"Extra Credit Epidemic" now available!

Extra Credit Epidemic by Nina Post (my review here) is now available on Amazon in paperback format from Curiosity Quills!  A fun YA/Coming of Age novel featuring a young lesbian character, I cannot recommend this enough for a humorous story, and for young people in the QUILTBAG to provide some encouragement.  Check it out!

Review: Extra Credit Epidemic

Extra Credit Epidemic by Nina Post

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Book Info: Genre: Coming of Age, YA
Reading Level: Young Adult (F/F romantic interests)
Recommended for: Fans of surreal comedy, F/F coming-of-age relationships
Book Available: July 1, 2013 from Curiosity Quills
Trigger Warnings: bullying

My Thoughts: Taffy was my favorite character in the previous book from Nina Post, One Ghost per Serving (my review linked here where formatting allowed), so I was super excited to hear she was featuring in this book.

I think a lot of people won't quite understand or appreciate the humor in this one. It's not the sort of almost slapstick that Nina Post uses in her Last... of the Apocalypse series; it's more a sort of surreality shown through the interactions of the characters. People who enjoy things like Monty Python's Holy Grail (or the TV series) will probably like Extra Credit Epidemic. A small sample of dialogue with Taffy's mother:

“How are you? Are you eating? Are you sleeping?”
“Don't you think your extraordinarily high expectations could be putting too much pressure on me?” Taffy asked.

Taffy is such a player, and that really amuses me, since so often the stereotypical lesbian behavior is “bringing a U-Haul for the second date.” It also seems so counter to her usual behavior, which is to hold everyone at arm's length and/or completely ignore them that I have to wonder how she so thoroughly switches on the charm for her pick-ups. We are never given the details, just the information that she did it again. Taylor's silly little ditties on her banjo and Gabe's wrestling mask gave them each a fun quirk, but their characters were also well-developed otherwise, which I appreciated.  I really loved the growth shown by Taffy through the course of the book, and the strong team she built with Taylor, Gabe, and Van.

The major problem I had with this was a formatting issue: chapters 15 and 16 were mixed up, so it went Chapter 14, chapter 16, then chapter 15, which left me very confused until I figured that out, because it went from heading into the farm in Ohio to pulling into Taffy's house with everyone mad at Taffy and I having no idea why until I noticed the chapter mix-up. This was an ARC, so hopefully that will be fixed by the time this book is released on July 1, 2013.

Nina Post is a recent addition to my favorite author roster. I've read all of her books so far, and enjoyed them quite a lot. My favorite is “Danger in Cat World” (review linked here where formatting allowed).

Disclosure: I received an ARC e-book copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: Taffy Snackerge is a high school senior who likes doing things her way. Gifted in science, she'd rather analyze infectious diseases and pick up a girl for the occasional fling than deal with her boring schoolwork or the high school social scene. When she notices a surprising number of cases of food poisoning in the area, she's eager to dig in and find the cause.

To help with the investigation, Taffy approaches the only teacher she's ever liked and respected, Van Brenner. As a former state epidemiologist, Van is uniquely qualified to help Taffy get the data and insights that she needs. However, Van has one condition: Taffy needs to work with two other students on the case, and she doesn't get to pick them.

As the cases start to multiply and the underfunded state health department continues to drag their feet, Taffy knows that it's up to her to find out what's making so many people sick. But can she learn to work with her two teammates—including a beautiful, hyper-organized girl who's president of the Young Attachés Club and an emotional overeater who can't go out in public without his lucha libre mask—while still retaining her autonomy? Can the team fend off a snooping assistant principal and step up when the adults let them down? And can they locate the source of the outbreak before it reaches epidemic proportions?



View all my reviews

Book Review: "Last Condo Board of the Apocalypse" by Nina Post

The Last Condo Board of the Apocalypse review
Author: Nina Post
4 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Urban Fantasy Reading Level: Adult

Disclosure: I received a free ebook copy of this text from Curiosity Quills (the publisher) in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: When hundreds of fallen angels and dimension-hopping monsters take over a highrise condo building, a down-on-her-luck bounty hunter must team up with an unlikely group of allies to prevent the apocalypse.

Kelly Driscoll tracks down monsters for a living, but the job isn't what it used to be. Vampire hunters are the new big thing, but Kelly doesn't swing that way. When a reclusive client hires her to locate a rival angel, Kelly's search takes her to a downtown highrise that has become home to hundreds of fallen angels and dimension-hopping monsters.

As the fallen angels take over the condo board, argue over who's handling pizza delivery, and begin planning for a little shindig otherwise known as the apocalypse, Kelly must team up with an unlikely group of allies to find her target and keep the fallen angels at bay. In the process, she befriends a reluctant Angel of Destruction, gets tips from a persistent ferret, uncovers the mysteries behind Pothole City's hottest snack food empire, and tries to prevent the end of the world.

My Thoughts: This is Nina Post’s debut novel, which was followed by One Ghost Per Serving, which I just reviewed. (Link to that review by clicking the title.)

Kelly has been barely scraping by ever since that vampire huntress stole all her press (“What kind of a world do we live in...?). Now she’s been asked to find a fugitive in a luxury condo tower with over 500 units in just two days. I have to tell you, this book was very weird – extremely surreal, and full of ridiculousness, just like her other book.

She’s apparently obsessed with titanium sporks, as they have showed up in both books. Also weird names for things – in her 2nd book it is business names, in this book it is Cluck Snacks. Here is a listing of a few of the Cluck Snacks named: Cluck Snack Krispy Baked B’nana Bitz for Dogs and Ferrets (‘Can Be Used As Cereal!’), Cluck Snack Cereal (‘Can Be Used As Cereal!’), Cluck Snack Cake Crisps Cereal, Cluck Snack Top’n (‘Makes Anything Taste like Cluck Snack’), Cluck Snack Sweet n’ Savory Breakfast Syrup, cluck Snack Pizza Flav’r Gum (‘Not for Dogs and Ferrets’), Cluck Snack P’nut Butt’r Chunks (‘For Ferrets, Not Dogs’), Cluck Snack Frozen-Like Dess’rt Bars, Cluck Snack Steamie Pock’tz and Cluck Snack Meal’n a Box Totez (‘Take Your Cluck Snake With You’). There were many more Cluck Snack offerings named throughout the book – that was just a section with a big chunk of them all together.

I really don’t know what to tell you about this book, other than it was surreal, strange, and often silly – the various single-purpose angels were a never-ending source of amusement. I laughed a lot, that’s for sure. But I often had trouble keeping up with what was going on; it was like one of those cartoons with all the flashing lights; hard to track, but amusing. So, if that sounds like your sort of book, be sure to check it out.

Book Review: "One Ghost Per Serving" by Nina Post

One Ghost per Serving review
Author: Nina Post
4 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Paranormal Fantasy Reading Level: Adult

Disclosure: I received an e-galley from Curiosity Quills via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Eric Snackerge has had a rough time lately. After being possessed by a mischievous spirit, he lost his scholarship and got blamed for a scandal that left him blacklisted from the legal profession. Now he’s working two minimum wage jobs and is desperate to show his wife and daughter that he can put his life back together — before his best-friend-turned-enemy swoops in and steals his family away.

When Eric learns about an unusual contest, he realizes that winning the grand prize will help him make his daughter’s dreams come true. But he’ll have to overcome his own self-doubt — not to mention the seemingly impossible odds — in order to achieve that goal.

However, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill sweepstakes. Everyone who eats the product develops an insatiable craving for more. Plus, the people behind the contest are dispatching everything from spy cameras to attack helicopters to make sure that Eric doesn’t get any further.

As Eric soon learns, the contest was only the first phase of a much larger plan. If the villains are successful, they will spread a dangerous supernatural pathogen throughout the food supply. But with distribution of the tainted products already underway, does Eric have what it takes to stop their plan and protect his family from being the next victims?

My Thoughts: This book.... what can I say about this book? It was full of simply ludicrous nonsense of the best type. The stores, for instance: one sold tools, plus was a bakery and tanning salon. Another was called Redemption and Beer. Then there is the indoor shooting range/restaurant where Eric works part of the time. The various entities and spirits that Eric interacts with are an absolute hoot, and their names – and the names by which Eric calls the various people around him – made me laugh repeatedly. One of Eric’s friends gives him a text-message friend-break-up (link will take you to a Kelly video that I felt was appropriate given the concept).

There were a few places where I got a bit lost. For instance, I was really puzzled by why, after he had gathered the lids to spell out PUDDING and sent them in to claim the prize, Eric continued to spend his days buying more and more yogurt. It made absolutely no sense to me. At one point he says he’s sent everything in, but then a day or so later he’s talking about needing to send it in... again? I have no idea. Then there is a scene where Taffy supposedly asks to stay at the school to run some tests and Eric is videochatting with her, but then she’s there with him. I’m not sure if I lost track of what was going on, or if there was a plot discrepancy there that was missed.

In all, this is a really surreal book, but it’s highly readable and a lot of fun. I think fans of bizarro fiction will enjoy it the most, as well as those who enjoy fun stuff like Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. This is Ms. Posts’ second book, after Last Condo Board of the Apocalypse. Be sure to check it out if you’re in the mood for some rather excellent silliness.