It was a quick and easy read for a 300+ page novel. It is essentially a twisted Harry Potter using South African mythology for its magical underworld. The horror elements were also interesting and entertaining, and the reality hopping was also well done. Other than that, there is not much else here. Still, I would recommend it to those looking for familiar urban fantasy with horror elements and a bit of time and dimensional travel.
Favorite Quote:
I can create whole worlds inside my head, so excuse me if I don’t spend a lot of time spouting mundane bullshit like you do. [pg.339] ( )

I found out about this book after seeing a trailer made to promote the making of a movie. The video was great and I loved the book too. The writing is witty and the setting original. It is a bit confusing though because most books with a 16-year-old protagonist would be considered "Young Adult", but this was so "raw" and brutal that it definitely seemed like it was for adults, except then he cries about his girlfriend problems, which again makes it feel like it's a YA book.

So other than that, the book gets points for strange, funny and dark. Would LOVE to see a full-length movie and will definitely be checking out the next book. ( )

I very much enjoyed reading Apocalypse Now Now, a dark fantasy tale about a porn-dealing cynical teenager’s quest to retrieve his kidnapped girlfriend from a pseudo-Lovecraftian underworld populated by South African mythical beings.

Charlie Human has written a book that runs on the rule of cool: it features a high schooler who runs his school's porn distribution, an autist kid taking out flying monsters with molotov cocktails, and a fight on a boat with a flaming chainsaw. And then there's the mafia-run teenage sex trade, bounty hunter specializing in fantasy creatures, and to top it all off, the humongous time-travelling mecha duking it out in down-town Cape Town. It’s all gloriously over the top, and it’s a hoot to read.

I have two complaints about this book, though. One is that, for a book that tries to be edgy and grim, the story beats as well as the gender roles are fairly traditional -- the older mentor, the damsel in distress, the quest that turns out to be tangled up with the protagonist’s personal history, and so on. My other complaint is that at the end everything is tied up way too nicely: closure is swift, traditional and entirely predictable.

But since this is the author’s debut, I’m willing to overlook that: the rule of cool is so gleefully applied that I remember the fun I had while reading it more than the gripes. And that, I suspect, is what the book was trying to do. In other words: a success! ( )

This book...wow. Absolutely loved it. One of the first things that I noticed about this book is that the writing is top-notch--Baxter's voice is strong, funny, and easy to go along with. The author manages to perfectly show Baxter's witty, sardonic look on life and provides some great descriptions of the world around him (i.e. "The sky was the exact grey of the diseased lung of a two-packs-a-day smoker.")

Baxter is content to run his little porn business at the local high school before his girlfriend, Esme, is kidnapped. Her kidnapping makes Baxter (a wound-be business man with definite sociopathic tendencies) realize that he DOES have a heart, and so he promptly goes off to rescue her. Baxter subsequently meets a red-bearded alcoholic supernatural bounty hunter and stumbles into the magical underworld of Cape Town, where he has to deal with all manner of magic, gore and madness in order to save the potential love-of-his-life. The book moves very quickly and throws things at you at a likewise pace, but despite that I had no problems following along. It helped that no matter how crazy the situation (and there were PLENTY of those in the book), Baxter always had some witty saying ready to bring us back to earth.

So yes, I loved everything about this book--a fast-paced plot, a crazy supernatural world and unique, interesting characters--including a witty, intelligent anti-hero who grows not just as a character but in power as well. We leave Baxter after he's just agreed to go to a school for magic-users ("But", says Baxter "If I'm forced to play Quidditch, I swear, someone is going to get shot"). I can't wait to see him there. ( )

Baxter is in trouble. He needs to save his girlfriend and decide to either protect the world or rule it, but he is just an ordinary teen in South Africa-- if ordinary means being the leader of a rapidly growing porn ring at school and discovering you might be both a serial killer and powerful warrior seer hero in an underworld filled with mythical creatures and zombie spider prostitutes. Will his life ever be normal?

They say this book is “…Neil Gaiman meets Tarantino,” and I agree-- only I would add a bit of Rowling too. Outside of that, Charlie Human is a force of imagination that can hold his own.

It is a clever, laugh out loud, cringe-inspiring tale, filled with characters and settings that burn their weird supernatural personalities into the brain.

Not literature, but a raw, darkly funny romp through old genre territory made new again. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Follow it up with the second book in the series, “Kill Baxter.”

This review and more at annevolmering.com. ( )