Tumor Fruit [Paperback]

Carlton Mellick III (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 20, 2012

If they don't act fast, they'll never get out alive.

Eight desperate castaways find themselves stranded on a mysterious deserted island. They are surrounded by poisonous blue plants and an ocean made of acid. Ravenous creatures lurk in the toxic jungle. The ghostly sound of crying babies can be heard on the wind.

Once they realize the rescue ships aren't coming, the eight castaways must band together in order to survive in this inhospitable environment. But survival might not be possible. The air they breathe is lethal, there is no shelter from the elements, and the only food they have to consume is the colorful squid-shaped tumors that grow from a mentally disturbed woman's body.

From the crazy imagination of bizarro fiction master Carlton Mellick III comes Tumor Fruit--an intense survival story full of eccentric characters, nail-biting suspense, and the kinds of twists and turns that you'll only find in a Mellick novel.

It's what the television series LOST would have been if it had been darker, weirder, and a hell of a lot more insane.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Praise for Carlton Mellick III

"Easily the craziest, weirdest, strangest, funniest, most obscene writer in America."
- GOTHIC MAGAZINE

"Carlton Mellick III has the craziest book titles... and the kinkiest fans!"
- CHRISTOPHER MOORE, author of The Stupidest Angel

"If you haven't read Mellick you're not nearly perverse enough for the twenty first century."
- JACK KETCHUM, author of The Woman and The Girl Next Door

"Carlton Mellick III is one of bizarro fiction's most talented practitioners, a virtuoso of the surreal, science fictional tale."
- CORY DOCTOROW, author of Little Brother

"Bizarre, twisted, and emotionally raw--Carlton Mellick's fiction is the literary equivalent of putting your brain in a blender."
- BRIAN KEENE, author of The Rising and Dead Sea

"Carlton Mellick III exemplifies the intelligence and wit that lurks between its lurid covers. In a genre where crude titles are an art in themselves, Mellick is a true artist."
- THE GUARDIAN

"Just as Pop had Andy Warhol and Dada Tristan Tzara, the Bizarro movement has its very own P. T. Barnum-type practitioner. He's the mutton-chopped author of such books as Electric Jesus Corpse and The Menstruating Mall, the illustrator, editor, and instructor of all things Bizarro, and his name is Carlton Mellick III."
- DETAILS MAGAZINE

Product Details

• Paperback: 310 pages
• Publisher: Eraserhead Press (August 20, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1621050459
• ISBN-13: 978-1621050452
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #876,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Like a real world Kilgore Trout, cult author CARLTON MELLICK III has been pumping out some of the weirdest, trashiest, most imaginative books that you'll never want to admit you secretly love.

His books are released on a quarterly basis (every January, April, July, and October).

Best known as one of the leading authors of the bizarro fiction movement in literature, he is also one of the most prolific authors of his generation with over 40 books in print since 2001. He won the Wonderland Book Award for his novel "Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland" and has had short stories make it into The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and The Best Bizarro Fiction of the Decade.

Although many of his earliest works are on the surreal and experimental side, his current style is to take the most ridiculous concepts imaginable and approach them with complete sincerity, as if they are not intended to be ridiculous at all. Always full of tongue-in-cheek humor, social satire, and told in a simplistic straightforward prose style similar to that of children's literature or early pulp fiction, Carlton Mellick III's work is one of a kind, to say the least.

He lives in Portland, OR, the bizarro mecca.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The mysterious-desert-island story, done Bizarro-style August 25, 2012

By 100-letter thunder-word

Format:Paperback

I think Mellick has the idea to do a bizarro version of every niche genre that has ever existed. He has written a bizarro western, a bizarro romantic comedy, a bizarro ninja tale, a bizarro bank heist story. "Tumor Fruit" is his bizarro mysterious-desert-island-survival story. Kind of like the TV show "Lost", but with more emphasis on the survivalist aspect, and with the shiny slime of Mellick's brain all over it.

This book is really similar in scope to "Zombies and Shit", but the story is not as punk-rock and high-octane. It focuses more on the building up of mysterious elements, which is what makes it a page-turner; you want to unlock the mystery. Like "Zombies and Shit", this book is longer than Mellick's usual fare and focuses a lot on characterization and back-story.

The extensive use of back-story is something different that CM3 has been doing in his books over the past few years. It's an interesting and promising turn for him, but I think he is still getting the hang of it. Some of the back-story seems trite or contrived (the character Jim, for instance, whose back-story feels like something I've already seen many times); yet at other times the back-story succeeds pretty well at developing a sense of empathy with the characters and making them more dynamic (like the character Peter, who is awesome). But this is really not a huge issue, because if you are reading Mellick, you are probably not in it for the timeless characters and sense of enduring truth and all that happy crap. You're in it for the story. And "Tumor Fruit" is still an enthralling story and a totally fun specimen of bizarro storytelling.

If you are new to CM3, I wouldn't recommend starting here; but for established CM3 fans, this is a treat (and if you are a CM3 fan, you already know he doesn't disappoint).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Story about Island Survival -- It's LOST meets UP in the Bizarro World. September 15, 2012

By S. Ore

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Just finished reading Tumor Fruit - and yes, the title can be a little intimidating - never mind the cover - but like most Carlton Mellick the Third Books, there is so much more beneath the surface that I can't even praise it correctly without giving away great surprises and details - suffice to say that if THIS were what LOST was about, I wouldn't have given up on it after three seasons. Tumor Fruit is the story of an island of survivors, stranded on an Alien planet that might have other castaways on it, from other planets. The main character of Peter, and his personal plight, his motivation throughout the book, is beautiful - and in many ways this is the story of someone living out an adventure in the memory of someone else. This is unofficially closest to the Bizarro version of Pixar's UP. It's funny, it's messed up, it's perfectly bizarro and if you're a fan of Vonnegut, LOST, UP and anything else Carlton has written - then I am beyond confident that you will love Tumor Fruit.

One of the best things Carlton Mellick does, is paint a large world of many character and breathe life into each one, there isn't one character that I'd call one dimensional - even the villains have detailed back stories that cast them in a more understandable light. He has done this incredibly well in books like Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland, Zombies and Sh*t & Armadillo Fists (all three, amazing books!) but with this story, he does it in a subtler way, weaves them in and out of each other seamlessly, and with a much sweeter tone. It's crazy, and it's wonderful and I literally couldn't wait to see what happened on the next page.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another gem from CM3 August 28, 2012

By Chris M.

Format:Paperback

I have been a fan of Carlton Mellick III for several years and it seems that his writing gets better with each book. In his latest bizarro tale, which checks in at over 300 pages, we find Peter, a friendly/simple "space pirate", Zana, a prostitute with puppy flowers (aka tumor fruit), and several others trapped on an island after crash landing on the planet Barack. As you might expect, this is no ordinary planet: seas of acid; toxic air; poisonous plants; and dangerous alien life. Unlike some of his shorter works, this book fleshes out the characters quite a bit and getting that back-story made their actions and decisions that much more understandable and potent. Another nice aspect of this book is that you are never quite sure who will live or die, or if they will even make it off the island.

There are some disturbing moments, but if you're up for a page turning bizarro island tale, you should check this one out. You won't be disappointed.