The Goat Parade by Peter N. Dudar REVIEWED

Ahh, the first book I've read after moving into a new home. It makes it special by design, doesn't it?

Read mostly on new comfy furniture, in between the moving of big heavies and yardwork and unpacking and all the things that my 32 year old body and mind was woefully unprepared for in buying my first, admittedly beautiful home...it has been a special one indeed.

It helps largely that The Goat Parade is a fantastic book. What a great choice to get started reading in the house I'll do much of my reading in for the anticipated next third of my life.

It's a book of many firsts. I've not read anything by author Peter Dudar or publisher Grinning Skull. They've both been on my radar for a bit, but so hasn't Book X by Writer Y published in 1987...but I didn't get to that one yet either. So what made me pick up this VS. any of the hundreds of unreads?

Frankly, a killer endorsement by a great author and friend, Glenn Rolfe. The cover art was alluring enough, but Rolfe is an author whose work I love, and he's touting The Goat Parade as quite possibly making his best of '18 list...in May.

And it belongs there. So, thanks Glenn. Because I really, really dig this one and if it weren't for your trusted endorsement, I'd not have been as in a rush. Not because I wasn't intrigued...but because I run this here blog and welp, there's a lot of books to read.

The Goat Parade has a lot going on, too much for a simple synopsis really. It's essentially the crossing of paths of four unique individuals with a whole lot of baggage and some ties to the Lord O' Darkness himself, Satan. One of them happens to be a drug pushing, hoof-handed cult leader who is engaged in a plan to evoke the coming of Satan himself and the other three, an alcoholic news writer, an elderly blues master who just did 40 years in prison and a mindreading gypsy, are up to the task of stopping this from happening.

Along the way, we get all sorts of bloody gore, goat zombie children, drug-induced hallucinations and Satan manifesting himself in a myriad of ways.

So yeah, it's a fantastic time of a book. There's a few pacing missteps along the way, mostly on account of the tremendous amount of character building, all of which is necessary to the story, but it occasionally gets in the way of the main story's progression.

But that's critique for the sake of critique. This is a review blog after all, right? Outside of that, my only qualm, this is an otherwise great book that hits almost all the right marks. Its got a big, happening plot, its got interesting characters, its got all sorts of fucked-up moments and plenty of social commentary to match.

A solid 4.5/5 on this one. I recommend this grabbing this one up, which you can do right here.

Of note, we've still got plenty to do around the new house, so I'm still slowly getting back into the reading groove, but I'm stoked to be back at it and anticipate my next review to not take as long. Also, I've got some friends helping me out, so they'll be a few guest reviews while I get fully back into my routine.

And, Thanks for hanging around so loyally and keeping your eye on the blog! It means the world to me to have so many loyal readers and I strongly appreciate it!