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Preston L. Allen

Auteur de Every Boy Should Have a Man

8+ oeuvres 110 utilisateurs 21 critiques 1 Favoris

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Crédit image: Photo credit: Phillip Roche

Œuvres de Preston L. Allen

Every Boy Should Have a Man (2013) 47 exemplaires
Jesus Boy (2010) 30 exemplaires
All or Nothing (2007) 23 exemplaires
I Disappeared Them (2024) 4 exemplaires
Churchboys & Other Sinners (2003) 3 exemplaires
Hoochie Mama (2001) 1 exemplaire
Come With Me, Sheba (2004) 1 exemplaire

Oeuvres associées

Las Vegas Noir (2008) — Contributeur — 54 exemplaires
Miami Noir: The Classics (2020) — Contributeur — 24 exemplaires

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I'm looking forward to the reviews of the people who won this book. It sounds so interesting. I'll have to keep an eye out for a copy at my library.
 
Signalé
BevFuller | 1 autre critique | Mar 26, 2024 |
This book sounds very interesting.
 
Signalé
BevFuller | 1 autre critique | Mar 2, 2024 |
This one took me by surprise. Preston L. Allen would hardly be the first author out there to imagine a world in which humans are pets, but most authors wouldn't make nearly as much as he has out of that little conceit. I think that "Every Boy Should Have a Man" was advertised to me as a science fiction novel, but I'm not sure that that's quite accurate. This one deftly avoids categorization, since it also weaves in bits of fairy stories and the odd biblical trope. Nor is it just a PETA-friendly vegetarian analogy. If anything, it's an interrogation of the inconsistencies involved in being an omnivore: human flesh gets consumed here on a regular basis, but man-eaters are not always monstrous. Allen also seems to be asking what our pets -- beings that are enormously dear to us but that usually die well before we do -- mean to us, and, finally, what our awareness of language might contribute to our own humanity. If that seems like a lot to digest -- and I hope you'll forgive the pun -- that's because it is.

Beyond its awful title, "Every Boy Should Have a Man" rises above its "How To Serve Man" brethren because it really is very well written. The author employs just enough linguistic innovation here -- "man" is used for all humans, and doesn't take an irregular plural -- to keep the reader from getting too comfortable, and the book's tone and language is marvelously consistent. He succeeds: both the brutality depicted in this novel and its basic weirdness never fail to leave an impression. There are also a couple of fun bonuses, like a couple of epilogues and some faux-epic poems which would register as tedious "world-building" in a less-effective novel but are pretty delightful in this context. I'd never heard of the author before picking this one up, but I feel like I've actually made a fine discovery here. Recommended to fans of speculative fiction, readers with an interest in fairy tales, or anyone, really, that doesn't think that a little bone-crunching gore should get in the way of appreciating a good novel.
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Signalé
TheAmpersand | 13 autres critiques | Dec 27, 2020 |
This is good. Not my kind of book, really, but good.

Part of IAMBIK's 'crime collection'.
 
Signalé
Adammmmm | 2 autres critiques | Sep 10, 2019 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
8
Aussi par
2
Membres
110
Popularité
#176,729
Évaluation
3.8
Critiques
21
ISBN
19
Favoris
1

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