Snake (Serpent's Tail High Risk Books)

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Summary: CAN A SCHIZOPHRENIC KEEP A STORY IN FOCUS?
Review: AND THE ANSWER IS YES. I wrote the Kirkus Review under Editorial Reviews and would direct you there for my comments on this noir knockout.

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Summary: Weirdness IS an art form
Review: Mary Woronov has proven countlessly in film that she is a little off center. Her strange and intriging roles have made her a classic cult actress & even an icon. This, her 3rd novel interestingly mirrors the strangeness of her movies onto print. It's the story of a mixed up girl on a journey that's both terrifying and exciting. She tries to flirt with romance but her focus of interest could be a killer that may make her the next victim. Each chapter is titled with a snake theme as is the overall plot twists and turns much like a seemingly harmless snake would turn. Roll up under a blanket and enjoy a little piece of derainged fiction.

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Summary: Seen it before...
Review: This is a book we've read before, or maybe it's that we've seen it on the screen, or maybe it's both. In any event, there's something rather tired about this collage of noir and road-trip cliches. You read Jim Thompson, Barry Gifford, Charles Willeford, et al? What might (and I use the word very guardedly) distinguish this book is that its protagonist is a woman, and its done from her perspective. That said, she's a cardboard characterization of a girl from a dysfunctional background (free spirit hippy turned bitter housewife mom, guilt-ridden longing looks from stepdad--oooo, haven't read/seen that before...) who runs away to the big city (LA) and wallows in lost identity and false bravado. I should note that the book jacket's claim that she is in "the LA punk scene" is completely untrue. She's in the S&M scene, which is totally different and separate. The book is a bit more surreal than its predecessors, and does have some really nice passages here and there, but it's otherwise completely forgettable.