- Paperback: 212 pages
- Publisher: Eraserhead Press (February 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0976631008
- ISBN-13: 978-0976631002
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 272 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #413,826 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
"The Breakfast Club meets Chopping Mall as directed by David Lynch." --Brian Keene, author of The Rising
Ten ridiculously stereotypical consumer victims (a yuppie, a housewife, a retiree, a jock, a bible thumper, a cowboy, a preppy, a gamer, a goth, and a white suburban gangsta) find themselves unable to leave the mall one day. There is nothing stopping them. The doors are unlocked. Other shoppers are able to come and go as they please. But for some inexplicable reason, these ten people cannot pry themselves away from their shopping miasma. The mall closes, and they won't leave. Days pass, and they're still there, eating meals in the food court and sleeping in department store bedroom displays. Then they begin to die off, one by one, murdered by a mysterious killer, and they still won't allow themselves to escape.
Carlton Mellick III's "The Menstruating Mall" is both a modernized take on Luis Bunuel's "The Exterminating Angel," and a parody of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." Featuring mock mall advertisements by retard punk hero Food Fortunata and cover art by Skin242.
From the Inside Flap
"The Menstruating Mall is a true underground classic." --The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction
"If you like satires which are highly imaginative, subversive, gory, funny as hell and completely surreal CM3 may be your literary messiah." --Ricardo Gonzalez Del Valle
"Mellick is smarter than the dumbness he tries to coat his writing in; you feel like you're reading a comic or watching MTV--but that underneath there is something deeper and smarter than the cartoonish presentation before your eyes." --Euchrid
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mall Stereotypes Unite!,
By
This review is from: The Menstruating Mall (Paperback)
10 stereotypical characters become trapped in the mall, for no reason at first, but then the menstruation explains it all! Doesn't it always? The characters are great, especially the goth girl and the random guy she ends up hooking up with. These are the people we see in the mall, the one dimensional appearances of the everyday shoppers and the kids hanging out in the food court. As the story progresses the characters develop more and more, but do they break out of their bonds? You be the judge...Mellick has his finger on the pulse of societal trivialities. Here he shows us the mall shopper, in "Sex and Death in Television Town" we get the television watchers. No consumer is safe! Spread the word. He just keeps getting better... Of course this will be compared to "Dawn of the Dead" even though there are no zombies. What the mall becomes is very interesting and I wish there had been more about it. Overall, the pacing is very fast. Chapters are rarely more than three or four pages, so even the shortest of attention spans can get through this quickly. Food Fortunata's drawings are very creative and add a lot to the story. If you've never read Mellick before, this is a great place to start.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bizarre yet uninteresting,
By The Reader Reviews (http://www.thereaderreviews.com) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Menstruating Mall (Paperback)
Carlton Mellick III is often labeled as an author of 'bizarro' fiction and his book "The Menstruating Mall" certainly is bizarre. The short novel follows a group of stereotypical individuals who one day find themselves unable to leave the mall (which happens to be menstruating) while the rest of the mall patrons are trapped outside unable to enter. The group soon discovers that one of their ensemble is a killer bent on ridding the mall of the "mundane". As the group is picked off one-by-one the stereotypical individuals begin doing outrageous, out-of-character acts trying to convince the unknown killer that they are unique individuals, not mundane stereotypes.Mellick uses a sort of flow-of-consciousness writing style in "The Menstruating Mall" which is fast-paced and effective for the material. The book moves quickly from fairly "normal" happenings to progressively more strange, gory, and down right weird events. Unfortunately, though it was a quick read, I didn't enjoy the book that much. By the end I felt like the point of the book had been thoroughly (and with absolutely no subtlety) been beaten into the ground. It was a simple idea drawn out through a series of "ok, what's the next most outrageous thing I can come up with" events that, though they were weird, really weren't that entertaining. If the goal of the book was to be weird and act as (rather obvious) commentary on stereotypes then I guess it succeeded. Beyond that it really didn't do anything for me.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (42 customer reviews) 12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Squiggy's House Of Pudding offers Toilet-Flavored Éclairs!,
By Schtinky "Schtinky" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Menstruating Mall (Paperback)
Okay, I understand this is a obtuse book with a silly name, but the gross-out entertainment value is absolutely priceless. Carlton Mellick III is one of the most interesting, and sick, punk-authors I've ever read. From gross-out horror to cyber-punk, Mellick holds nothing back.
John is a stereotypical corporate climber and satisfied consumer. He loves shopping at the mall, until he discovers he can't leave. No one is stopping him; he simply can't bring himself to walk out the doors. At first, he believes he is afraid to get the gooey, red-rust fluid leaking from the pipes on his expensive new shoes, but as he discovers there are others just like him, others who cannot bring themselves to leave the mall, his strange compulsion turns to fear. Ten people, stuck in the mall, and now they are alone because everyone else suddenly disappears. But being unable to leave isn't their worst problem: someone is murdering them one-by-one, and the only way to save themselves is to stop being stereotypical. Mellick is an acquired taste, horribly demented in a talented, wickedly entertaining way; a taste you simple must sample. I can't think of many other authors able to twist reality so sickly, and still inject enough humor for some truly torturous belly chuckles. Mellick's style is fresh and unique, using overly-simplistic prose at the beginning of the story to a wildly fantastical conclusion, Mellick paints with words and prose John's transformation from caterpillar to butterfly, stereotypical to outlandish, real to surreal. 'The Menstruating Mall' is sarcastic humor and commercial parody at its absolute finest. You need a twisted sense of humor, and should have an appreciation for poo jokes in order to fully enjoy the illustrations of advertisements interspersed throughout the book. And don't forget, at S'Barro Pizzeria, there are amputated noses free with every purchase! If you like gross-out horror, punk, or dark comedy, then don't miss out on this highly entertaining look into our era's perverse commercialism. I highly recommend this book, but caution those with weak constitutions to make sure there is a barf bag nearby. Enjoy! 6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truth in Stereotypes,
By Bradley - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Menstruating Mall (Paperback)
This book was so much fun that I read it in one sitting, and this is a rarity for me.
For me, the book is a surrealist account of the evolution of mankind if we lived in a mall rather than on planet Earth. Although I would thoroughly despise the main character if I met him in person, he is written so well that he's probably my favorite character of all the Carlton Mellick books that I've read. And the illustrations are great! This is one of my favorite books by this author. Carlton's writing keeps getting better and better and I foresee works of brilliance in his future. 19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bizarre yet uninteresting,
By The Reader Reviews - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Menstruating Mall (Paperback)
Carlton Mellick III is often labeled as an author of `bizarro' fiction and his book "The Menstruating Mall" certainly is bizarre. The short novel follows a group of stereotypical individuals who one day find themselves unable to leave the mall (which happens to be menstruating) while the rest of the mall patrons are trapped outside unable to enter. The group soon discovers that one of their ensemble is a killer bent on ridding the mall of the "mundane". As the group is picked off one-by-one the stereotypical individuals begin doing outrageous, out-of-character acts trying to convince the unknown killer that they are unique individuals, not mundane stereotypes.
Mellick uses a sort of flow-of-consciousness writing style in "The Menstruating Mall" which is fast-paced and effective for the material. The book moves quickly from fairly "normal" happenings to progressively more strange, gory, and down right weird events. Unfortunately, though it was a quick read, I didn't enjoy the book that much. By the end I felt like the point of the book had been thoroughly (and with absolutely no subtlety) been beaten into the ground. It was a simple idea drawn out through a series of "ok, what's the next most outrageous thing I can come up with" events that, though they were weird, really weren't that entertaining. If the goal of the book was to be weird and act as (rather obvious) commentary on stereotypes then I guess it succeeded. Beyond that it really didn't do anything for me. |
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