Review - H Is For Hellraisin by Marc Richard

Preamble

I ‘met’ Marc Richard a couple of years ago when he invited me to join his new Facebook group for funny indie authors titled, appropriately, Funny Indie Authors. I had been meaning to pick up one of his books for a while, then noticed this one. I am a big fan of Clive Barker and the Hellraiser movies (the first two, anyway), so it was an easy choice.

A note about my reviews: I consider myself an appreciator, not a critic. I know first-hand what goes into the creation of art – the blood, the sweat, the tears, the risk. I also know that art appreciation is subjective and lernt good what mama tell’t me – if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. I’m not a school marm grading a spelling test – I’m a reader who enjoys reading. If a book is entertaining, well-written, and I get absorbed into it, five out of five. I have gone as low as three stars – anything less than that and I will not review a book (chances are I DNFed anyway). Regardless, I wouldn’t even put a star rating system on my reviews but for the reality of storefronts like Amazon.

Take from that what you will.

Review – 5/5

H is for Hellraisin is a straight parody of the first Hellraiser movie. It’s referential in the extreme, basically a scene-by-scene breakdown with absolutely ridiculous commentary and jokes about what happens in the movie. I don’t know if you’d appreciate it as much if you’re not as familiar with the movie, but I don’t think I laughed as hard as I have at a book in a while.

The humour is puerile, juvenile, clever, witty, absurdist, and somewhat racist at one point (though it is so over the top and made fun of by the other characters that it works without feeling nasty). Richard being an envelope pusher, he actually leads with the racist joke – I think it’s on the first or second page. Fist bump for courage? There’s really something for everyone here in terms of humour style. Some of it is very dry, and Richard calls out the movie for all of its absolutely dumb moments, and there are a few. I mean, it’s an 80s horror movie, so what do you expect?

I can’t really get into too much detail without spoiling the jokes, there are so many. I suppose that all I can say is that if you liked Hellraiser or at least have seen it, you don’t take much seriously and have a good sense of humour, you will laugh at this book. If you think life is serious business, maybe you need not apply. Humour is admittedly subjective, but this one really scratched an itch for me, one that doesn’t get scratched all that often in literature. Probably because the gap between stand-up and perverted comedy movies and the type of humour that gets written into novel form is somewhat vast, though narrowing with works like Christopher Moore’s Fool and other more bawdy and puerile works from the indie community. Though I admit I can enjoy a book where the author pussyfoots around the edge, with the wink wink, nudge nudge ‘aren’t we being naughty by being mildly suggestive?,’ this book takes you well past the edge, often. At times it’s like listening to a stand-up who does blue comedy, which is one of my favourite ways to laugh. I’m the kind of guy who thinks The Aristocrats documentary is one of the best commentaries on humour ever made, though.

H is for hell-yeah raisin.

Check it out on the ‘zon here.