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Thursday, August 8, 2013

Book Review: American Ghoul by Walt Morton

American Ghoul
By Walt Morton

Blurb: 
Seventeen-year-old Howard Pickman has some unusual problems: He comes from a family of ghouls with a long history of digging up corpses, and he’s just moved to a new school filled with kids that are scarier than he is. American Ghoul is the story of an exceptionally odd teenager trying to survive the most terrible time anybody has to go through -- senior year at high school



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Paul's Review: 
I like creepy.  I especially like creepy if it is really, truly creepy.  American Ghoul by Walt Morton is a great, really creepy, and, in some cases, hilarious read.

Morton tells the story of a high school student in New Jersey in the seventies who is a ghoul.  What, exactly, is a ghoul?  A ghoul is a supernatural creature who looks like a normal human, but who has two different colored eyes and who digs up freshly dug graves to eat dead human flesh - particularly the brain, pituitary gland, heart, adrenal gland, and the liver.  What if on top of all the normal high school worries like friends, grades, cliques (or not), sex, drugs, college looming in the future, etc. you also had to dig up graves and eat whom you found to survive?

This reviewer is a big fan of true horror stories and movies.  Comedy should not, as a rule, be included in the story or movie.  On the other hand, Walt Morton just proved me wrong.  Morton's subject matter is truly horrific (much to my delight), and there were also many instances of me laughing to tears (with my wife and niece looking at me as if I were crazy).  What a truly entertaining book.  As I have said there was horror and comic relief.  There was also a great friendship story, an underdog you rout for, tragedy, a love story, and (I am happy to say) a really great ending.  This book was dead on (no pun intended) when it comes to what the whole high school experience is like, and it reminded me of my own high school years - minus being a ghoul, of course.

If this book is the first in a series of six, then I cannot wait to read the rest!  I am very happy to give this book five stars out of five.  Creep me out completely AND make me laugh hysterically AND do it successfully will you, Walt Morton?  Creep on, Mr. Morton, creep on.  I dig it (ha, ha, ok now pun intended).


Rating: 5 Stars - 

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