A Bad
Day for Voodoo
Source
Books (2012)
When you went to high school, did you
have a teacher that you just didn't like? Actually, hate might
be a better word. I know I had one. He was an English teacher, a
miserable bastard of an English teacher to be precise. In the case of
Jeff Strand's protagonist, Tyler Churchill, he hates his his tenth
grade history teacher, Mr. Click. So does Tyler's best friend
Adam, to the extent that Adam buys a voodoo doll for Tyler, as a
silly act of revenge against their teacher. Just one problem: the
voodoo doll is real and is way more powerful than either Tyler or
Adam could have dared imagine.
The story movies along at a frenetic pace
once the voodoo doll comes into play, as sticking a pin into the
doll's leg and then seeing their teacher's leg detach from his body
in a violent eruption, sending both boys into a panicked sense of
terror and paranoia. How Tyler and Adam each handle the event is like
the different between night and day. What ensues is a farcical
fright-fest with the boys winding up in possession of a new doll,
this one designed to symbolize Tyler, and the outright horror of what
might happen to Tyler if anything happens to the doll.
Throw in a cavalcade of crazy characters
that the boys encounter during a single night of wild-eyed wandering
in hopes of getting the woman who made the doll to take away its
powers. Readers no sooner get a sense of how one tension-filled scene
might play out, then Jeff concocts a brand new dilemma for the boys
to deal with on their fear-fueled romp.
A
Bad Day for Voodoo feels like
the Corey Haim/Corey Feldman movie that never got made. A bit of
Ferris Bueller's Day Off, mixed
with Weekend at Bernie's,
and some Tales from the Crypt
for seasoning. The story is told through Tyler's recounting, which is
effective in its humor most of the time, but Jeff gets a bit too
playful for my tastes with the literary hijinks in how Tyler tells
the story, especially towards the end. The charm of the book comes
from the zaniness of the subject matter, and the balance between
humor and horror is achieved as only Jeff can do. A fun, fast read
for young and old alike, so long as they have a devilishly dark sense
of humor.
1 comment:
Sounds like an awesome book! I've heard nothing but good things, and one of these days I shall snag me a copy! If you ever get a chance to see Jeff act as the emcee at the Bram Stoker Award Banquet, it's a riot ;-)
-DarkEva
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