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Perfect Union
THE FAMILY
When Drew married Laura, he also married into the Kowalski family. But on a trip with his twin brothers-in-law into the backwoods of northern California to find their abusive, estranged mother, buried secrets will be revealed, threatening his fragile marriage and his sanity.
THE COLONY
Mom has joined a new Leviathan-- a utopian colony that has taken the communist ideal to radical biological extremes, using the mutagenic honey from genetically tweaked bees to make ideal workers and flawless warriors. But the once-human hive is divided by a strike and brutal internecine war, and its tyrannical Chairman is eagerly recruiting scabs.
With the Kowalski twins taking opposing sides in the colony's bitter feud, Drew is forced into a world where nothing is taboo and survival is the only law, where he must negotiate between the insane collective mind and the savage refugees, even as the battling forces of the commune work to reshape him into a tool to complete their...
PERFECT UNION
When Drew married Laura, he also married into the Kowalski family. But on a trip with his twin brothers-in-law into the backwoods of northern California to find their abusive, estranged mother, buried secrets will be revealed, threatening his fragile marriage and his sanity.
THE COLONY
Mom has joined a new Leviathan-- a utopian colony that has taken the communist ideal to radical biological extremes, using the mutagenic honey from genetically tweaked bees to make ideal workers and flawless warriors. But the once-human hive is divided by a strike and brutal internecine war, and its tyrannical Chairman is eagerly recruiting scabs.
With the Kowalski twins taking opposing sides in the colony's bitter feud, Drew is forced into a world where nothing is taboo and survival is the only law, where he must negotiate between the insane collective mind and the savage refugees, even as the battling forces of the commune work to reshape him into a tool to complete their...
PERFECT UNION
- GenresHorrorBizarro Fiction
272 pages, Paperback
First published February 5, 2010
8 people are currently reading
158 people want to read
About the author
Cody Goodfellow
162 books385 followersCODY GOODFELLOW has written nine novels and five collections, and has won three Wonderland Book Awards for Bizarro Fiction. He wrote, co-produced and scored the short Lovecraftian hygiene films Stay At Home Dad and Baby Got Bass, which have become viral sensations on YouTube. He has appeared in numerous short films, TV shows, music videos and commercials as research for his previous novel, Sleazeland. He also edits the hyperpulp zine Forbidden Futures. He “lives” in San Diego. Find out more at codygoodfellow.com.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 6, 2023
It is not my usual type but once I started I just couldn't look away.
Drew is on a road trip with his two brothers-in-law. The plan is to pack up mama and move her and her belongings elsewhere before she ends up living too close to them. None of them have a relationship with her or want her around for reasons that become apparent later in the book. When they get there she is missing and there is a mix of relief and a who cares attitude other than some slight worry about the possibility of being blamed for her disappearance. At this point the reader knows where mama has gone... but our characters don't.
A surreal mix of incest, child abuse, politics, and bees follows.
Yes. Bees. and I will never look at them the same way again.
I'm not sure what I expected from the synopsis but I was taken aback by this bizarro tale of family dysfunction that morphed into a satire of the far left versus the far right, communism, and sex in what I would describe as a dystopian ecological horror.
If you are looking for over the top violence and a totally berserk plot this may be for you.
My thanks to Ghoulish Books.
Drew is on a road trip with his two brothers-in-law. The plan is to pack up mama and move her and her belongings elsewhere before she ends up living too close to them. None of them have a relationship with her or want her around for reasons that become apparent later in the book. When they get there she is missing and there is a mix of relief and a who cares attitude other than some slight worry about the possibility of being blamed for her disappearance. At this point the reader knows where mama has gone... but our characters don't.
A surreal mix of incest, child abuse, politics, and bees follows.
Yes. Bees. and I will never look at them the same way again.
I'm not sure what I expected from the synopsis but I was taken aback by this bizarro tale of family dysfunction that morphed into a satire of the far left versus the far right, communism, and sex in what I would describe as a dystopian ecological horror.
If you are looking for over the top violence and a totally berserk plot this may be for you.
My thanks to Ghoulish Books.
December 1, 2010
Cody Goodfellow is one of three authors (Gina Ranalli and John Shirley) who have received their own Tag on my blog. The man is a diabolical genius that fills his fiction with equal parts genius, gore, humor and genuine terror. Best of all this dangerous soup also has highly literate prose and well developed characters. When I read Cody's first novel Radiant Dawn I believed I was looking at the future of horror fiction in the same way those early readers of Clive Barker's books of blood were.
Many of you horror fans have read his short stories as Cody has become a staple in the field for new anthologies quietly racking bizarre and strange catalog of shorts that Swallowdown released last year in a collection ( Hit the Cody tag at the bottom of this post you'll find it). Cody's first two novels were a single story and as great as they were Perfect Union was a real test for Goodfellow. While his short stories have a modern weird tales kinda thing going on could the ultimate bizarro off the hook Goodfellow short story go full length. The answer is yes!
Perfect Union is a weird masterpiece. Influences ranging from Cronenberg body horror, Evil Dead style gore comedy to a fascinating political dissection of Marx and Thoreau make this a genius horror novel destined to be mis understand by the the masses but loved by the readers ready to get in the ring with Cody. It's not for everyone, The sex scene between tweakers in the opening chapter is beyond gross and a signal to potential readers....can you hang? Cody Goodfellow can disturb, offend and amuse in a single sentence, he has done all three to me in a speech tag before.
PU is the story of Drew who recently married Laura and agreed to go on a road trip with her hysterically funny twin brothers to help move their mother out of her rural Nor Cal home. Laura didn't talk about her family for good reason, mom was a commune hopping hippie and abusive enough give all three of her kids serious issues.
Mother lives near Utopia - a town founded by hippies and home to a failed communist compound that was moved into a an old aslylum. A new commune has grown out of the house, which uses radical biological experiments involving bees, mind control and the ultimate communist hive mentality taken to an extreme.
Goodfellow's characters slowly lose control and as the novel amps up. This happens as the hive mentality takes control of the narrative. Once that happens the blood, guts, and fetuses fly. Goodfellow spins a mind bogglingly insane tale of body horror that manages to dip it's fingers in uncomfortable gore while invoking laughter and deep thought about issues of personal freedom. Who knew a book where a woman bites the heads of fetuses and throws them at people could also explore the failings of communism. An intelligent socio-political dark bizarro masterpiece and one of the most original horror novels in years.
Many of you horror fans have read his short stories as Cody has become a staple in the field for new anthologies quietly racking bizarre and strange catalog of shorts that Swallowdown released last year in a collection ( Hit the Cody tag at the bottom of this post you'll find it). Cody's first two novels were a single story and as great as they were Perfect Union was a real test for Goodfellow. While his short stories have a modern weird tales kinda thing going on could the ultimate bizarro off the hook Goodfellow short story go full length. The answer is yes!
Perfect Union is a weird masterpiece. Influences ranging from Cronenberg body horror, Evil Dead style gore comedy to a fascinating political dissection of Marx and Thoreau make this a genius horror novel destined to be mis understand by the the masses but loved by the readers ready to get in the ring with Cody. It's not for everyone, The sex scene between tweakers in the opening chapter is beyond gross and a signal to potential readers....can you hang? Cody Goodfellow can disturb, offend and amuse in a single sentence, he has done all three to me in a speech tag before.
PU is the story of Drew who recently married Laura and agreed to go on a road trip with her hysterically funny twin brothers to help move their mother out of her rural Nor Cal home. Laura didn't talk about her family for good reason, mom was a commune hopping hippie and abusive enough give all three of her kids serious issues.
Mother lives near Utopia - a town founded by hippies and home to a failed communist compound that was moved into a an old aslylum. A new commune has grown out of the house, which uses radical biological experiments involving bees, mind control and the ultimate communist hive mentality taken to an extreme.
Goodfellow's characters slowly lose control and as the novel amps up. This happens as the hive mentality takes control of the narrative. Once that happens the blood, guts, and fetuses fly. Goodfellow spins a mind bogglingly insane tale of body horror that manages to dip it's fingers in uncomfortable gore while invoking laughter and deep thought about issues of personal freedom. Who knew a book where a woman bites the heads of fetuses and throws them at people could also explore the failings of communism. An intelligent socio-political dark bizarro masterpiece and one of the most original horror novels in years.
December 18, 2014
PERFECT UNION is an extreme exploration of right and left wing paranoia, with headless socialist worker drones, angry dittoheads turned to hulking soldiers, and sexy honey pots more than willing to help expand the hive, all controlled by the venom coursing through their veins. It has well thought-out characters, it’s expertly crafted, and it’s violent and bizarro as hell.
July 22, 2010
Perfect Union is definitely weird. Its concept (sort of a meditation on socialist politics with insect/human body-horror) is totally weird, but the approach is that of a more traditional horror tale. Goodfellow gives us a group of strong characters with real-world problems and lets them slowly slip into a bloody and dangerous world. The three guys, Drew, Dean, and Dom, are on a trip to clean out their missing mother’s house. Simple enough, but unbeknownst to them, the family matriarch is missing because she’s been abducted by the commune.
The details of the commune are satisfyingly perverse and horrific. To put it simply, the commune has literally spliced the communist ideal to the genetic efficiency of honeybees. And just like bees, the people there have become drones, serving their hive and devoid of individuality. Mom was taken in by them because they needed a new queen. They need a new queen because there’s been a strike that has thrown the entire hive into civil war.
Besides politics and Cronenbergian horror, Perfect Union is a story about brothers. Dean and Dom are twins, and are just as different as they are alike. Dean is a stern, holier-than-thou conservative and Dom is an anarchistic rebel. Dean is obsessed with structure and discipline, while Dom makes it a point to resist any structure or authority other than his own. They’re two extremes, order and chaos, which provides them their own strengths and weaknesses. Before long they’re drawn into the political schemes of the commune, and their bodies are horribly mutated (along with their personality). Naturally, they wind up fighting on opposite sides of the strike. Drew, meanwhile, is the hapless in-law, married to Dean and Dom’s sister, Laura. Laura’s got plenty of problems of her own, and Drew is trying to repair their marriage as he and his in-laws are sucked into the commune’s world.
I loved the concept behind Perfect Union. There are loads of cool scenes filled with honey and gore, and the relationships between the characters were very real and interesting. However, the geek inside me wanted to see more of the inner workings of this weird insectoid society. The commune/hive provides a very interesting allegory for the nature of communism, but we don’t get to see too much of it. Goodfellow approaches his story as a horror tale. He reveals bits and pieces as the story goes on, and details about the commune still remain mysterious until the very end. I can’t really argue against that, as the mystery is all part of the terror for the characters. And Goodfellow’s characterization is excellent here. His prose is elegant and has a lot of atmosphere to it. If you’re in the mood for weird horror with a mind for politics, Perfect Union is highly recommended.
The details of the commune are satisfyingly perverse and horrific. To put it simply, the commune has literally spliced the communist ideal to the genetic efficiency of honeybees. And just like bees, the people there have become drones, serving their hive and devoid of individuality. Mom was taken in by them because they needed a new queen. They need a new queen because there’s been a strike that has thrown the entire hive into civil war.
Besides politics and Cronenbergian horror, Perfect Union is a story about brothers. Dean and Dom are twins, and are just as different as they are alike. Dean is a stern, holier-than-thou conservative and Dom is an anarchistic rebel. Dean is obsessed with structure and discipline, while Dom makes it a point to resist any structure or authority other than his own. They’re two extremes, order and chaos, which provides them their own strengths and weaknesses. Before long they’re drawn into the political schemes of the commune, and their bodies are horribly mutated (along with their personality). Naturally, they wind up fighting on opposite sides of the strike. Drew, meanwhile, is the hapless in-law, married to Dean and Dom’s sister, Laura. Laura’s got plenty of problems of her own, and Drew is trying to repair their marriage as he and his in-laws are sucked into the commune’s world.
I loved the concept behind Perfect Union. There are loads of cool scenes filled with honey and gore, and the relationships between the characters were very real and interesting. However, the geek inside me wanted to see more of the inner workings of this weird insectoid society. The commune/hive provides a very interesting allegory for the nature of communism, but we don’t get to see too much of it. Goodfellow approaches his story as a horror tale. He reveals bits and pieces as the story goes on, and details about the commune still remain mysterious until the very end. I can’t really argue against that, as the mystery is all part of the terror for the characters. And Goodfellow’s characterization is excellent here. His prose is elegant and has a lot of atmosphere to it. If you’re in the mood for weird horror with a mind for politics, Perfect Union is highly recommended.
September 16, 2011
This was an intense read. Weird. Oddly poetic at times, even when discussing drug addiction, or a characters penis falling off. (Oh Yeah!!)
It was weird. Have I already said that? Well, it needs repeating.
At first, though, it was a little slow. At least I thought so. I kept thinking to myself: "This is Bizarro? Seems a little...tame, for the genre." But it sure picked up and when it did it was like a freight train full of bees.
The story had a lot to do with Communism, and bees, and how the Hive Mentality of Bees could be used as a metaphor for Communism. I think.
Okay, so I admit it: a lot of the stuff about communism went right over my head. But that in no way took away from the experience that is this book. Goodfellow writes like a man possessed. He is like Palahniuk on crack...throwing out random bits of information like candy as he forces you down a slippery slope of familial responsibility and biological experimentation.
That makes no sense here in the review, but it does if you READ THIS BOOK. It has everything: information, gore, sex, drugs, rock and roll references, confusion, poetics, manifestos, bees, mutants, and incestuous undertones throughout. It is wholly unlike any other books on Communism or Bee Keeping you will ever read.
It was weird. Have I already said that? Well, it needs repeating.
At first, though, it was a little slow. At least I thought so. I kept thinking to myself: "This is Bizarro? Seems a little...tame, for the genre." But it sure picked up and when it did it was like a freight train full of bees.
The story had a lot to do with Communism, and bees, and how the Hive Mentality of Bees could be used as a metaphor for Communism. I think.
Okay, so I admit it: a lot of the stuff about communism went right over my head. But that in no way took away from the experience that is this book. Goodfellow writes like a man possessed. He is like Palahniuk on crack...throwing out random bits of information like candy as he forces you down a slippery slope of familial responsibility and biological experimentation.
That makes no sense here in the review, but it does if you READ THIS BOOK. It has everything: information, gore, sex, drugs, rock and roll references, confusion, poetics, manifestos, bees, mutants, and incestuous undertones throughout. It is wholly unlike any other books on Communism or Bee Keeping you will ever read.
November 7, 2010
California creepy w frightening scenarios centering around a family w secrets and an abandoned utopian commune taken over by hivebrain zombie people w no heads - a page turner that's equal parts horror, sex, violence, and somehow believable anyway? Complete w/ freaked out characters who remain strangely likable even tho they are totally f'd up and trying to kill each other and are living out some neomarxist utopian secret government weapon experiment.
June 21, 2010
I would like to justify the long time I took with this book by saying that I was savoring it. With the material presented here, that excuse seems plausible.
Drew Carruthers' seedy trip into Californian woods to be with his in-laws is guided by tense character development and a strong sense of alienation. In addition to the unfamiliar territory, his ideals and his actions frequently feel invisible to those of his brothers-in-law, Dean and Dominic Kowalski, who themselves are locked in a battle of I'm-the-better-twin which begins as passive-aggressive and boils over time. A good portion of the book has Drew hanging onto the idea of his wife, Laura, as the one familiar and pleasant aspect of his new life. However, like the relations between most of the characters, the one between Drew and Laura decays despite his best efforts. That the mother of the Kowalski family is absent for most of the story when she was the goal of the trip does nothing to abate Drew's sense of futility. He soon finds that there is a reason for her absence, in addition to other unsavory aspects of the Kowalski family's history. He also finds the reasons for there being a strange and shifty old man living by himself who has a passing resemblance to George Orwell, and the reason that the area has a tourist town celebrating Communist ideology named Utopia.
... And that's where the Leviathan colony comes in, bees and all.
Here, Goodfellow proves that he is as adept with creating mutated creatures and political ideals as he is with following character relations. Various flavors of bee-related and head-related imagery permeate toughened gray skins and honeycombed flesh of the soldiers and the scabs who are in bitter conflict with each other. As the story's events prove, they are nothing if not willing to abduct unsuspecting bystanders to fight in their cause, with the sting-relayed propaganda making all involved into mindless flesh-robots. The intrigue surrouding the split factions swells with each new revelation as Drew and the twins dig deeper and deeper into the plot, and it's safe to say that Perfect Union's climax and character outcomes satisfy the build up.
To sum up everything good: body horror and an alternate interpretation of Communism are best run through a heavy atmosphere where the only empathic human is the narrator (assuming the narrator is human).
The list of flaws is short. The first chapter feels like it could've been cut out. It may have been to show the power of the colony, but the later chapters do the job a lot better. Furthermore, I took a while to warm up to Drew. While the complete feeling that he is alone can be empathized with, I occasionally wondered if the isolation was because he often sounded like an opinionated asshole.
On a final note, I was not under command to write a glowing review. That barb-like thing under my eye is just a spent eyelash. Some eyelashes happen to have tiny entrails hanging off of them.
Drew Carruthers' seedy trip into Californian woods to be with his in-laws is guided by tense character development and a strong sense of alienation. In addition to the unfamiliar territory, his ideals and his actions frequently feel invisible to those of his brothers-in-law, Dean and Dominic Kowalski, who themselves are locked in a battle of I'm-the-better-twin which begins as passive-aggressive and boils over time. A good portion of the book has Drew hanging onto the idea of his wife, Laura, as the one familiar and pleasant aspect of his new life. However, like the relations between most of the characters, the one between Drew and Laura decays despite his best efforts. That the mother of the Kowalski family is absent for most of the story when she was the goal of the trip does nothing to abate Drew's sense of futility. He soon finds that there is a reason for her absence, in addition to other unsavory aspects of the Kowalski family's history. He also finds the reasons for there being a strange and shifty old man living by himself who has a passing resemblance to George Orwell, and the reason that the area has a tourist town celebrating Communist ideology named Utopia.
... And that's where the Leviathan colony comes in, bees and all.
Here, Goodfellow proves that he is as adept with creating mutated creatures and political ideals as he is with following character relations. Various flavors of bee-related and head-related imagery permeate toughened gray skins and honeycombed flesh of the soldiers and the scabs who are in bitter conflict with each other. As the story's events prove, they are nothing if not willing to abduct unsuspecting bystanders to fight in their cause, with the sting-relayed propaganda making all involved into mindless flesh-robots. The intrigue surrouding the split factions swells with each new revelation as Drew and the twins dig deeper and deeper into the plot, and it's safe to say that Perfect Union's climax and character outcomes satisfy the build up.
To sum up everything good: body horror and an alternate interpretation of Communism are best run through a heavy atmosphere where the only empathic human is the narrator (assuming the narrator is human).
The list of flaws is short. The first chapter feels like it could've been cut out. It may have been to show the power of the colony, but the later chapters do the job a lot better. Furthermore, I took a while to warm up to Drew. While the complete feeling that he is alone can be empathized with, I occasionally wondered if the isolation was because he often sounded like an opinionated asshole.
On a final note, I was not under command to write a glowing review. That barb-like thing under my eye is just a spent eyelash. Some eyelashes happen to have tiny entrails hanging off of them.
March 18, 2011
this full-length book holds up just as well as his EXCELLENT short fiction, LOVED IT!!
November 4, 2017
Anything by Cody Goodfellow is a fucking treat, and good god, Perfect Union is fantastic. This is high-concept, smart horror that made me feel like I'd been micro-dosed by the final chapter. Goodfellow's prose is rich and textured as always, and his creativity chugs miles ahead of your standard horror writer. This one gets dark. It also gets very, very sticky. I can't stress it enough...this shit's rad.
December 26, 2023
Family. Original. Communism. There’s a lot to like in this book. It was a very original story and I’ve never read anything quite like it. I’m not smart enough to totally follow all of the subtext the author was likely communicating about communism throughout the plot. Although a bit challenging for me, I still enjoyed it quite a bit. The last 30 pages or so really nails the body horror. I’ll be checking out more of Cody’s work.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews