Skullcrack City

It's been five years since I read "We Live Inside You," JRJ's second collection of short stories. I'd forgotten how much he can get under your skin—I won't go any further with that metaphor. He has this wonderful ability to get you to care about his characters (with exceptions of course), be silent witness to their suffering, and re-assure them that they're still human no matter what.One could say that "Skullcrack City" is an outgrowth of "The League of Zeroes," the opening short story in JRJ's first short story collection, "Angel Dust Apocalypse." But while the body modification elements of "The League of Zeroes" factor into "Skullcrack City" (it's not a novel for the squeamish), the novel is so much bigger. "The League of Zeroes" is actually the origin story for Buddy the Brain, a minor character in the novel—the two doctors from the novel appear in a limited fashion in the short story.JRJ's writing style shifts fluidly in "Skullcrack City" as the protagonist, S.P. Doyle, changes. The Doyle we meet in the Prologue struck me as sinister. He hardly seemed like the guy we were supposed to be rooting for. But then the story proper starts and we meet the Hex-addicted Doyle. The guy is a total mess, spiraling out of control with paranoid fantasies, and it shows up in the narrative. You're not sure what's real and what's hallucination as one sentence runs head on into the next. And just when you think he can't go any further, he crashes as his paranoid fears are confirmed. But we're only a third of the way through the book.In the middle third, the Hex is purged from his system, but Doyle struggles like a newly hatched chick as his body returns to normal and he awkwardly tries to grow into the would-be hero role. The narrative slows down to a manageable pace with periods of introspection, letting the reader catch their breath. But it's also punctuated by episodes of violence to prevent reader complacency and prod Doyle out of episodes of navel gazing.In the final third, Doyle is forced to adapt or die. His struggle to survive forces him to shed the awkward persona and stand for something. As certainty of purpose kicks in, a calm settles over Doyle. There's a sense of purpose now. As the world teeters on the edge of insanity and terrible monstrosities, it is Doyle who's now the rational one. We recognize the guy from the Prologue as the story has come full circle.While this is standalone novel that eliminates any chance of sequels, I'd still like to make a request for more JRJ novels. Please.

Jeremy Robert Johnson has been a tour de force in the Bizarro scene for many years. Before this he was well known for his brilliant short stories (collected in Angel Dust Apocalypse and We Live Inside You). His writing is twisted, dark, hilarious, and touching, all at once. So when LF published his first full-length novel, I knew I had to devour it. And sure enough, Skullcrack City delivers on the promise of his earlier work.The novel centers on Doyle, a banker on a mission to bring down the banks from the inside. Fueled by the latest wonder drug Hex, a drug that makes its users see through time and space and gives them huge boners, he dives deep into the dark worlds of extreme body modification and corporate banking to uncover a plot to elevate a few to godhood by wiping out the rest of humanity.This is really brilliant work, canonical Bizarro, and arguably should be part of the Cyberpunk canon as well. It deserves five stars for that.I had to knock off a star for Dara, Doyle's sidekick, who frankly strikes me as a collection of tropes. I know JRJ can write women better than this, as he did in his short story States of Glass, so Dara is a bit of a disappointment.

A fun futuristic action romp that takes you through one outrageous set piece after another. A sort of Island Of Dr Moreau meets The Matrix as written by William Gibson, only much much cooler! I could not possibly begin to explain all the different elements that make up this novel-so many gonzo ideas that should never come together and work as a whole, yet Johnson somehow make it all work, and work brilliantly. So many genres represented here, from science fiction to horror, to cyberpunk. There’s also humor aplenty in the middle of all the death and destruction, and a great love story to boot. Jeremy Robert Johnson is the real deal! If you loved Entropy In Bloom, a brilliant genre mashing cornucopia of ideas and one of my favorite books of the year, you’re sure to love this.

Firstly, you should buy this book. In the words of S P Doyle: F*** IT! WHY NOT?Secondly, and in a little more detail, I’m not quite sure how Jeremy Robert Johnson pulled this off but you should be glad he did. Having read his short fiction I was salivating at the thought of a novel, but couldn’t have anticipated quite how mind-blowing it would be. Using his “League of Zeroes” extreme body modification reality TV short as a springboard, what he’s created here is a delirious mash up of Bizarro, crime, (cosmic) horror, science fiction, conspiracy thriller and black comedy as if written by a hive mind consisting of William S Burroughs, Hunter S Thompson, Philip K Dick and H P Lovecraft after a heavy night on the town that finished up with them breaking into the evidence locker of their local police department’s Vice division and typing one handed as they all held each other at gunpoint.Alright, maybe I got carried away there, but it’s still pretty amazing. And those authors are just glib points of reference – JRJ has an incredibly distinctive voice all his own, and really writes like nobody else.The story of a lowly bank drone – the aforementioned S P Doyle - who decides to bring down the system from within, ably assisted by his turtle Deckard and distribution-quantities of the lethal street drug Hexadrine, Skullcrack City morphs at breakneck pace into a race against time to achieve nothing less than the salvation of humankind. Along the way, and in order to avoid the clutches of the skull-cracking, brain-devouring genetically-engineered mutants of the title, Doyle hooks up with a cast of Hex dealers, underground cults and off-the-grid techno-hippies and thus meets Dara, the one-eyed love of his more-than-likely-short-lived life. For an author to encompass both laugh-out-loud dick jokes and an unflinching history of the hideous experiments conducted by the Mengele-like villain Dr Tikoshi, not to mention cover topics like love, addiction, sacrifice and the only reason a man can find not to commit suicide as being the abandonment of a beloved pet is a remarkable achievement. That this is all followed by a coda that chills me to the bone even after the second or third reading is just further evidence that JRJ isn’t afraid to follow his ideas through to the end when most people would probably either quit or have the good sense not to go there in the first place.Thirdly, I should’ve written this review when I read Skullcrack City a couple of days after release almost a year ago. I’m writing it now because the author put out a call for reviews (on Amazon.com) that might improve the book’s chances of attracting movie interest and it’s not a big ask, all things considered. Okay, so there’s a very cool prize on offer if numbers reach 100, but I live in the UK so I’m not expecting to be able to claim it even if I win. I’m finally writing this because it’s probably my favourite book of the last year and one of my favourite books EVER… and just because it deserves to have how cool it is drawn to the attention of a wider audience.FIVE STARS, NO QUESTION. AND ALL OF THEM ON FIRE…

Jeremy Robert Johnson is something of a literary dominatrix, I kind of turn to his books whenever I want to receive a little bit of abuse for my own personal pleasure. And this is exactly the case for his latest book Skullcrack City.It takes place in the same universe as the short story The League of Zeros (found in Angel Dust Apocalypse) and tells the tale of a paranoid and drug-addled banker caught in the midst of conspiracies and cults, body-modders and hippies, (oh… and there’s a turtle too).This is a spectacular book, I cannot go into the story without giving too much away, but from the very first sentence Johnson grips the reader and doesn’t let them go. Johnson is a master of his craft and writes with an authority that can’t be matched.The characters work incredibly well together and display a chemistry and a very real depth to their relationships.The plot (as to be expected from Johnson) is mind-bending, hilarious, and heart-breaking.I can wholeheartedly recommend this book for any fan of sci-fi or Bizarro!

And I don't mean that in a bad way; the story pulled me in and held onto me until it was done. But the conspiracy theories and talk of wolf gods and detailed descriptions of body modification and conversations between some of the characters did make my head spin. I can see why the FBI visited the author! Overall a very enjoyable read!

There has been a lot of hype surrounding this book and it is fully justified. An immersive Bizarro read that will leave you exhausted and extremely happy at it's conclusion. Brilliant read.

Perfect novel for the increasingly insane and fractured world we live in. Intricately plotted, well paced and interesting characters. This is a great book you really should read.