Grand Theft Octo

Much More Than Just A Silly Lark, This Is A Beautifully Constructed Treat

Blurbs and promotions for this book suggest that it will be a bit of a lark, as we follow a con man on his odd and outlandish journey to shake down marks in the guise of a professional octopus teaser. You think to yourself that this could be fun, with maybe a charming rascal of a grifter hero and some sly humor at the expense of entrepreneurs, the idle moneyed class, and the like. Probably there will be plenty of colorful characters. Well, all of the above applies, but it's only a tease and does not at all do justice to how fine and compelling this book is.

The book goes through a number of transformations as it develops. We start with Jonathan Doe being fired for pocketing office supplies. We follow his short history as a freelance taxidermist. In these first few chapters we are treated to a number of underplayed and deadpan funny scenes that suggest that this will be a dry and witty bit of satire, perhaps at Jonathan's expense. But then the book opens up a bit. A nasty and threatening criminal figure with exaggerated energy, flair, and instability arrives on the scene, and the book feels like it's going to go somewhere darker. But then we switch to a mad kidnapping of an octopus mascot from a play park and to Jonathan's first octopus teasing, and matters lighten up and get fairly silly again, even if some of the humor has taken on a darker shade.

But wait. That early threat of imminent unbalanced violence was real. The book goes into some very dark places, and it begins to take on the feel of those weird/bizarro books that balance manic humor with explicit violence. There is more than a hint of works like "Clockwork Orange", with humor, the mundane, psychotic nastiness, and the inexplicable all mixed together in an unnerving but fascinating and compelling fashion.

And that's just the top level. WARNING. GENERAL OVERALL VAGUE SPOILER. The ending will come as more or less of a surprise depending on how carefully you read the book. Suffice to say that as soon as I finished the book I turned back to the beginning in order to browse through it again in order to tease out the second, entirely different, (and in some ways better), book that was hidden between the lines.

So, don't dismiss this as a bit of caper/con-man silliness. This is a rewarding, entertaining, keen, wise, and exceptionally well crafted novella. A wonderful find.

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

It took a little while for me to get into this book as it was like nothing I've ever read before, it had it's ups and downs and although I quite enjoyed it I thought it did get a little bit too weird at times. If you're looking for something completely different from anything you've ever read then I would say this is the book you're looking for.