Review: Amanda is BACK!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 14, 2014
It should come as no surprise that I am a fan of the series. If it does, you clearly haven’t been paying attention to what I write and read. Fine, maybe not lately. Everyone has a slump now and then, right?Amanda Feral attracted me to the gritty, snarky… dare I say… bitchy underbelly of urban fantasy. Though I see this more as comedic horror. Something along the lines of Idle Hands or Heathers. And this is the story that was only hinted at in his young adult novels. Teased a bit in the Carniepunk anthology.There’s something about Amanda’s voice that speaks to me. Which should frankly scare the Twix bars right out of me. But I’ve grown comfortable with my reality. Frankly, her voice mimics a female version of my own, unfiltered, internal voice. Which makes following her a wildly indulgent run.One of my favorite aspects of the original novels were the footnotes. Those little tidbits that made it look like Amanda herself was writing the book. More an autobiography than a fictional novel. With the format of digital first with indy publishing, those became a technological nightmare and were eliminated. For me, the old school fan, I can see the mental asides written into the story that would have been footnotes. While the new reader, will see nothing out of the ordinary. In short, it works. Totally works.If you were to pick this up without being a fan already, the novella stands alone. There should be no problem jumping right in. Not to mention there is enough new stuff to keep things fresher than Amanda’s nethers. Weresharks, for instance. And who knew they had anatomy that could put Jaye Wells’ Giguhl to shame?Mark even includes a bit of social commentary on the writing/publishing process. A bit of personal snark as told through the voice of Amanda. There are times when I can hear his story in there enough that Amanda seems like a middle-aged author with a tuck job and as fine of a knock-off couture as he can muster. Raging against the publishing machine really speaks to me and like the book all that much more. And I’ve met some of the people he describes in this novel. Well, at least one of them.It takes a truly twisted sense of humor to enjoy this novel, but I definitely have that. I’ll give this chum bucket full of fun a ranking of…5 StarsBecause Amanda is back, bitches!