Hilarious and riveting. ( )

What is so awesome about reading Christopher Moore is that of you judged his books by their title and book cover art, you'd think he was writing horror novels. But Secondhand Souls like most of his other novels are works of absolute comic genius. And make no mistake about it, horrible horrific things do take place in his novels. But he is still able to make his novels, absolutely, laugh out loud, hysterical ! A rare talent indeed. ( )

I'm guessing that Christopher Moore is something of an acquired taste, and I can't say that I have gotten there yet. More than a dozen years ago I picked up a copy of Island of the Sequined Love Nun so too long ago, and too many books read since to remember my impressions. I want to say that I thought it was okay, and recall that the premise was unusual and / or creative with the Cargo Cult. But now I am wondering if that book too was as blah as I am finding the books I purchased more recently.

In the past year I have picked up 4 more Moore books, read 3 and... I'm really on the fence. I give Secondhand Souls 3-stars, but for me, that might be a bit high. Moore is a funny guy; a line, or maybe even two, every 20-30 pages or so would have me chuckling. Admittedly, 'like bear' got me every time. I liked all the characters, they were engaging, and I was invested in their stories. The depictions of The City were quite good; the people, the neighborhoods. But the story lagged; most often I just wanted to move forward and be done with it. It wasn't a "page-turner" so it took a long time to finish; a bit too long.

Maybe I was overwhelmed by the weirdness. Even the trivia was bizarre: David Carradine, WTF?

Not the most original quotes to pull out, but oftentimes the truth is stranger than even Moore's fiction:

"The funeral was held at St. Mary’s Cathedral of San Francisco, which has the distinction of being the only church in the world designed after a washing-machine agitator." [Known as Our Lady of Maytag].

"If the outside of St. Mary's resembled a washing machine, the interior was a minimalist starship, with the round dais and altar at the head of the nave, and a pipe organ built into a platform that rose and cantilevered over the mourners on the side, like the control center of the great vessel." ( )

Entertaining. This is the second of a series, should have read the first first but it was okay. ( )

Christopher Moore can not write a bad book. Period. He is a literary genius/mastermind.