Rating: 
Summary: Classic case of an author biting off more than he can chew.
Review: I was extremely disappointed with this book. This is Bill Fitzhugh's first novel. My hope is the man will corral his extraordinary talent to much better effect. The book has wonderful characters. It has an interesting and intricate plot with loads of potential, and it's clear that Mr. Fitzhugh has a genuinely active sense of the absurd. The problem is, none of this ever gels into a real story line that works. I kept waiting for the promised hilarity-it never appeared. Fundamentally, I think the problem is that this is a farce, plain and simple, but the author wanted to have a real sense of reality underlining the story, which seriously undermined the farcical aspects of the story. In the end, it's neither truly farcical nor anything remotely realistic-it's just silly and contrived. And, ultimately, boring. By the end Mr. Fitzhush has introduced so many assassins that one needs a dance card to keep them all straight. It's all very frustrating. In actuality this book deserves a one star rating-I'm giving it two because the potential for real success is so visible. If only Mr. Fitzhugh would stop trying so hard and just write rather than plot, all would be well.
Rating: 
Summary: Bugged out!
Review: Way over the top and probably the funniest thing I've read in five years. The author took a great idea and worked it to its full potential. Remarkable insect research crashing headlong into a straightforward movie thriller plot. Goofy and likeable Bob Dillon has a great idea. He just hopes he can see if it works before the worlds' best assassins find him and kill him for reasons Bob doesn't understand until Klaus explains it and offers to help. That Klaus is the world's #1 assassin only makes the friendship that much more unlikely. Get it and get bugged out!
Rating: 
Summary: Cover Was Funnier Than the Book
Review: Pest Control, while possessed of some genuinely funny moments, is an ultimately disappointing book that is handicapped by starting out very, VERY slowly. The author failed to capitalize on making more use of some interesting characters other than as window dressing and developed a protagonist that you cease to care about after a few chapters. If you want to read a genuinely funny book, read Terry Pratchett's Small Gods and understand the difference between a master and a neophyte. Save your money.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievably bad. I beg of you... stay away!
Review: I have never felt compelled to write a book review for Amazon... at least not until I read 'Pest Control.' It's not possible to go in to everything that is wrong with this mess, so a laundry list will have to do: The writing is atrocious, the premise is ridiculous, the plot holes are enormous, the characters are unlikable and downright annoying, the New York references are insulting to anyone who has actually been to the city more than once, the political commentary is asinine, and the humor is so telegraphed you'll know each punch line about three pages before the author does. I am stunned at the large number of positive reviews for this book and can only assume that Bill Fitzhugh has a large extended family.
Rating: 
Summary: A couple things bugged me
Review: PEST CONTROL had a good feel to it, it moved quickly and with a number of funny passages and one-liners. But there were a few problems that a good editor would've fixed at the first draft:
1. There were two major contextual errors that I caught. Midway through the novel, Bob Dillon bribes a restaurant worker, but a few pages prior the author made it clear that the family checking account had $12 in it. Later in the book, there is another situation involving money, where Dillon is robbed but Klaus recovers the money and a few pages later they make reference to losing all the money. These are just details that could've been easily cleared up. To be fair, the author never said that the bribery involved cash, but he also made it apparent that the character was even running low on personal possessions.
2. The main character's name is Bob Dillon, and there are something like fifty Bob Dylan song titles used in the context of dialogue. While it seems like fun to go through and point out all the song titles, it gave the novel a layer of cheapness and unoriginality. There was sufficient material to give the main character an original name without taking anything away from the story.
So while predictable, few loose ends are left, the good guys win in a clever fashion with just a tad bit of help from deus ex machina to wrap up the story. The cliche's and cheap references and errors are forgivable since this isn't much more than a B movie, a few hours of mindless entertainment. Think Carl Hiassen with entomology replacing ecoterrorism.
I'd give a mild recommendation.
Rating: 
Summary: Laugh-out-loud
Review: I was on the floor laughing. Very good book from a first timer. All of the characters were well writen. Everything was great, but I would change one thing. Everytime the author would talk about any of the numerous bugs and insects, he would first call it out as the common name, and then by the scientific name in parentheses. If he would have done that just as each new bug was introduced into the book, and then left it to their common names, it would have been the perfect book. He chose to use both through-out the entire book, regardless if he used them in the same paragraph.
Rating:
Summary: Not very funny
Review: I had to review this book because I am a big fan of Tom Robbins. What?, you ask, this isn't a Robbins book. The good folks at Amazon lump these books together(other people who bought this bought...); however, Pest Control is no Jitterbug Perfume. If you are looking for another author with his panache, style, and spirit, you will find none of these things in Pest Control. Now, the premise of P.C. is a decently amusing one, and the possibilities exist for hilarity. Upon delving into the book, I found the subject to be the only funny aspect. The characters are unbelievable, and the situations impossible. By contrast, I believe that all of Tom Robbins fantasies could indeed be reality. Let there be immortality, boundless sexual energy, and tons of kinky, inspired, enlightened people all over the universe. If you love Tom Robbins, spare yourself Pest Control.
Rating:
Summary: An insulting waste of my time and money
Review: Perhaps I've been spoiled by the capable and good writing if Chris Moore and others that makes me laugh out loud. Maybe it's because I'm a lady apiary and know that it's a crime to keep killer bees, and it's utterly stupid to suggest one would keep bees in a basement--with nothing to eat or make that honey from. Maybe it's because I've been to New York? Perhaps it's because I know a silenced pistol doesn't sound like "fwump"--it only makes that noise in the movies. No matter what the reason, I stuttered and staggered through this novel, taking great pains to read one more page...wondering why I'd wasted my precious life energy on this. Even light comedy requires the suspension of disbelief, but every paragraph seemed to be parroted library research, unfounded pesticide dogma, and other regurgitated pop-culture nonsense. The inspiration for this novel was a winning idea. It was the bad attempt at building around the framework that completely failed.
Rating:
Summary: Laugh control
Review: A wonderfully droll and surrealistic romp through New York's underside as we follow the adventures and disasters of Bob, family man and pest control expert with a vision. He's trying to develop an environmentally-friendly method for exterminating bugs. Unfortunately the word gets out that he exterminates people for cash down, and from this misunderstanding flows some of the most snappy dialog, off-beat characters, cannibalistic insects, and wide turns of plot since Carl Hiaason. It's all you ever feared about New York, trying to raise a family and run a quiet little business there, and dodging the bullets in the streets and the crazies in the subways. As a New Yorker I found it just as funny as I found it implausible, that's to say, completely. Try it and see!
Rating:
Summary: Good Riff on the Mistaken Identity Plot Device
Review: Based on the classic mistaken identity premise, this little comedy of errors will keep you entertained for a few hours at the beach, but don't expect anything more. Through a series of coincidences, an unemployed exterminator from Queens is mistaken for an unknown master hitman by the international underground and the CIA. The story is really about this humble exterminator's efforts to perfect an all-natural method of pest control by crossbreeding various types of assassin bugs and testing them in various buildings. He must do this to stay afloat financially and win back his wife who has walked out on him with their daughter. It isn't until the final third of the book that krazy killers from around the world converge on New York to knock off the new kid on the block and claim the $10 million bounty placed on him by a drug lord... Fortunately the #1-ranked contract killer in the world, Klaus, comes to realize the mistaken identity and helps the hero stay alive as he runs around New York evaluating the performance of his hybrids. The only surprise is the author's love/hate relationship with New York (the Kitty Genovese incident is related twice, if I recall) which culminates in the use of the city as a weapon by the hero. Fitzhugh is a screenwriter, and it shows in the flip, shallow characterizations and 100% filmable plot. Cute cover.
|
