Maybe some people just shouldn't throw parties. After the zombie outbreak at the Christmas party, you think they she might learn. But Lloyd's mom is now hosting a charity event at the local country club. Yes, the one that the snooty Caroline Ford Vanderbilt belongs to. So of course everything goes wrong.
The fun and exciting story of a slacker and his adventures in and out of the convenience store that just happens to be a portal to hell continues. The main series of books deal with what happens at the store itself, but these side stories follow our favorite characters back into their 'normal' lives, if anything about their lives can now be considered normal. Even when it is their day off (appropriated for a team building exercise), there is still crap they have to take care of.
The story has a fun twist and slightly unexpected twist to it (that reminded me of my favorite Kevin Smith movie). All the characters are interesting and believable. Being a mix of comedy AND horror there really isn't anything to truly frighten anyone, but several things to make you go "ewwww". (A favorite Stephen King quote comes to mind, “I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud. ”) More than the other entries in the series this one goes for a bit of the gross-out (in a good way, if there is one).
Some of the best jokes are from the Lloyd's guardian angel - a magic 8-ball that seems to have quite a huge vocabulary for a D20 floating in a plastic sphere. I'm guessing these are helping to set up some of what is coming in the next book, "Angel Trouble".
I do like how, in what seems to be a common idea in a lot of good horror stories, the true villain of the piece is NOT the monsters, but is instead Caroline Ford Vanderbilt; who is so self absorbed into her own world of money and luxury, never has any inkling that she is the one triggering nearly all the bad stuff that is happening. Not maliciously, but simply by her sheer self-centered personality and oblivion to the world outside of what she wants to perceive.
My only criticism of this is, like all of the 24/7 Demon Mart books so far, it is simply too short. I simply want more! From Dee Dee to Bubba I want more of these characters - I want to see Kevin before he became a cockroach, and just what else can happen to these people. Two novels and two more stories on the span of a year is great, but it still leaves me wanting more.
As Halloween approaches, this book and the entire series are some great spooky fun.
And I love the shout-out to a classic set of horror movies at the end.
Critters from the Poo Lagoon, and all of D. M. Guay's 24/7 Demon Mart series, are available at Amazon.
Because it is all fun and games . . .
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