Radium Baby

by St. John Karp

The Pepperpots are dead — the world's most famous scientists have been poisoned by a radioactive duck. But even though Sam Ticky is little more than a tumbleweed from Oklahoma, he is convinced he is the Pepperpots' long-lost son.

The Sun Star Radio Corporation starts a nationwide search for the missing "Radium Baby," but Sam runs into trouble when two other teenagers also claim the title. The Radio Corporation drags the three teens into a race around the world, in which Sam must fend off hornets the size of cats, a cannibal bishop obsessed with playing hide and seek, and an insane Texan robot manufacturer.

But who is the real Radium Baby? And how many people will Sam hurt to find out?

RADIUM BABY is a strange and exciting adventure about ambition, failure, and radioactive bath-water.

247 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 24, 2013

About the author

I am a writer, historian, and ornamental hermit. I enjoy living close to things so I can not go to them, and I spend my time pining for my old age when I can shout at kids to get off my lawn.

I love books that are bizarre and exciting and ridiculous. There's something so liberating about a book that makes you want to run up to the nearest person and describe the amazing thoughts that have just been put in your head. I love the authors so much who've done that for me, and the most I can hope for is to do that for someone else.

If I could travel back in time to any point in history, it would be the 1920s. The first question I'd ask is for directions to the nearest speakeasy.

Reviews

[Frederick Gault · Rating 4 out of 5]

At some point between drooling in front of The TeleTubbies and sitting stiff-spined in a production of La Boheme humans are at an age where they should learn about all the bad shit hurtling towards them; Stuff like IRS audits parking tickets and hemmeroids. This awakening needs to be handled gently, with humor and finess without shying away from the grim meat-hook reality of life. Radium Baby is just such a packaged silly, amusing and frankly strange Candide-like story of a young man who is sucked into the whirlwind of fast-talking New York radio executives and bratty peers in 1927 for an around the world contest. Imagine Jeeves had spiked P.G. Wodehouse's tea with LSD and let him loose with an encyclopedia of corney jokes and a gazette of similies and one gets a flavor of the funny twisted romp of ST John Karp's demented work. Bring a fresh change of underwear because you're going to soil yourself laughing!

[Ninamarie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off boldly and full of potential...finished with characters who became more unlikable as the story wore on. I have nothing against absurdity in literature, but this tale lost momentum and cohesion and my interest in the second half.

[Shelley]

Author's guest post at my blog:
http://bookfare.blogspot.com/2014/06/...

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would give this one star, but there were a few pages towards the middle that did not suck as much as the rest of the book.