“Shove over, Christopher Moore and A. Lee Martinez…Weird Fun has a new author king!”
The best-selling author of Apocalypticon returns with an astounding, darkly comedic new tale that’s “M. Night Shymalan meets The Twilight Zone”
Somewhere just off the interstate, in the heart of the American Midwest, there’s a quaint, quirky town where the stars in the sky circle a hypnotic void….where magnetic … the sky circle a hypnotic void….where magnetic fields play havoc with time and perception…where metallic rain and plasma rivers and tentacles in the plumbing are simply part of the unsettling charm. Mallory Jenkins is about to experience the unique properties of this place for herself – she’ll have no choice, considering the collapsed bridge that rerouted her urgent and mysterious trip to Saskatchewan, forcing her straight into the heart of town, where her Impala has an inexplicable breakdown. She intends to stay overnight – just until the auto repair shop can make the fix in the morning and send her on her way. But Mallory will soon encounter Dr. Lewis Burnish, a scientist who’s studied the town for a dozen years and knows more about its strangeness than even the locals do. And when she accidentally-on-purpose creates his evil clone, she’ll set off a series of events that could unleash the ultimate evil upon the town and wreak havoc on the world at large.
Life in a small town is like that sometimes.
Welcome to Anomaly Flats. Have some waffles, meet the folks, and enjoy the scenery…and if you happen to be in Walmart, whatever you do, don’t go down aisle 8.
Don’t EVER go down aisle 8.
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I’m currently reading this and it’s hilarious. It reminds me a little of old school twilight zone. It’s a quirky one, for sure.
This was a random find years ago. It’s strange, bizarre, and unexplainable. The town has a Twilight Zone feel. I really enjoyed this one. The main character is annoying at times, but that’s just the way she is. Her sidekick makes up for her unpleasantness.
Be ready to fall down a seriously disturbed rabbit hole. Anomaly Flats is essentially a combination of Alice in Wonderland, Twin Peaks, and Twilight Zone. The cast of characters is way out there. Mallory, our sarcastic leading lady is just this side of unlikeable.
There was too much of Lewis telling Mallory do this, don’t do that, and her childishly do the exact opposite. As for Lewis, he’s supposed to be smart, and yet a disguise is enough for him to not recognize someone? It’s like the whole superman – Clark Kent – glasses paradox.
Don’t expect top shelf writing. It’s a funny little story, with mostly annoying unlikeable characters. I wanted to give up about halfway through, but by then I needed to know what was in the backpack and what was up with aisle 8.
The ending was slightly predictable. I saw it coming when Mallory fell in aisle 8. Won’t bother with continuing with the story.
Entertaining but long enough for me to have to work to get the funny ending.
I only got through a quarter of it, but it reads like the kind of thing the popular kids at my high school would write. Like, I got stuck doing a group story-writing project with the popular kids once and my complaints about what they were doing to the story were exactly the complaints I have about this book.
First of all the characters are very superficial. The main character has to say every trivial little thought that comes through her head (and her head seems to only contain trivial things). No filter. No emotional control. No consideration for how other people will react when she says these things to them. No depth. She expects everyone to cater to her and bizarrely they do. Bizarrely, the other characters seem to be omni-patient. I don’t think this was intended as one of the weird things about the town, I think the author is genuinely lacking an understanding of how humans interact with other humans. And of course it’s frustrating that characters will give her advice to avoid dangerous situations and she always just assumes they’re just being weird when she could so easily just ask why or consider that they know more about what’s going on in their town than she does.
It’s not just the characters that are superficial, but also the setting and events. Like, in Welcome to Night Vale (which this is clearly trying to imitate), there are levels of irony to the weird things that happen, and they subvert actual concepts and logic and expectations- there’s actual thought that goes into it. In Anomaly Flats, it’s just weird things happening. There isn’t even any subtlety in the execution.
It’s not even funny really.
If you read books solely to fill time then maybe you’ll like this. If you want books to actually make you think or to emotionally engage you or to dazzle you with beautiful writing, this isn’t for you.
Good book. Reminded me of watching Twilight Zone as a kid.