Monday, March 3, 2014

Folks Still Read: A Highly Unlikely Scenario Book Review


Its kinda hard to actually describe what this book A Highly Unlikely Scenario Or A Neetsa Pizza Employee's Guide To Saving The World. This was written by Rachel Cantor and I would say its a science fiction/comedy. It is a good story with a very bright cover that if you were in a book store you'd at the very least pick it up to see what its about. But even after reading the description on the back you'll still go “...the hell?”

The world that this story takes place in was hard for me to grasp completely. It wasn't until halfway through the book I stopped trying to imagine the strange foods and clothes that everyone was wearing. Cantor is very descriptive with her writing but at some points its a bit too much. The Brazen Head (a crazy form of Google it seems) was particularly hard for me to picture. Everyone wears crazy ass clothes and weird hair and that didn't help. When I read I always put an actor as the main character or just give up and make a new human being. With this I couldn't do that.

The main character Leonard work for a company called Neetsa Pizza. His job is a Listener. He's the one that answers customer complaints but he actually does far more than that including consoling and counseling them through their complaints. He sits in his white room in his uniform and tries to be the best Listener he can be. He is fine with his job, only leaving the house to pick up his nephew Felix halfway from school. His sister Carol leaves the house every night dressed in all black for her “book reading” group.

In this world various food companies fight for customers with a strange mixture of religion thrown in. Everyone wears their beliefs on their sleeves and there are attacks on rival companies and a Chipmunk Patrol in the streets. Its a lot to take in.

I would suggest this book to people though after I was finished with it I thought it would have worked better as two books perhaps. There is a time travel aspect that I would have liked to read more about because it felt kinda rushed when it happened. Hopefully there is a sequel in the works because the characters and the mythology of this book is great.

Click here for previous Folks Still Read.

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