Customer Reviews

The Lust Lizard Of Melancholy Cove

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is the book that made me fall in love with Christopher Moore's zany work!

A small town shrink decided to switch all her patients' mood-elevators to placebos after she becomes convinced that her lip-service treatment has caused a patient's suicide. At the same time, a giant sea-monster exuding powerful pheromones is attracted to this little town by the sound of his old nemesis' blues guitar. A pot-head deputy and disgraced B-movie actress charge in to save the day.

This incredibly clever and rib-cracking funny novel is a mood-elevator! Moore's often ridiculous anti-heroes are so lovable, and they feel oddly real despite their caricature-like personalities. As for his twisted story-line, they might make you question the writer's sanity, but in the best possible way.

I also highly recommend Moore's other novels "Fluke", "A Dirty Job", "Lamb" and "Fool".

Theo Crowe, a constable with a marijuana habit, is not having a good summer. He's got a nowhere job in a half-pint city (Pine Cove) and now everyone in town is starting to act wacko! What the hell is going on?

Turns out that Ms. Valerie Riordan. Pine Cove's local--and only--psychiatrist has taken everyone off their anti-depressants after the death of one of her patients. Val feels as if she is over-prescribing these medications and wants to be free of the shackles of pharmacology. The problem is, though, now everyone in town is a horn-dog and jumping each other's bones like a prarrie dog with a harem.

A Giant Sea Beast, prone to mood swings, lives in the deep water channel of the Monterey Bay. Turns out, he's a Lust Lizard. Whenever horny folk are about, he get's...well...a bit excited himself and wants a human snack.

Molly Michon, a washed-up B-movie actress, is one of Val's patients and when she comes off her meds, her brain chemistry goes out of whack. The Lust Lizard, now on land, finds Molly strangely attractive and a sexual encounter with a motorized weed-whacker soon ensues.

From bionic women, to blues men without the blues, I laughed myself silly reading this. My girlfriend nudged me whenever I giggled in bed, causing the mattress to shake while she tried to nod off for the night. "Stop it!" she'd say.

"I can't help it! This is so damn funny."

And you'll feel the same way. A story that comes together masterfully. Chris Moore is "Da Man."

A+ rating

I enjoyed this book, made me laugh. It's not something that I would let my grandparents read, there is a whole lot of SEX!

Oh, how does one begin to summarize the plot of a Christopher Moore book. This time let us not even try but instead let's take a glimpse into the characters in this novel. First and foremost, we have Steve, sea monster, who has recently woken from a long sleep and has come ashore in Pine Cove. Steve has an unusual way of catching prey, he sends off pheromones that make any nearby mammals "horny" and they seek him out. This plays particular havoc on Pine Cove's population as the local shrink, Valerie, has just decided to take all her patients off antidepressants (about 1/3 of the population) and try talking to her patients instead of just medicating them. Then there is local constable Theophilus Crowe, a pothead, who had been given the job to keep Pine Cone off the local sherrif's hands, as he is too busy working his meth empire to bother with policing sleepy Pine Cove. By no means the last and certainly not the least, there is Molly Michon, aging warrior actress in Italian movies who dresses daily in her Warrior Queen outfit and works out with her broadsword, but known to the locals as "the crazy lady".

A hilarious romp, this somewhat of a sequel to the first Pine Cove book, Practical Demonkeeping, and is by far a better read. Hilarious, far-fetched, un-politically correct and a down right page-turner. I really enjoyed this. Moore is not for everyone but if you like your humour a little over the top and don't mind some well-placed vulgarity you'll enjoy this ride with the citizens of Pine Cove.

This is by and far my favorite Christopher Moore book. The characters are zany yet incredibly likable and the plot is, to say the least, fantastical. This is what makes the book impossible to put down. If lustful lizards are not your bag, then you may want to skip this. But you're up for an insane ride with the crazy residents of Pine Cove, then pick this book up. I guarantee you won't regret it.

Whether you love him or you hate him, after reading a Moore book, it should be safe to say that you will REMEMBER him...or at leas the plot...or the characters? I read this book twice and unlike Practical Demonkeeping and the Stupidest Angel...this book stirs no memories. Start your tour through Mooreland with The Stupidest Angel. Hours well spent.

What a great book! I have to say this one made me laugh more than any book has in a long time. I think the last thing I read that made me laugh this much was Bill Bryson's "Walk in the Woods". From cover to cover, it's completely enjoyable. That's about that. While the subject matter isn't going to shed light on difficult situations in your life, it's surely going to make you forget them for a while. So sit back, grab the book, and delve in for what will almost certainly be an entertaining ride.

Moore was recommended to me by a friend a long, long time ago. She recommended this based on our mutual like of Tom Robbins. While not as deep and philosophical as Robbins, I find him every bit as entertaining. Funny, and often times out of left field, his writings easily allow you to forget the world around you and immerse yourself in some good, off-the-wall humor. This book is simply funny. No diatribes about the president, or the pope, or politics of any sort. Just left-field humor.

The story is out of nowhere. The Lust Lizard is obviously a major part of the story; by looking at the cover of the book you know you're not getting a believable narrative by any stretch of the imagination. An enormous green lizard with a human foot sticking out of its mouth graces the cover. I think that's a good first step towards reading this book. If you enjoy laughing and the thought of a giant green lizard with a foot sticking out of its mouth doesn't turn you off, then this could very well be to your liking.

I blew through it in no time. It was so good I went out and got 2 more from this author and look forward to them both. In general, I try to read deeper stuff than this. But as a nice break, this is as good as it gets when you need to get away from heavy reading. I'm glad this book managed to make its way to the top of my reading pile. It was clearly worth the read.

Highly recommended.

While this is the first book by Christopher Moore that I have read, it prompted me to go out and buy every other book he has written and make my way through them.

Delightfully funny and a very easy read, it is really an enjoyable work of escape fiction. Moore's sense of humor is so similar to my own, that I catch myself laughing out loud at many of the witticisms and having people stare at me wondering what's wrong. Perhaps I see too much of myself in Molly (though I've never starred in B-movies), but the sections concerning her were hilarious. I think I need to go buy a Warrior Babe costume now.

I truly enjoy the fact that he varies his humor - some very blatant and right out there, some buried and you have to 'catch' it to enjoy it.

It seems as if it isn't as much of a commentary on society as some of his other works, but still a fabulous read.

There are moments in one's life that are simply too good not to share. It's like joining a new cult; you just want to share. A good friend of mine recently shared one of his, the discovery of Christopher Moore.

Given my friend and his history with regard to obsessions of all kinds, I was at first a tad...uh...skeptical. This is, after all, the same person who has attempted over the years to convince me that Britney Spears is the latest incarnation of a particularly nubile and powerful dakini from South Brahmaloka. But he persisted, and upon hearing the name of the first of the books he recommended -- "Lamb: The Gospel According To Biff, Christ's Childhood Friend" -- Uncle Tantra's Weirdness Alarm went off, and thus I took the time to peruse the author's website at http://www.chrismoore.com.

There, I learned that great titles were not the exception for Christopher Moore. Mr. Moore is also the author of such noted works as "Practical Demonkeeping," "Coyote Blue," "Bloodsucking Fiends," "Island of the Sequined Love Nun," and "The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove." My interest was, to say the least, piqued. Then he sent me an excerpt from the preface to "Lust Lizard." That did it. I knew that the Uncle Tantra Weirdness Alarm was not sounding in vain. I rushed off to the bookstore, where interestingly enough "Lust Lizard" was the only Christopher Moore title in stock. I bought it.

I have not stopped reading -- or laughing -- since.

There is some possibility that Christopher Moore is the funniest writer alive. And he seems to be *genuinely* funny, unable to write more than a paragraph without saying something that makes you laugh out loud.

I have laughed out loud now in most of the cafes in the neighborhood where I live in Paris. I have laughed loudly enough that I am welcome back in few of them, and may have to read the rest of the books in completely different arrondissements.

WARNING: This stuff is 'way weird. Mr. Moore's strange view of reality is not everyone's. Were he not a novelist and thus able to say such things and get away with them, there is a strong possibility that he would be locked up somewhere for the greater good of society. But if you are one of the chosen few who believe that just because society calls the mediocrity it settles for 'reality' that doesn't *make* it reality, Christopher Moore might just be for you.

At the very least, he will make you laugh out loud. Often. At worst, he will get you exiled from your favorite places to read in public, *for* laughing out loud. But that's a small price to pay for the smile that you will be wearing as you walk out of the cafe, never to return.

____________________________________________
Just finished this pretty good humorous Cal-contemporary fantasy -- which
opens with a sea monster mounting a gasoline tank-truck, with, well,
explosive results -- "... She was gone now, but [the Sea Beast] said, 'A
simple No would have sufficed...'"

The Sea Beast (who's named 'Steve', by Kendra, Warrior Babe of the
Outlands) "came to the surface in the middle of a kelp bed, his massive head
breaking through strands of kelp like a zombie pickup truck breaking sod as
it rises from the grave." Laurell K. Hamilton, take note.

'Steve' stirs up the animal spirits of the low-seritonin residents of Pine Cove
(Cambria?) -- of which there are many, as the town's sole psychiatrist has cut
off their Prozac, surreptitiosly substituting sugar-pill placebos, with the
connivance of the town's sole pharmacist, who satisfies his carnal urges
with an inflatable dolphin in his bathtub....

[Dr. Val] came out of her office to find her new receptionist, Chloe, furiously
masturbating, "her steno chair squeaking like a tortured squirrel."

"Sorry," Chloe said, a bit later... "I just want to stop. My wrist hurts a
little. Do you think I could have carpal tunnel?"

Dr. Val, fearful of a workman's comp lawsuit, prescribes oven mitts,
strapped on with duct tape.

Well, it's all good clean dopey romantic fun, though with more smiles than
laughs, for me anyway, and not quite as good as this outline sounds --
but humor is tricky, and some of you will love it.