Review: This is supposedly a "Children's Humorous Spine-Chilling Horror" novel...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 19, 2011
...at least those are the top categories it has been selling in.  I find that type of categorizing almost as funny as the book itself!I'm quite sure many of the readers are adults for one thing...though, thanks to the magic of Kindle, I have been able to put a copy on my son's reader at the same time as my own, so we aren't tussling over who gets to read first (I won the race though, I finished first).The book has quite the appeal to both a 13 year old boy who loves all things cars, baseball, yo-yo and electronic, as well as the middle-aged scifi/urban fantasy/mystery (and cough-cough, romance) reading mother.  Definitely fits the 'Humor" category and the 'spine-chilling' well, maybe in the drank-liquid-nitrogen sort of way---horror light.  Things happening, but not like a adult splatter-horror/on-screen  kind of way.It did take me longer to read than many of my more mainstream and (allegedly) adult books.  A large part of that is because the book actually makes you stop and think about the words.  The characters, even or most particularly the most minor ones,  make you stop and wonder more about them (exactly what does make one become an experimental bassoonist rather than a traditional one?).  The book is wry, witty, intelligent, and most certainly expects the reader to have a brain that functions--without regard to the age of the brain.How can you not love a book that has a character (named Bored Beulah) who notes "Charlatans are a menace, whereas Loosten is an entirely different class of being:  an unholy terror.  There is a subtle difference" ?  That one made me stop and share and even learn how to engage the highlight function on the Kindle.Oh, and as a Kindle/e-book being published by the author, don't let that scare you off.  If you are unsure, download a sample, but this book is better written, better edited and better formatted that MANY of the so-called 'professionally' published books.  In terms of length, no pages on my Kindle reader to give, but the locations is in the 5800-5900 range.  So a good read.So, this is one of those 5 star type books that also gets slotted into the 'unexpected gems' category I keep on my Kindle.  Most highly recommended!JTG