Rankin, Robert

AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:

2 out of 5

(1 book)

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies Of The Apocalypse

Jack sets off to the city to seek his fortune.  However, he soon finds out that the city in question is Toy City; a place where prominent figures from children's rhymes are being brutally murdered.  Teaming up with the hard-drinking private detective Eddie Bear, Jack sets out to solve the murders and, hopefully, find his fortune.

This book begins very strongly with Jack learning a hilarious lesson in trusting the dire warnings of farmers, when said farmer turns out to be a cannibal who lays traps for young boys seeking their fortune.  Unfortunately the book is very much a mixed bag from there on out. 

There were bits of genuine hilarity scattered throughout the book, but they were bogged down with repetetive dialogue and rather smug wordplays on the part of the author.  Some of this forced self-aware cleverness reminded me of early Terry Pratchett, before he'd developed the right balance for it with the storytelling.  Because of this bogging-down, at one point I found myself genuinely hating the book and regretted having started it.

I have to say that Rankin does manage to do a fair bit of salvaging in the final act but not enough to make me forget the book's boring and, frankly, annoying middle section.

2 out of 5

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