Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
probably one if the best introductions to bizarro you can get, March 16, 2008
(Ash Lomen)
This is probably one if the best introductions to bizarro you can get. With authors like Jordan Krall, Bradley Sands, and Jeremy C. Shipp... this is a great gateway high into the surreal world of altered states that is bizarro literature. As Lou Reed once said "Take a walk on the wild side."
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Crazy!!!, May 17, 2008
The genre of bizzaro fiction is like nothing that I have ever read. The stories are very intriguing and hold the readers attention. Once I started reading I couldn't stop. I was very curious to see where this book was going. "The Bizzaro Starter Kit (blue)" is filled with many wacky, odd, and funny tales.
One of my favorite sections of the book is "The Birthday Party" by Ray Fracalossy. This very odd story is only one paragraph long. The tale seems like ten story lines jammed into one itty bitty piece. The way it is told sounds like bits and pieces of a very weird dream. Once I was done I felt more confused than satisfied. When I finished I was still trying to figure out what was going on. This story is so all over the place. It has so many random things that should not go together. Such as a pony, the repo man, a seven inch woman, and of course to top it off a happy ride into the sunset. With things like this in story it is hard to put the book down
Another fantastic part of this insane kooky book is the Tony Rauch story "The Stench." In this incredibly strange story involves a man coming home from work to a horrible smell in his living room. This smell turns out to be coming from a big hairy "Star Wars" like creature. Somehow this thing leads the owners of this house to come closer and decide to have children. This book is most definitely not for the conservative reader. If one decides to purchase this awesome piece of literature I highly suggest that they go into it with as open of a mind as possible.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Essential Purchase for Weird-Minded Readers, July 28, 2009
The Bizarro Starter Kit (blue)
Introduction or What is this Book?
The first "Bizarro Start Kit" (colored orange) was an instrumental book in introducing bizarro to a wider audience. Combining eight of the top bizarro writers into one volume, it was responsible for hooking many readers (this reviewer included) on these strange new authors. This year, Eraserhead Press, Raw Dog Screaming Press, and Afterbith Books have combined forces yet again to give us "The Bizarro Start (blue)."
This time we have ten different authors contributing novellas and short stories for our reading pleasure. Due to the nature of this book, let's look at each writer individually.
The Authors
Ray Fracalossy
Fracalossy starts off the volume with twelve short shorts characterized by word-play and a strong sense of fun. These stories start the book off right, getting the reader into a strange and logically-loopy frame of mind. "A Body in Motion" is the stand-out piece in which a man's body rebels in some rather creative manners.
Jeremy C. Shipp
"Flapjack" is a novella about two men in a prison with one recounting the strange tale of how he got there. The story floats along with dream-like logic as Shipp creates new language and cultural customs. The main-character narrates with a sense of innocence and an ever present shadow of darkness. Tim Burton would be right at home directing an adaptation of this story.
Jordan Krall
Krall contributes "The Longheads," the middle novella from his collection "Squid Pulp Blues." The Longheads from the title are disfigured war vets that have some sinister plans for a small town. Meant to be read as a middle piece between two related novellas, "The Longheads" feels underdeveloped on its own. While Krall is a strong writer, one wishes he had submitted something more stand-alone appropriate for this collection.
Mykle Hansen
"Monster C*cks!" is the attention grabbing title to this contribution. It is a novella about a man who gets much more than he bargained for from a penis-enlargement system that actually works. Hansen tells a funny and thrilling story that in the hands of a lesser writer would just be juvenile. Instead, the reader receives an engaging tale that gets inside the head, and pants, of the main character.
Andersen Prunty
Shell is a sort-of bounty hunter, hired by The Rotting Man to go to Hollow City and bring back a woman named Pearl. So begins the surreal/horror/noir novella "The Devastated Insides of Hollow City." Prunty has a talent for writing dark and enthralling tales and this is no exception. For horror fans, this is the stand-out piece of the collection.
Eckhard Gerdes
"Nin and Nan" is the exceptionally strange offering from Gerdes. Nin and Nan live on top of a hill and when billboards and roads start to impede upon their space they are forced to take action. From there, they embark on a journey that takes them to the very top powers of the government. Those crazing the extremely bizarre will be sated with this story.
Bradley Sands
"Cheesequake Smash-Up" is the story of a place where buildings have the ability to levitate. To determine which fast-food franchise will monopolize the market, a race is being held with the structures themselves being used as vehicles. Sands has created a tale even weirder than the previous two sentences suggest. He easily wins the award for strangest, balls-to-the-wall weirdo-fest.
Steve Aylett
"Shamanspace" is the meta-physical offering that Aylett gives us. Dealing with the role of history, books, and self it is a complex and dense tale. Including a brief history of the story's world and a fictional bibliography, this is the most experimental story of the collection.
Christian Tebordo
"The Order of Operations" is the story of several people whose lives intersect around a common payphone. In a book filled with outlandish concepts, Tebordo's story stands out as it is mostly based in reality. Where it is unique is in its presentation, skipping back and forth between several perspectives. This one is for the more literary-minded readers.
Tony Rauch
Rauch finishes the collection with seven short stories. The reoccurring theme of his pieces is how the average person is suppressed and crushed by the weight of the world. Of course, this is told via miniature people in ant costumes and cranium enlargement. This selection of stories is a thoughtful final contribution to the book.
Final Thoughts
One could call this the second generation of Bizarro writers. They are a group of writers that are influenced by many authors contained in the first starter kit. What is most exciting is these authors, while influenced by, are not rip-offs of the first line of writers. Each of the eight authors contained within stand on their own as writers. With the shear amount of variety present here, any fan of weird fiction will find something they can love.
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