Bad Monkeys

by Matt Ruff

After reading Fool on the Hill I thought Matt Ruff has enormous potential as a writer. The story was original, clever and referenced Lord of the Rings before the film trilogy made it cool. So my hopes for this book were very high indeed.

What it is is a sci-fi thriller of sorts. One Jane Charlotte is accused of murder and in a number of sessions with a psychotherapist tells a tall tale. She claims to be a member of The Department for the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons and gives an account of the work she does for the institution, which is murder, for the most part. The weaponry is nifty (NC gun = gun that kills with Natural Causes) and the story is unlikely and confusing. She may be a member of the Bad Monkeys organization, devoted to fighting evil. Or she may simply be insane.

So far, so weird.

After the initial intrigue the story gets less and less interesting until we reach the final 'real' chapter (I don't want to get into that too much at this point). There is a bad Jane/good Jane on X-drugs showdown that goes off in all directions and isn't all that interesting. Probably would work in a film, I guess, but in a book? Not so much.

As many before me have said: starts off strong, ends very weak. What a waste of talent.

4/10