Well hello there! It's time once again for the Cephalopod Coffeehouse. This wonderful group of diverse bloggers, hosted by
The Armchair Squid, meets on the last Friday of every month to discuss the best book they have read.
(I'm posting a day early because I'm not going to be around tomorrow. Please pretend this is really Friday...) I'd like to take a moment to say thanks Squid, for inventing and hosting this fun group! I'm loving every minute of it. So, please, grab yourself a tea, (however you prefer it, iced or hot) or refill your tankard of coffee (like me) or whatever it is that you like to drink and curl up in front of the computer for a nice book discussion.
This month, I read A LOT of books. More so than usual. I think it was the heat. My family and I seemed to wrap things up a bit earlier at the Bird's Nest out of sheer heat exhaustion. Since I was the only one awake and the house quiet, I choose to stay up and read. As I was thinking back over all of the titles I consumed, it was really hard for me to pinpoint which book I wanted to discuss today. I can't say that any one book would count as my all time favorite. But I can say this: I simply could not wait to discuss the book that took me by surprise. It's called Rotters, written by Daniel Kraus. And it was dark, gritty, raw, real and gross as all get out!
I know, I know. With a title like Rotters, I should have
known it would be gross. But I found it in the YA section and I may have mentioned this before, but I pre-read everything I hand over to my kids. And holy guacamole thank God I do! Because this was something my ten year daughter was interested in reading. Let me start by saying, the material in Rotters, is NOT appropriate for a ten year old girl and I'd be very careful who I recommend this book to. That having been said, once I started reading this, I simply could not stop from reading it straight through to the end- and here's why: Joey Crouch. The sixteen year old main character.
His life is a demented, twisted and very dark roller coaster ride. I could not put the book down out of fear of leaving him alone in his misery. His problems, his life, his story were so well written, Joey is one of those characters that long after you finish reading this book, you will still be haunted by and can't help but think of him. The torment he feels is so raw, so real, it's tangible. The reader is dragged along and sickly propelled right with the main character- and neither of you can help but get swallowed up in a circus of the macabre. Knowing how much I hate spoilers, I'm not going to get into a plot discussion here, as I think it would take away from too much of the story. But I will say this, the pacing is slow at first, but I believe that's quite deliberate. And the foreshadowing of the title, "Rotters" really does not prepare you for all this book encompasses. Yes, it's about corpses and grave-robbing and death but there's so, so much more than that going on here.
In conclusion, I find myself in this very weird position. Because as twisted as it was, I liked it. Am I really going to do this? Yep. I am. I am going to recommend you read this totally dark, disturbing book. But with a strong warning: please do not read this if (1) you are a 10 year old girl (2) you have a weak stomach (3) discussing corpses, grave robbing and desecrating the dead will freak you out and/or give you nightmares.
And if you do decide to read it, after that stellar endorsement, (LOL), please let me know what you think!