The Weirdness is a bit like a dark and grubby cousin of The Good Place TV series. It's quirky, funny, and its most surreal events are described in delightfully visual ways. Quite often the self-consciously smart writing intrudes into the dialogue, so there are moments you can feel the author at work instead of the characters speaking. But overall this is a fun read. The plot gathers pace and becomes genuinely page turning. After this, if the devil offered me coffee and a power point, I might be tempted too. ( )

I have been lingering over this book on the Melville House webpage for ages. It sounded fascinating, but it also sounded like there was some serious potential for turning out to be some pretentious hipster "edgy" lad lit. So I hedged, and put off, until I was at the library and ended up with the book in my hand. What did I have to lose at that point, right?

I actually spent most of the book straddling that fence of "I'm really going to like this," and "this is all going to turn out to be such a huge disappointment," For a book about The Weirdness, it's really a lot about cliches -- deals with the devil, struggling young writers in the city, Chinese lucky cats. But he's playing with these cliches: the devil loves Powerpoint, the Chinese lucky cat is a perpetual motion machine that will bring about the heat-death of the universe (very quickly), the writer is a spoiler!spoiler!spoiler! Are these twists Bushnell puts on things playful enough to unroot them from the ordinary? I suspect your mileage may vary. For me it was touch and go. The story is moving along and feeling kind of familiar, like I've read just this kind of story before, and I can feel the balloon falling, and then Billy says, "Lucifer Morningstar? What is that, your World of Warcraft name?" and I'm laughing and the balloon is up in the air again. This whole book I was holding my breath, waiting for the balloon to pop. (This metaphor establishes that I may have seen the movie Jeffrey a few too many times.) Until the final conflict and its deus ex machina (but not the one you think) when I was finally about to laughingly let out my breath and pat this little lucky cat on its head.

There are a lot of clever laugh out loud moments. I'm tempted to read through this book again right now to enjoy it without that sense of withheld judgement. But book bingo beckons! Progress must be made! ( )

I love the first part of the book. The ending is weak. It's a nice first novel ( )

Unique and unexpected. This tempted by the Devil read is way out of the norm and very entertaining. I went into this book blind so I and no expectations. When I started reading I was intrigued by where this character who was at his bottom was going to go. He did not take the expected path and his reactions did not follow the well worn way of many others books. He is not a very likable guy nor is he unlikable, he's almost a shadow with all his doubts and missteps. I enjoyed it, it made me think about new things. I had my 19 year old daughter read it, a harsh critic, she thought is was weird at first but then became glued to it as well and ended it stating "that was a good book." Hard to define, hard to explain, so give it a try and cast your own vote. ( )

Random Thoughts

Wonderfully quirky, weird and well just plain fabulously odd
Plenty of witty dialogue
One of the most unique stories I have ever read
Fabulous opening chapter, it hooks you in right away and you know its going to be an odd little story that you don't want to put down
Won't appeal to everyone, but if you like something a little unusual, this one is for you
PowerPoint presentation - trust me you will understand why that is funny after reading
Thinking if you are very religious, you might have some serious issues with this - especially as Aquinas is referred to as "that fat fuck"
You will never figure out what is going to happen next - totally surprising
You will have many WTF moments, but in a good way
Some wise commentary on life

Memorable Quotes

"She loved him, he believes, because he wasn't normal, he wasn't a boy who was rambunctious and active and courageous, but rather a boy who was dreamy and inquisitive and delicate."

"This is one of those things where I end up saying Oh, tell me more and the next thing I know I'm signing away my soul." He doesn't actually believe in the soul, but he does know that if the Devil shows up and asks you to sign yours away, you should probably say no."

"And then he realizes that that's okay. Denver is right: when people love you, they show up. Sometimes that means that they get to bail you out of trouble. It's not bad when that happens; it just means that you return the obligation when you get the chance. You be the guy who is present instead of a fuck-up."

4 Dewey's

I borrowed this from Lesley at work (also read by Chelsea and Alicia who also recommended) ( )