Bizarro Starter Kit (Purple)

The Bizarro Starter Kit by Cameron Pierce

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Bizarro Starter Kits are meant to ease people into the Bizarro genre. Me, I bought them because I'm a cheap ass and want to stretch my Bizarro dollars a bit. Here are just some of the wonders Bizarro Starter Kit (Purple) contains:



The Clockwork Girl by Athena Villaverde: The Clockwork Girl tells the story of a toy clockwork girl named Puchi who first falls in love with her owner and then is discarded when her owner gets too old. That's about all I can say of the plot without giving too much away.



The Clockwork Girl is like something Peter S. Beagle might write if he was into Bizarro fiction. Puchi's innocence made the story for me. It would make a great Pixar movie if they'd let Tim Burton anywhere near the building. I'm hoping for more of the same from Starfish Girl.



Punkupine Moshers of the Apocalypse by David Agranoff: In a post-apocalyptic wasteland created by the nuclear war of 1987, the people of Dischargia have embraced the punk lifestyle to survive. When the river runs dry, Dressica and her friends venture up the river, beyond the edge of the world.



While I didn't like Punkupines as much as The Clockwork Girl, it was still really cool. Cyborg punks from a community based around punk music going up against the shriveling political icons of the 1980's? What's not to like?



Cripple Wolf by Jeff Burk: A wheelchair-bound man boards an airplane crammed full of fetishists on the night of a full moon and becomes a werewolf. Awesomeness ensues.



Cripple Wolf was a hilarious gorefest, like a bizarro version of Snakes on a Plane.



Re-Mancipator by Garret Cook: Abraham Lincoln is on a rampage and it's up to Musashi, Marilyn Monroe, Johnny Booth, and others to stop him.



Re-Mancipator is delightfully bizarre. If Abraham Lincoln bites you, you become a zombie Abraham Lincoln. This also works on dogs, gorillas, and other animals. While it sounds like a zombie romp, Re-Mancipator also plays with the concepts of time and history. Good stuff.



The Homewreckers by Cody Goodfellow: In a city where the sexes are segregated on opposite sides of a Wall, Floyd Mundy has to go across the wall to solve an apparent murder-suicide. What will he uncover?



Goodfellow knows how to craft a noir tale, that's for sure. The world he's created is both horrifying and horriyingly plausible. Grotesque creatures abound. It's a contender for the best story in the collection.



The Destroyed Room by Cameron Pierce: In a city with plastic grass and trees, Simon accidentally kills his wife (and their unborn child) by cutting strings coming out of her that only he can see. From there, things get a little weird...



The Destroyed Room is by far the strangest story in the collection. It has a dreamlike quality and is very well-written. That's about all I can say without blowing more of the plot. Extra points for the use of sloths and tiny elephants.





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