I just had to read this book, because of the title. Fuckness. Fuck yea! Right? Well, not so much. There was very little fuckness. It's just a standard white trash story, really. Incest, regular beatings, and lots of beer. Nothing really that original, except maybe that the protagonist has horns on his head. Hell, even that's not original. I mean, there's a fucking movie with that Harry Potter guy. It's even called "Horns" for fuck's sake.

I'm pretty sure there's more "fuckness" in this review than there is in this book. So, fuck "Fuckness" in its dirty fucking asshole. Because, I had such high hopes for this book. But now, I just have zero fucks to give. ( )

WARNING: Language and shit.

This review is of the audiobook.

FUCKNESS is relatively devoid of fuckness. Relatively...

I listened to the first 42% of FUCKNESS, by Andersen Prunty, narrated by Jeff Bower, then switched to the ebook for one chapter. One chapter. That's all. I missed the narrator so much I went back to the audio edition. Bower does an amazing job of capturing the sarcastic tone of Prunty's novel. Had I simply read the book, I don't believe my review would have been as glowing. The book is damn good, don't get me wrong, but it seems made for audio.

Now, about the book. If you couldn't tell by the title, there's a metric fuck-ton of fucking fucks in this fucker of a book. Not to mention some of the most humorous vulgarisms I've ever seen in literature. I loved every minute of it. I'm a firm believer that any language can be foul, any word can become a curse. "Beatrice" isn't a bad word, but call a man "Beatrice" in the middle of an argument and see if he doesn't respond poorly. But you don't need me preaching to you about language, foul or otherwise, so on with the review.

FUCKNESS is surprisingly deep. Each chapter had at least one or two quote-worthy paragraphs. Prunty tackles being a geek, being poor, and being invisible to the opposite sex with a deft pen. The prose might be simple, but there are layers to it. You can breeze through a sentence without thinking twice about it, because the flow is as smooth as butter, but if you slow down, you'll find yourself ruminating on the profoundness hidden within. Or maybe I'm just a simple fuck. Who knows? What I can say with the utmost certainty is this: I dug this book because I am the main character. I am Wally Black. And I will venture a guess that a lot of you will have quite a bit in common with him as well. We've all been awkward at some point in our lives. The only difference is, Wally isn't simply going through a phase. He's the embodiment of awkward.

Now, here's why I didn't give the book five stars. (Deep breath... ) Prunty kinda, sorta, in a way, ripped off Joe Hill's HORNS. Going into FUCKNESS, I had no idea it was about a guy that gets stuck with devil horns. I ignored the synopsis simply because I liked the title. Then I get to the part where Wally goes on his rampage, and I sighed. One big fucking sigh. Like, "Goddamnit, man... Why?" It could have been reindeer antlers or a beer helmet. It could have been two fucking dildos duct-taped to a fedora for all the fucks I would have given. Why did you have to make them devil horns? Now, did Prunty read Hill's book? I have no idea. All I know is HORNS was published in Feb 2010, and FUCKNESS in March 2011. You do the math.

In summation: The book is good. The writing is as smooth as baby shit, and the narrator of the Audible Edition fits the tone perfectly. Read it or listen to it, I don't care. Just enjoy it, and all that fuckness.

(Note: Some reviewers have complained about the grammatical errors in the ebook. In the single chapter I read, I didn't find anything that stood out. Other than that, I cannot comment on the quality of the writing. If there were errors, the narrator covered them up nicely.)
( )

This probably the strangest, most bizarre author I've ever read. I have previously only read a short story collection ([b:Hi I'm a Social Disease: Horror Stories|12157892|Hi I'm a Social Disease Horror Stories|Andersen Prunty|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GTSBvDIbL._SL75_.jpg|17128786]) which I really enjoyed. It is hard to write about this book since it is so surreal and weird. I mean that in a good way.

Synopsis: "This darkly comic novel opens with the narrator as the target of the school bully’s violence. After suffering a horrendous beating, the narrator goes home to his equally abusive family. As a punishment for fighting at school, his mother straps a set of grotesque horns to the top of his head."

There are some dark themes in this book and also a horrifying look at abuse and bullying. The protagonist does some horrible things and horrible things are done to him as well. I would recommend this to anyone looking for something out of left field or way different then they usually read. I liked the book a lot, but it is hard to say why. ( )

I'm finding it hard to think exactly what to say about Andersen Prunty's Fuckness. This is a story that I found kind of disturbing, yet enthralling. At one point I half expected the protagonist to turn out to be one of those kids who goes on a shooting spree at school, because his life is just that bad and everyone is just horrible to him.

It's all about his sixteen year old called Wally Black. His life pretty much sucks. He's been held back in school for two years. Despite being the oldest kid in his class and fairly large, he is bullied pretty badly by pretty much everyone in his class. His teacher hates him and takes any opportunity to punish and belittle him. His parents are sadistic and abusive. One day after being badly beaten by a classmate and sent home from school early for it, Wally's parents punish him by beating him unconscious and affixing a pair of horns to his head.

From there, things get fairly gruesome and strange. Willy kills a lot of people in revenge for various slights and abuses. He meets quite a few strange people. The ending somehow feels both happy and sad.

While I enjoyed this book, I don't think it's the sort of thing everyone would enjoy. ( )