What do you think?
Rate this book
NOVELTY
A tale of small town magic. It's the year 1985, the summer of "New Coke" and the Live-Aid concert. A quiet Indiana town has fallen into turmoil with the sudden failure of their local landmark- a mystical wish granting machine dating back to the 30's. Newly elected Sheriff Jimmy Picnic must calm the local nerves, while trying to handle a slick California con man who's recently arrived, insisting that only he can fix the novelty... but for a price. Can the Sheriff manage this? Especially, while solving the first murder of his career, that of a visiting historian searching for the lost treasure of Napoleon. Sheriff Jimmy must overcome the revived crush of his high school dream girl, the destructive forces of mother nature, and a very dangerous foreigner who will stop at nothing to retrieve a sacred object that is too unbelievable to conceive. Novelty is comedy of a mystery, wrapped in mythology, with a flair for the nostalgia of the MTV generation.
338 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2012
2 people are currently reading
243 people want to read
About the author
Shann Hurst
16 books5 followersBorn and raised in the Hoosier heartland, Shann primarily makes his home on the coasts. He feels blessed to be alive at a time when technology has now given artists the freedom to express themselves on a mass level without having to sacrifice creativity and ambition.
If he can produce an image or story that can evoke an emotion, preferably a chuckle, then Shann has considered his work successful.
If he can produce an image or story that can evoke an emotion, preferably a chuckle, then Shann has considered his work successful.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 4, 2015
From The Musings of a Starving Author:
There are times when a dish comes into the pantry that dances around conventional cuisine classifications. They aren’t quite what has been termed ‘fusion’ dishes, but they certainly don’t conform to simple genre conventions. Novelty certainly fits this nebulous category of not really having a category and that, on the surface, certainly intrigued me with the potential of originality. Did Novelty live up that potential and, more importantly, was it tasty?
Before the taste test is finished, let us recite the Starving Review Creed:
I attempt to rate every book from the perspective of a fan of the genre
I attempt to make every review as spoiler-free as possible’
I think it did. I suppose the best way to define Novelty by taste test is that it combines elements of mystery, small-town drama, historical fiction, 80’s nostalgia, a dash of the supernatural thriller, and a strong dash of character-focused drama. The chef blends the entire contents of his spice rack together with surprising smoothness, creating a unique blend that permeates the entire dish. Certainly, for original flavors that still tempt the taste buds, Novelty is, well, novel!
With that out of the way, how does Novelty stack up in the meal quality department? Again, that same steady hand that blended all those spices has also done a good job at balancing the core elements of the literary meal. As one might expect from a book that uses elements of character-focused dramas, the characters, a rather large cast, represents a real strong point in this recipe. Even characters that look to be purposefully cardboard archetypes turn out to have surprising depths and the meal excels when it lets these characters do their thing.
The plot likewise is well-crafted but is deeper on theme than on the mystery plotline. This may be on-purpose, as every character involved in each element of the mystery has a hand as a point-of-view character, but it is an element that doesn’t quite rise in the baking. Still, the pace is spot-on, especially balancing such a sizable cast, and this criticism is a fairly minor one.
Where this recipe truly excels is in exploring its thematic elements. One of the primary themes is in the title itself, and there are several other related thematic elements that I would wish to avoid speaking of due to SPOILERS. What I will say is that Novelty explores these things with a subtle touch, but not one so light that the themes are lost in the other spices and flavors. I especially enjoyed the use of the place and time, including historical events of the time, to highlight and add to these themes. Clever touch that again highlights the power of research in writing.
So, in the end, where does Novelty sit on the dining room table? Well, Novelty is quite a novel dish, mixing a wide variety of spices and genres to form a rather delightful meal with surprisingly deep themes! I would definitely recommend this particular dish to someone looking for something a bit unique, or especially enjoys books with large casts and character-focused narratives. Also, I think someone with a lot of 80s nostalgia might get a kick just out of some of the references to that decade, especially when they become plot important.
FINAL VERDICT: ***** (A truly novel dish, mixing a wide variety of spices and genres to form a meal with surprisingly deep themes!)
There are times when a dish comes into the pantry that dances around conventional cuisine classifications. They aren’t quite what has been termed ‘fusion’ dishes, but they certainly don’t conform to simple genre conventions. Novelty certainly fits this nebulous category of not really having a category and that, on the surface, certainly intrigued me with the potential of originality. Did Novelty live up that potential and, more importantly, was it tasty?
Before the taste test is finished, let us recite the Starving Review Creed:
I attempt to rate every book from the perspective of a fan of the genre
I attempt to make every review as spoiler-free as possible’
I think it did. I suppose the best way to define Novelty by taste test is that it combines elements of mystery, small-town drama, historical fiction, 80’s nostalgia, a dash of the supernatural thriller, and a strong dash of character-focused drama. The chef blends the entire contents of his spice rack together with surprising smoothness, creating a unique blend that permeates the entire dish. Certainly, for original flavors that still tempt the taste buds, Novelty is, well, novel!
With that out of the way, how does Novelty stack up in the meal quality department? Again, that same steady hand that blended all those spices has also done a good job at balancing the core elements of the literary meal. As one might expect from a book that uses elements of character-focused dramas, the characters, a rather large cast, represents a real strong point in this recipe. Even characters that look to be purposefully cardboard archetypes turn out to have surprising depths and the meal excels when it lets these characters do their thing.
The plot likewise is well-crafted but is deeper on theme than on the mystery plotline. This may be on-purpose, as every character involved in each element of the mystery has a hand as a point-of-view character, but it is an element that doesn’t quite rise in the baking. Still, the pace is spot-on, especially balancing such a sizable cast, and this criticism is a fairly minor one.
Where this recipe truly excels is in exploring its thematic elements. One of the primary themes is in the title itself, and there are several other related thematic elements that I would wish to avoid speaking of due to SPOILERS. What I will say is that Novelty explores these things with a subtle touch, but not one so light that the themes are lost in the other spices and flavors. I especially enjoyed the use of the place and time, including historical events of the time, to highlight and add to these themes. Clever touch that again highlights the power of research in writing.
So, in the end, where does Novelty sit on the dining room table? Well, Novelty is quite a novel dish, mixing a wide variety of spices and genres to form a rather delightful meal with surprisingly deep themes! I would definitely recommend this particular dish to someone looking for something a bit unique, or especially enjoys books with large casts and character-focused narratives. Also, I think someone with a lot of 80s nostalgia might get a kick just out of some of the references to that decade, especially when they become plot important.
FINAL VERDICT: ***** (A truly novel dish, mixing a wide variety of spices and genres to form a meal with surprisingly deep themes!)
Displaying 1 of 1 review