{"id":1676,"date":"2016-05-25T09:57:05","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T16:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/?p=1676"},"modified":"2017-12-18T08:30:59","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T16:30:59","slug":"review-bad-monkeys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/25\/review-bad-monkeys\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Bad Monkeys"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bad<\/a>
\n Bad Monkeys<\/a> by Matt Ruff<\/a>
\n My rating: 3 of 5 stars<\/a><\/p>\n

I saw a review for Bad Monkeys<\/em> in our local paper, which noted that the author, Matt Ruff, lives in Seattle. The review must have said something intriguing, because I threw a sample of the novel onto my e-reader before heading off on vacation. (But I\u2019ve just re-read the review, and I\u2019m not sure what it was that caught my eye. Ah well, nevermind). I plowed through two other books while lazing around Carmel-by-the-Sea, then read the sample. At the end of the sample, I clicked “buy,” without giving it a second thought.<\/p>\n

And finished the short novel in less than 24 hours. I\u2019m not complaining, just giving you some context. This is a quasi-novel. I don\u2019t mean it\u2019s a so-called \u201cnovella,\u201d I mean it\u2019s a quasi-sci-fi, quasi-fantasy, quasi-young-adult, quasi-thriller of a novel. Bad Monkeys seems to dip it\u2019s toes into whatever\u2019s convenient to tell the story.<\/p>\n

Normally, this would be terrible. If a review told me that a novel was a little of this, a little of that, I wouldn\u2019t bother reading the book (which just goes to show you how useful reviews are, he said in a quasi-hypocritical fashion). But Matt Ruff manages a smooth writing style and a voice that makes the book easy to read. That whole willing-suspension-of-disbelief thing? I was willing. I didn\u2019t need things explained or justified to me.<\/p>\n

Even when the narrator backtracks, contradicts, lies. Even when the deus ex machina<\/em> is so thick you\u2019d think you were in church. If you don\u2019t want to experience a novel that ret-cons itself as it goes, don\u2019t read Bad Monkeys<\/em>. But if you want to have a little silly fun, go ahead.<\/p>\n

Sounds like I\u2019m damning with faint praise, but I don\u2019t mean to. It\u2019s one thing to come up with a plastic gun that shoots heart attacks at people, and populate a casino with ax-wielding killer clowns. But to do so and maintain any kind of narrative integrity is something to be admired. And enjoyed.<\/p>\n

\n View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff My rating: 3 of 5 stars I saw a review for Bad Monkeys in our local paper, which noted that the author, Matt Ruff, lives in Seattle. The review must have said something intriguing, because I threw a sample of the novel onto my e-reader before heading off on vacation. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Review: Bad Monkeys”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p24y52-r2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1677,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions\/1677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}