for The Simpsons, has written a hilarious sci-fi romp that’s just lots of fun to read. I won this book from the GoodReads giveaway. This review was published in the News-Gazette (Champaign-Urbana, IL) September 5, 2010.

Larry Doyle, seems to have a good reputation as an author. Let’s just say my first experience with his style in Go, Mutants! was an…interesting one.Doyle’s characters are absolutely flawless. This is the closest I’ve ever felt an author to his characters and that would make sense because an author would have to be that close to these personalities to be able to manipulate them freely. Each character, big in role or small, was so sharp and intelligently crafted with personalities so pleasantly stimulating I could taste them. I didn’t see them as characters in a book, I saw them as real people. The nostalgic parody was amusing to a point of distraction since I hadn’t read anything like it, but it didn’t take long to adjust and start reading at my own leisure. With the setting being a mock/alternate universe of the mid 1960’s we, as the reader, are exposed to reincarnated icons of the time. J!m’s mom is a hotter than ever Marylin Monroe anthro-cat woman and a character resembling The Fonz is a human/mutant ape hybrid. However, there was a setback that made have a huge internal war on what rating I should give this book.From the twist, the last few chapters really changed my mind about my attitude toward the book. I’m not used to satire or dark comedy so I found it hard to enjoy even though I found myself chuckling here and there--but the more I think about it the more I realize that this couldn’t be written any other way and would ultimately fail as a plain drama. What really bother me was the author’s demeaning take on what emotion was there. The first couple times I was inclined to feel sad, I was quickly turned down by a jab of humor that played off what was supposed to be a connective moment between reader and character. When the real emotion seriously presented itself, I was unsure if I should absorb the moment or brace myself for another jab. This lessened the authenticity of what the author wanted me to feel. In short, the author lost my trust to relate to his characters emotionally.The last four chapters blew my mind (especially Chapter 31(view spoiler)[--finding out the whole third-person POV book was actually a first-person POV of his Dad threw my brains to the wall and made me fall in love with the character (hide spoiler)]), so much so that it was the turning point in my rating choice. The introduction to a certain character and events that immediately followed really changed the view of the whole book, so I was able to partially forgive Larry Doyle for his camera-ready irony. Will I read his next hit? …Not so much.

Earth has survived numerous invasions by aliens and attacks by ancient monsters brought back to life. Some of these aliens are in high school.J!m Anderson is your typical sullen, brooding teenager at Manhattan High School. Well, maybe he's not so typical, because he has a large, megacephalic head, and oily, blue skin which he occasionally sheds like a snake. Along with Johnny, a motorcycle-riding radioactive ape, and Larry, a gelatinous mass playing the role of the "fat kid" (Son of the Blob), J!m really does have a hard time making his way through the world of high school. Maybe people really are out to get him; after all, his father is the one who led the alien invasion of Earth.The Harvest Dance is coming, and J!m is supposed to ask Marie Rand if she would like to go with him. Her father is the school's biology teacher, and one of those people who likes to tinker in his garage. Mrs. Rand is a disembodied head who is constantly nagging Mr. Rand to find a body to which to attach her head. The body she was using is no longer viable, but it's kept in a freezer for posterity. Despite numerous opportunities, J!m never gets around to asking Marie to the dance, so she goes with Russ, J!m's bitter enemy.J!m has a permanent exemption from showering after gym class, for anatomical reasons that are forcefully revealed by the local bullies, led by Russ, at the local drive-in. Later, during another Russ-led attempt to get rid of J!m, once and for all, J!m catches on fire, is severely burned, and dies. But not really, because he recovers in a couple of days, and is now a solar-powered being with skin as hard as diamonds (puberty rears its ugly head).Larry is thrown into an animal cage during a field trip. Approximately a cupful of his mass is retrieved. Mr. Rand is able to do something about that, with help from some jumper cables and a car battery. Later comes the climactic scene, where Russ forces Marie into his atomic-powered car, with J!m in hot pursuit. Just before the car goes over a cliff, Marie is thrown from the car, and severely injured. Does Marie survive? Does J!m learn the truth about his father? Can Larry be resurrected?This is an absolute gem of a book. As a former writer for "The Simpsons," Doyle certainly knows how to do satire. It's got everything a 1950s teen story needs: a sullen, rebellious main character, bullies, a chase scene and a drive-in. This is very highly recommended.

This has got to be one of the most intelligently written funny books I've read since Lamb by Christopher Moore. I started this book before I went to bed one night and the first chapter made my head spin; it wasn't the vapid, sarcastic story I was expecting. It's intelligent and even I pulled up dictionary.com a few times - not going to lie!The Setting -- is Manhattan. But not the Manhattan you or I know! Oh no. In this world, aliens really did invade, quite a few times. There really are mutants, some created from bio-hazard ooze, others science experiments gone wrong, and some we just don't know where the hell they came from! This is a technologically advanced world, but still very retro, in that Cry Baby, sarcastic kind of way. Much of the story takes place in the normal sort of haunts teens frequent; home, school, and work, each uniquely flavored with the new, modern conveniences and other-worldly needs of the inhabitants of earth.The Characters -- are racially diverse. Humans, humans who think they're human - but secretly aren't, aliens, half-ape-men, gelatinous goo creatures, and gigantic insects. The main character, J!m, is an adolescent alien, the product of two different aliens to be exact. And he's going through high school! Only, think of the anti-mutant form of the KKK type hazing. J!m experiences many normal teen problems; awkwardness, trying to ask out a girl, bullies, failing classes - oh, and his dad is possibly the one universally acknowledged super villain!The Plot -- starts off with lots of hints. I think that this book really should have been shelved in YA because so much of the material resonated with that type of audience. Granted some references to the Presley Brothers, Jesse and Elvis singing together, probably will not hit the desired target with YA. Somewhere in the middle I lost sight of the overall plot and became very engrossed with the person, J!m. I knew from the foreboding hints where the book was going but in favor of what happened then I didn't much care about that. I thought that the end of the book played out fairly quickly in comparison to everything else, but I found it highly enjoyable nonetheless.It's an intelligent, funny read - and if you know you're history well enough you'll enjoy it all the more.

Space Aliens and Monsters from the B Movies of the 1950's stayed on Earth and sent their children to High School. I think the tone was set with the back cover summary. Personally I struggled through the first few chapters where Larry Doyle worked to set the tone for the book. He used Alliteration like crazy and the first few chapters reads like a "Stan's Soapbox", and I found those tedious. Sometime later in the book Doyle mentions Stan Lee so fans would be happy with the influence and tribute.After I got to the meat of the story I loved it. The characters were great, I liked Jelly (son of the Blob.) The trick the mother played on her son's bully made me cackle. Some of the changes to history were gigglers, some were horrific (No Ringo in the Beatles?). The world which _Go Mutants_ takes place was wonderful.A few bits- Chapter 26 had the first use of triple quotes that I had ever seen, and I loved it. " """World's Smartest Human""" ". That reminded me of wrestler talk. I'm going to start using triple quotes as much as I can. """Oh Yeah!"""Chapter 7 had an unanswered question that I didn't figure the answer to later. It's gonna drive me mad. "And Sarah Jane, who had yet to be told her nickname, which was based on an unattractive cut of meat." Being a vegetarian I have little frame of reference; being a troublemaker I'm disappointed that I can't figure it out. Liked the book. It's going on my autographed bookshelf (even though it's not signed) next to _I Love You Beth Cooper_, which was way better than the movie. And I'm gonna read the next Larry Doyle book as soon as I can. If anybody gets a chance to get to a reading, get there. Doyle's autograph off his last book was one of the better signature's I've seen. Government Mandate: If you get a book for free you've got to tell people about it. Keep your Guvment off my book reviews. Got my copy from the Ecco div. of Harper Collins thru Goodreads.com*********************Earlier post follows********************************* I won a copy of this. _I Love You Beth Cooper_ was a fantastic and funny book. (don't hold the movie against it) and I look forward to reading Doyle's newest book.Oh Yeah, My sister got me a signed copy of Beth Cooper and Doyle's signing was in my top ten of autographs.

SPOOKTOBERFEST 2011!!! Throughout the month of October I plan on reading nothing but stories of the monstrous and the macabre, and I've kicked things off with Go, Mutants! This is a very quick-read, brain-candy kind of book which essentially mashes up 50's B-movie monsters and high school coming of age melodrama, the twist being that instead of teenagers fighting against weird aliens and scientific experiments gone wrong while also dealing with the end of innocence etc., the protagonists int he book are weird aliens and scientific experiments living alongside humans in a retro-futuristic world in which all manner of bizarre creatures are semi-assimilated. It's a love letter to sci-fi and horror, especially the movies of that genre, and it deliberately skewers every convention and trope that it utilizes along the way. Some people think that books can be "too clever" with wordplay and other stylistic tricks, and those people would probably find Go, Mutants! guilty on several dozen counts of those crimes, but I generally enjoy anything written with an eye toward being more over the top and fun than impressively understated. (Simple test: at one point the narrator describes escaping through a sewer with all its disgusting sensory assaults as "a necessary vile" rather than "a necessary evil". Think that's clever? You'll enjoy the book. Think it's a bit much? You'll probably have given up long before you reach that scene.)Arguably my favorite aspect of the book is the rapid-fire references to various classic (and not-so-classic) movies, tv shows, comic books, novels and songs which become a running game of "Spot the nod!" because Doyle never slows down to explain the antecedents - either you catch them or you don't as the story screams along. Again, some people can't stand that kind of cutesy meta-game playing, so be forewarned that's a big element here.

Go Mutants! by Larry Doyle is one of the best books I have read for a while. I don’t usually read YA (Young Adult) novels, because I have just never found the plot lines particularly relevant or interesting. But this one managed to combine social issues, romance and humour into one delightful science fiction package. The novel takes place in 1950’s America after an alien visitor has shared his secrets with the world. However, he also unleashed an army of monsters upon the world and has become earth’s most hated being. The protagonist of the story is J!m, son of this visitor. The novel features many tropes of classic B sci-fi movies and many plot similarities to typical teenage movies. Instead of being repetitive and cliché, the book instead is full of fun and feels like a good movie. What really sold this book for me was the way it addressed religion and other deep issues such as rape. I was also sold by the top-notch descriptions of all of the tropes. I think I may be a sucker for classic monsters, but Go Mutants is also well paced, interestingly narrated and the descriptions are great. There are a couple parts that are a little iffy, mainly with the classic popular bitch Sandra and her ever changing body (take that as you will). This book is a great ride and a new look at classic tropes. I recommend it to people who enjoy satire.