Review: A Strange and Delicious Fruit
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 18, 2014
As with most people, I initially knew Jeff Strand from his horror novels. I started off my Strand experience by devouring all of his Andrew Mayhem novels over a 3 day weekend back in 2009. Since then, I've sought out each of his novels and have yet to be anything but thoroughly satisfied. So, when I got the chance to be a beta reader for Jeff's new book KUMQUAT, I jumped at it.That night, I tore through the first 25% of the book on Kindle, and I was loving it, but I was confused.  Where was the ax murderer? The werewolf? The wacky violence?  I was waiting for something...I even said so in an email to Jeff, "Great so far, man, but I'm waiting for you to blindside me with something freaky".His response: "I don't think I did an adequate job of explaining what KUMQUAT is. It's a mainstream love story/comedy. You won't find a sudden left turn where corpses start showing up."I'll admit it. I was disappointed.... for about 20 seconds, then I dove right back into it and finished it the next day.  Since then, I've realized a couple of things:1) This would make a great movie, possibly starring Simon Pegg or Zach Graff with Ellen Page or Zooey Deschanel (listen up, Hollywood!)2) It's the first novel in decades that I've enjoyed that wasn't horror/scifi/thriller3)...which means that I can actually suggest it to my family members without worrying what they think about my mental state.... and that's exactly what I'm going to do.