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Overview
Jackie has a map of the city on the wall of her bedroom, with a green pin for each of her trees. She has a first-kiss tree and a broken-arm tree. She has a car-accident tree. There is a tree at the hospital where Jackie’s mother passed away into the long good night. When one of them gets cut down, Jackie doesn't know what to do but she doesn't let that stop her. She picks up the biggest rock she can carry and puts it through the window of a car. Smash. She intends to leave before the police arrive, but they're early.
Ann is Jackie’s best friend, but she’s got problems of her own. Her mother is chained up in the basement. How do you bring that up in casual conversation? "Oh, sorry I've been so distant, Jackie. My mother has more teeth than she’s supposed to, and she won't eat anything that’s already dead." Ann and her sister Margaret don't have much of a choice here. Their mother needs to be fed. It isn't easy but this is family. It’s not supposed to be easy. It'll be okay as long as Margaret and Ann still have each other.
Add in a cantankerous old man, his powerfully stupid dog, a headless ghost, a lesbian crush and a few unsettling visits from Jackie’s own dead mother, and you'll find that One Bloody Thing After Another is a different sort of horror novel from the ones you're used to. It’s as sad and funny as it is frightening, and it is as much about the way families rely on each other as it is about blood being drooled on the carpet. Though, to be honest, there is a lot of blood being drooled on the carpet.
Synopsis
Jackie has a map of the city on the wall of her bedroom, with a green pin for each of her trees. She has a first-kiss tree and a broken-arm tree. She has a car-accident tree. There is a tree at the hospital where Jackie’s mother passed away into the long good night. When one of them gets cut down, Jackie doesn't know what to do but she doesn't let that stop her. She picks up the biggest rock she can carry and puts it through the window of a car. Smash. She intends to leave before the police arrive, but they're early.
Ann is Jackie’s best friend, but she’s got problems of her own. Her mother is chained up in the basement. How do you bring that up in casual conversation? "Oh, sorry I've been so distant, Jackie. My mother has more teeth than she’s supposed to, and she won't eat anything that’s already dead." Ann and her sister Margaret don't have much of a choice here. Their mother needs to be fed. It isn't easy but this is family. It’s not supposed to be easy. It'll be okay as long as Margaret and Ann still have each other.
Add in a cantankerous old man, his powerfully stupid dog, a headless ghost, a lesbian crush and a few unsettling visits from Jackie’s own dead mother, and you'll find that One Bloody Thing After Another is a different sort of horror novel from the ones you're used to. It’s as sad and funny as it is frightening, and it is as much about the way families rely on each other as it is about blood being drooled on the carpet. Though, to be honest, there is a lot of blood being drooled on the carpet.
Publishers Weekly
Canadian author Comeau, best known for his darkly surreal Web comic, A Softer World, turns his adaptable talents to overt horror in this oddly touching novel of ghosts, friendship, bloody secrets, and family relationships. Jackie is infatuated with her best friend, Ann, but hides her feelings rather than risk rejection. Ann has more dramatic problems: her mother, an increasingly ravenous and highly infectious supernatural creature, demands that Ann supply her with live prey. Distracted by their personal obsessions, Ann and Jackie very nearly occupy different novels despite their frequent physical proximity; Jackie wanders through a tale of teen lesbian romance, while Ann struggles to survive the dark horror of monstrous transformation. A staccato structure allows for surprising intricacy in so few pages, and the crescendos of terror are leavened by moments of unexpected humor and warmth. (May)
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Canadian author Comeau, best known for his darkly surreal Web comic, A Softer World, turns his adaptable talents to overt horror in this oddly touching novel of ghosts, friendship, bloody secrets, and family relationships. Jackie is infatuated with her best friend, Ann, but hides her feelings rather than risk rejection. Ann has more dramatic problems: her mother, an increasingly ravenous and highly infectious supernatural creature, demands that Ann supply her with live prey. Distracted by their personal obsessions, Ann and Jackie very nearly occupy different novels despite their frequent physical proximity; Jackie wanders through a tale of teen lesbian romance, while Ann struggles to survive the dark horror of monstrous transformation. A staccato structure allows for surprising intricacy in so few pages, and the crescendos of terror are leavened by moments of unexpected humor and warmth. (May)Coast
Comeau never trivializes his characters' emotions, and it's what carries the novel from first bloody page to last.
Q Syndicate
This is a remarkably tender novel. . . . Quirky to a marvelous fault, Comeau's fourth book is an intricate exercise in offbeat storytelling.
Telegraph-Journal
Comeau isn’t writing for suspense. Dealing with a zombie mother is treated with the same tone as Jackie’s confusion and struggle over her love for Ann . . . The real monster tormenting Comeau’s characters is the desire for something they can’t have and the reluctance to accept what they do.Toronto Sun
Pilkey is a lively writer who manages over 230-plus pages to build a vivid sense of cop culture.Booklist
The tone is poignant, sometimes wistful, and deadpan funny . . . The novel is more eccentric than gory, and what’s really shocking about it is that all the mayhem is finally about family ties, both severed and reconnected.Quill & Quire
The gore and supernatural elements are a fitting complement to [Comeau's] characteristic blend of pathos and black humor.From the Publisher
"[Comeau] turns his adaptable talents to overt horror in this oddly touching novel of ghosts, friendship, bloody secrets, and family relationships. . . . A staccato structure allows for surprising intricacy in so few pages, and the crescendos of terror are leavened by moments of unexpected humor and warmth." —Publishers Weekly
"The tone is poignant, sometimes wistful, and deadpan funny . . . The novel is more eccentric than gory, and what’s really shocking about it is that all the mayhem is finally about family ties, both severed and reconnected." —Booklist
"Pilkey is a lively writer who manages over 230-plus pages to build a vivid sense of cop culture" —Toronto Sun
"The gore and supernatural elements are a fitting complement to [Comeau's] characteristic blend of pathos and black humour." —Quill & Quire
"Comeau isn’t writing for suspense. Dealing with a zombie mother is treated with the same tone as Jackie’s confusion and struggle over her love for Ann . . . The real monster tormenting Comeau’s characters is the desire for something they can’t have and the reluctance to accept what they do." —Telegraph-Journal
"Comeau never trivializes his characters' emotions, and it's what carries the novel from first bloody page to last." —Coast
"This is a remarkably tender novel. . . . Quirky to a marvelous fault, Comeau's fourth book is an intricate exercise in offbeat storytelling." —Q Syndicate
"A really fascinating tale . . . the sort of book that Edgar Allan Poe might have enjoyed." —Scene Magazine