Creature Feature

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S CREATURE FEATURE ABOUT?
It's the early 1960s and Kathy Anderson has put her aspirations of Broadway stardom on hold in favor of a steady paycheck for a few years. She's spent those years as Vivacia, the Vampire Woman—Chicago's version of Vampira/Elvira, Mistress of the Dark—hosting monster movies on a local television station. But she's had enough of that, it's time to get back to being a serious actress. She quits and plans to head to New York and get back to the career she dreamed of.

But first, she heads home to Placidville. She plans on spending some time with her parents and the people she grew up around. When she arrives, her parents are acting a bit strange—actually, everyone (literally everyone) in town is acting strange. And everyone from her parents, to her parents' friends, to random people she meets on the street, to the town's hunky new mayor are major Vivacia fans. It's almost too much for Kathy—but what puts her over the edge is her best friend's dorky brother who keeps showing up to insist that something is wrong, and only he can help her see it.

The next thing that Kathy knows, she's in the middle of something reminiscent of one of the movies from Vivacia's House of Horrors, struggling to survive and hopefully saving the world as we know it.

Judging by the official description, that's really all that I feel free to say—I had a few other notes along those lines, but...I don't want to give anything else away. That's enough of the setup, though, to pique your interest, I think. The tone is a tricky one—the threat is real, Kathy is in serious trouble—but the whole thing is told in a comedic tone. You're supposed to find it silly while you're hoping that Kathy susses out what's going on, you chuckle when she's running for her life.

THE AUDIOBOOK EXPERIENCE
As this post is part of the Audiobook tour, I should focus on that for a little bit. Which is great—because this is a great match of material and medium. I'd have no problem believing that this was written as an audiobook exclusively, it's perfectly fitting.

A lot of that is due to Seamus Dever's narration. He hits the tone just right—he's close to going over-the-top without ever slipping into parody. It's clearly funny material, but he plays it straight. Still, he sounds like he's having fun—and it's hard not to join in. And Juliana Dever nails the character of Kathy (and her alter ego).

At the same time, the approach to this audiobook still feels odd. Seamus handles almost all the voice duties—narration and every character's dialogue that isn't Kathy/Vivacia. Juliana handles only Kathy/Vivacia's dialogue (and announces the chapters). I haven't come across this way of dividing the duties before and it struck me as odd. But—after the first couple of minutes I got used to it, and it works.

I'm not sure that the special effects added much to the experience—maybe even detracted from it. In particular, the reverb/echo effect added to Juliana's voice when she was reading Kathy's thoughts, just got on my nerves. It's only done a few times and doesn't hurt things much, but it was distracting.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT CREATURE FEATURE?
I think maybe the easiest way to think about this is as a short novel written by Ed Wood. But where Wood would be earnest and sincere in telling this story, Leiva is going for laughs. It's a Classic B-Movie Monster story but told in a way where the goofiness is intentional and designed for laughs, not as a scare that misses its mark.

The characters are probably a bit more fleshed out than the genre requires, the setting is great, the execution is really well done—both with the text, but especially in audio production. I think if I'd read the print version, I'd be handing out 3 Stars for this, but the Devers took this to another level.

In the end, either version is going to keep you entertained for a few hours and make you curious about other things that Leiva has written. Give this one a shot folks, I think you'll be glad you did.

My thanks to Let's Talk Promotions and Psst...Promotions for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including a copy of the audiobook) they provided.

If I had to describe Creature Feature in one word, it would amusing. Amusing in the absolute best way possible! This book is 100% a gentle rib at the b-movie favorite concept of “pod people”. Placidville (the perfect name for Kathy's hometown, might I add) has something very wrong with it. The townspeople are all acting oddly, or missing entirely, and strange sights are around every corner. Plus Kathy's parents are just a little more forgetful than normal.

Meanwhile Kathy, or Vivacia as she is known on her local, late-night, horror television show, is oblivious to all of it. Being honest, Kathy is my favorite kind of character. The one in the movies who somehow magically misses all the things wrong in a situation. The character that we, the viewers, love to yell at and attempt to dissuade from making all the wrong choices while ominous music plays in the background. She keeps dismissing the odd things that she sees as a lack of caffeine, or a lack of sleep, no matter how much they point to issues with her hometown. What sets this story apart, however, is that it takes this concept out of the scary realm and makes it fun instead!

Our narrator has a blast ribbing Kathy as she misses things that he sees, and of course that we see as well. Even the one person in town who knows what's really going on, can't seem to sway Kathy out of her comfort zone. The whole thing is absurd, hilarious, and just a ton of fun to experience. As I mentioned above, I was lucky enough to be gifted an audio copy of this book. I highly recommend it! The narrators (bios below) are stellar, and they make this whole story so much more enjoyable. Think of the radio plays of old, and that's what you'll be getting with this audio book.

Looking for something a little silly, a little creepy, and the perfect length for a quiet afternoon? Creature Feature needs to get onto your reading list. Stat.