Peculiar story indeed
588565
Fantasy combines with fiction in this peculiar tale. Imaginative cast of characters with intriguing twists of plot.  The pictures throughout lend to the sense of surrealism.
1289897
The Hunting Trip by William E. Butterworth III is one of the strangest books that I have read, funny, but odd. The writing style is very different - part of what is quirky and funny is also at times tedious. All of the characters have four or five part names, such as  Lieutenant Charles William George Michel Bertram of Her Majesty's Own Scottish Light Lancers. Each of the names is written in it's entirety each time it is used. The same is true for things said by the character when repeated by another character. It is always said word for word, rather than paraphrased
The story is about a young man who joins the military service just after World War II because he was expelled from high school. He is not unintelligent and is an excellent skeet shooter. His skill paves the path for a cushy career in the service. He marries an Austrian ballet dancer who is very hateful and domineering. This does not seem to bother him. The story progresses for another 30 years in the characters life.
At times the book was entertaining, but not exciting at all.
4133567
Intriguing, odd story. Not your typical mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but would enjoy just about anything written by this duo. Very dark at times, but still enjoyable. I recommend this book highly.
1875612
Very unusual book.  I did enjoy the story.
200232
Christopher Moores imagination is always weird. Fluke is weirder than most. Not to give away the plot, but it is neatly summarized by the cover illustration: a whale sounding to show BITE ME painted on its tail. I tend to read Moore in small increments because weirdness combined with swearing are hard to take for very long. But this story is entertaining and worth sticking to it. Its also fun to read bizarreness written for its own sake.
Maybe the funniest line is not in the book but on the cover. The New York Times is quoted as reviewing Where has this guy been hiding? Maybe The Times should stray from their usual genres deemed worthy of review more often. Theres a whole other world out there.
2697087
I am quite familiar with Tatsumi's work, but this gem from the 50's is an entirely different, surprising animal. It's has more to do with noir fiction, as it does not portray the often bleak lives of working-class japanese people during the 60's and 70's. The drawing style is also quite different: although quite good, it still had not reached maturity. A very well-told story with a surprising twist, worth every penny!
4922337
This is a great story of a woman who lived a most unusual life and may or may not have been used.  It made a nice change from the fiction I have been reading lately.
3028292
I have had an odd run of books recently...even some that are quite popular are so formulaic or seem to be just collections of pop-culture references. This was wonderfully different! It IS a story, but not told in the typical way...lots of stops along the way for talking and thinking. Kind of like life!

I think many would enjoy the little trip you take by reading this book, as long as they don't approach it as a "typical" novel. At least I hope people can appreciate its approach!
1556287
I'm teetering on the brink of giving this story five stars instead of four.  It is thoroughly predictable.  I could tell you every single thing that was going to happen before the tale progressed very far.  This did not, however, bring me the usual semi-bored page flipping.  In spite of that predictability, turning the pages was easy because this story is far from ordinary.  The subject itself is strange and alien to most of us.  It is that very strangeness that makes it so good.  I read it in one fell swoop and was almost sorry to see it end.  It's well done and I'm still teetering on the edge of five stars.
1847208
This book is a very unusual story. In itself that is a joy to read something unlike anything I have ever read. I strongly recommend it, along with Gilead and Home.
I loved this book.
717413
Really strange story and actually, I am not sure why I bought it.  But the strange ways she looks at and describes things does make you want to look at things differently in your own life.  This was not the author's first book.  I might give another book a try.
4025893
The story is unusual. Interesting but odd. I primarily purchased this book because Maurice Sendak illustrated it. His illustrations are wonderful as always. I also ordered a copy for my nieces.
1698008
The title of this book certainly fits its main characteristic, since if I had to describe it in one word, I would use odd! Odd Thomas sits down to write his story at the urging of Little Ozzie, his humongous friend. One of the requests is to keep the tone of the story light, and not fill it with sadness and sorrow. In his effort to comply with this, Odd delivers a narration that is bittersweet and mixes portions filled with despair with some filled with joy.

Odd is a cook at a dinner in Pico Mundo and has dreams of going into the tires or shoes business, he has a peculiar girlfriend, Stormy, who is very serious about delayed gratification. His father is a little weird too, and is trying to parcel and sell the moon, not to mention his mother, who is totally cuckoo. But the strangest of all, has to do with the fact that Odd has a sixth sense. I think I have seen this idea before, as probably you have too, Odd can see dead people.

Odd uses his gift to help others, and there is a select group of people, including the police chief, who are aware of his special ability. He can also see a type of spirit, called bodachs, who appear around people who are going to die violently. This is of course a useful tool in his journey of public service.

One day Odd starts seeing a vast number of bodachs appear all over town, and sets out to discover who is behind these future tragedies. Up to this point, the story even though not all that original, was interesting, but at this point, we enter an area of boredom in which the author tries to blend different pieces together without much success. The motivation behind some of the things that happen are not clear or come out of left field and we are left with the sensation that we are wasting our time. The end of the story tries to be a surprise, but you can see it coming from a mile away. The book is not terrible, but I find it hard to recommend it when there are so many other efforts within the same gender that are way better, including some by Koontz himself, like the Frankenstein series.
3024321
I have to agree with the author thar this is a strange and unusual book that fits no particular mold.  But I found it wonderful, eccentric and heart warming.  I also found it disturbing and thought provoking.  In the end it touched my heart and I fell in love with Auri and wanted to hug her.  Thank you for sharing this story.
2934392
This is one of the most unusual stories I've read recently.  The characters were interesting and it was not predictable.  However, the ending seemed as though the author was just done with the whole thing.
4397344
This is a weird and wonderful story of organic generation ships, the women that live in them, and the war they fight.  It has enough worldbuilding to pull you into the story's reality without the political or technical infodumps that can interrupt other science fiction / fantasy.  Don't look for an explanation of how gravity varies by level in a rotating station or the energy budget of rocket power  -- it's not here.  And there's no point in trying to fit this story into a particular slice of science fiction, space opera, fantasy or weird -- Hurley left that behind many novels ago.  The characters are quite alien but recognizably people, and the generation ships are organisms that live and die but recognizably space ships.  So is it too different or not different enough?  I think the story stands on it own just fine.
3122807
I found this a complicated story. Some things happened without apparent reason, as in the epilogue: why?
I found disjointedness happening in many places, as the story seemed suddenly to take off with little preliminary explanation.
The whole thing is quite interesting and certainly represents unpleasant police searches and attempts to examine events. Without wanting to spoil the narrative, it has the confusion that one might expect in similar situations. The suffering and the general beastliness of it all is fairly well shown without involving actual blood most of the time.
It's probably more of a woman's book, although as a man I got quite a bit of value from it.