So this book is like an action movie. Like part Kill Bill and part Men in Black and part Usual Suspects. It kind of lost me at the end, but I really liked it.

Here's the deal: this woman is locked up in a psych ward for being a crazy murderer. Then she starts to tell this story about how she works for a secret organization that fights evil. Because she fights evil, there are a lot of terrible characters in this book, child molesters mostly, which isn't fun to think about, but if you're going to fight evil, you're going to go up against scummy stuff.

And then there are all these twists. I won't spoil any of them, but rest assured that this book will keep you on your toes if you can keep up. ( )

I like books which like to frak with you. This book is never what it seems. ( )

I have to say I like Matt Ruff more with ever novel (this is my 3rd, leaving one more to be read as things stand right now). _Bad Monkeys_, like _Fool on the Hill_ and _Set This House in Order_, has psychological themes, but where Fool and House are more serious in their approach, _Monkeys_ is more of a romp, and less 'touching' for lack of a better term.

These comparisons aside, Ruff's usual quality writing is present: interesting characters with whom most readers will be able to identify in one way or another, unexpected twists, and excellent prose. In many ways _Monkeys_ is previous Ruff with a bit of Christopher Moore mixed in - which is no bad thing, I like Moore a great deal. ( )

Snjöll saga hjá Ruff um konu sem grunuð er um morð en þegar hún fullyrðir að hún sé leynilegur útsendari samtaka sem myrða illt fólk þá lendir hún beint í sálfræðimati. Lesandinn fær að fylgjast með viðtölum sálfræðingsins við konuna sem er annað hvort verulega veruleikafirrt eða öflug leynisamtök eru að takast á um heimsyfirráð með tækni sem gerir þeim kleift að fylgjast með hverri hreyfingu almennings og taka sér dómsvald um örlög hvers sem er.
Skemmtilega óvænt endalok en persónusköpun og samskipti frekar slöpp. ( )

I picked this one off the charity shelf at work for entirely superficial reasons.

This is [b:Bad Monkey|16071701|Bad Monkey|Carl Hiaasen|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1359148688s/16071701.jpg|21865808] by [a:Carl Hiaasen|8178|Carl Hiaasen|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1208367876p2/8178.jpg].
[bc:Bad Monkey|16071701|Bad Monkey|Carl Hiaasen|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1359148688s/16071701.jpg|21865808]

And this is [b:Bad Monkeys|71845|Bad Monkeys|Matt Ruff|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1300479869s/71845.jpg|69564].
[bc:Bad Monkeys|71845|Bad Monkeys|Matt Ruff|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1300479869s/71845.jpg|69564]

(In the interests of honesty, I must confess that I misremembered the Hiaasen book with a yellow cover, too.)

Also intriguing was the design of the book: It's got a stiff cover, but not a hardcover--not sure what you call that--and it's an unusual size, about 5"x9.5". I had to take it home to study it, if nothing else. Fortunately, the story sounded good, too.

It was okay, though nothing spectacular. I liked it better in the beginning, in the ramp up to learning what the Bad Monkeys were, and in Jane Charlotte's training, than I did later. I hate trotting out meaningless phrases like "It just wasn't believable" for a book like this but, well...

My problem was that the book began so firmly rooted in reality. The only major twist was the NC gun. But the further along I got, the more ridiculous everything became--to the point that it was like reading an action movie. And I have yet to see that done well. I guess I just wanted some working rules to go with. I love surprises, but when the surprises are changes to rules that I didn't know existed in the first place, they're not much fun. [Gosh, suddenly I'm thinking of the Eleventh Doctor.]

I wasn't terribly surprised by the surprise ending, either. Not that that's unusual, but I didn't get much satisfaction out of the big reveal, which I often can.

All that said, it wasn't a bad book. I had fun reading it, and I did like the original direction the story was headed...just not where it ended up.

Quote Roundup

I was in a coma for ten days. I woke up in a darkened hospital room with a television playing somewhere nearby. Tom Cruise was talking about a priest who'd died giving last rites to a fireman at Ground Zero. Then Mariah Carey started singing that we all have a hero inside us, and I thought maybe I'd died, and this was hell. But the show went on, with more celebrities coming out to sing and tell stories, and there were calls for donations, and eventually I realized I wasn't in hell, I was just in America. (60) ( )