Sara Martin

Not bad, not sure if I'll finish the series.

A virus killed almost all the adults, then the vampires came. One teenager wants revenge.

I'm re-reading this in December of 2013. I don't remember reading it in 2002. I'm enjoying it and I think I can write a review this time after I read it. Maybe even up the stars.

Another fun tattoo shop mystery. Love the lead character. She's a 6 foot tall redhead, too!

2 stars for depressing subject matter; 4 stars for a read I could not put down.

I read this in the middle of the night; seemed like the thing to do at the time.

This is a story of a citizenship test for Britain sometime in the future. This is a citizenship test gone wrong, horribly wrong.

Saying more would be too many spoilers but let me say this - This book is not a happy feel-good book. Do not expect to go to sleep at 2:30 AM all smiles and sunshine. No, not at all. You might dream of profound experiments on the human mind and what we are conditioned to do under certain circumstances, though.

“Well, that's a bloody great bundle of bull bollocks!”

And if you like that, you'll like this book.

A Christopher Moore parody of The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and The Cask of Amontillado, this book is a bawdy, raunchy ride through 13th century Venice. (It's good to know that ahead of time so you don't recommend this book to your book group consisting of nice, lovely, church ladies who probably aren't aware that Shakespeare himself can be bawdy and raunchy.)

There's a few extra characters not found in Shakespeare - the dark, creepy serpent for one. And the monkey Jeff. And Drool. Oh, and Fortunato (Pocket) the Fool. He may be the hero, but he can definitely get on one's nerves after a bit.

And the language! At times very formal, very Elizabethan, and then at other times totally like 21st century English. I struggled with this at first. Finally, I got used to the rhythm (and there is a rhythm, I read to the end which was like riding out to sea on a serpent's undulating back.) I admit I chuckled a few times in spite of myself (Rhesus feces? Should I burst out laughing or is that just really in bad, bad taste?).

And the language! I think I squirmed a bit reading this at work, wondering if the bodily function jokes ever ceased. (Hint: They never do.) I can now exclaim (to hopefully, just my husband) “Holy ripened fcheese!” when I am astounded by an amazing feat. We read this together. As I mentioned in one of my comments, we'll always have Venice.But the confounding confusion. So many characters. So many. If you're familiar with these plays, so much the better. I read Othello so long ago and I haven't read The Merchant of Venice. I had a hard time figuring out what was going on and who all these people were. Most are evil, most will die. That helps. Every time someone died, I though - Thank goodness!! One less person to keep track of! And there's some flash backs and some fast forwarding - yeh, time to flip through pages or rewind the audible and try to figure out “What just happened??”Toss between 2 or 3 stars. Moore is clever, no doubt about that. And smart. And full of witty one liners that you probably can't say in church. Or even 50 feet from church. Or even within, say, 1000 feet of the parking lot. Maybe you can say them to your significant other when no one is listening, but then - dang! Before you know it, you'll be walking down the mall and out of your mouth will come “Thou wretched pillar of syphilitic pheasant-f!” to the security guard which might garner you a few stares. (And 86 you from Macys.)

You've been warned. Read at your own peril. She just might come looking for you (the serpent, I mean) and whether she kills you or ***** you, well, you'll find out.