An unfortunate mess from the start. I simply couldn't stay with it after a while. I feel terrible but I did try....

Many thanks to Netgalley for this missed opportunity.

I tried with The Liquor Vicar. I really tried. I had a hard time with this book because I was expecting it to be funny in the sense of dark humor. I did not really get that at all. The opening scene with Tony as Elvis at the wedding. What the hell did I just read? It was all very cringe.

Tony Vicar, who has been on his way down- from a cover band, no less- suddenly finds himself in the glare of the spotlights and the subject of an obsessive woman when he and his friend Jacquie O revive the victim of a car accident. That's the bones of the plot and it has potential. However the humor here is too broad and frankly Tony's not really likable. I gave it a chance and then I gave up. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

This story follows Tony Vicar, a failed rock-star turned wedding DJ, just plodding through his life. Until one day when he comes across a fatal car accident and helps a woman who is barely clinging to life. Word quickly spreads of the vicar who brought the woman back to life. Vicar insists he did nothing but talk to her (and he isn't an actual vicar, that's just his name), but his protests cannot quell the rumors. Add in a lucky guess at a lottery ticket, an obsessed stalker, and a former exotic dancer and Vicar's life just gets increasingly absurd.

I wanted to like this book. The description seemed right up my alley with the promise of black comedy and the book tagline "the mildly catastrophic misadventures of Tony Vicar". But this missed the mark by a good margin for me. I did like the last 30%, but the first 70% was just not for me. There isn't anything glaringly bad about the book but it really came down to just being so boring that I can't really recommend it. It does seem to be the first book in a series and I'll consider giving the second book a chance because this had some good points but mostly hit way out in left field.

So what I thought this book would be based on the description and the tagline would be a series of sort of campy accidental miracles that would keep getting Vicar more and more attention that would eventually go to his head and then he'd have to come to some sort of realization that all this fame isn't what he wanted afterall and he'd choose to go back to his roots of what really makes him happy. And the skeleton for that story arc was in the book but it did not go anywhere. We know he's a washed up, wannabe rock-star. He's been a part of countless bands and cover-bands and is obsessed with music as only a musician can be (he reminded me a lot of Jack Black's character in School of Rock). He starts getting all this attention for this woman from the car accident and he initially shrugs it off. Then, there's an incident with him 'blessing' a lottery ticket and the fanfare increases. This was where I thought Vicar would have the fame going to his head a bit, maybe getting a little excited at the idea of having all these followers (even the stalker). However, he has his girlfriend and friends to keep him grounded and he maintains pretty much through the whole book that he's just a normal guy. And that last point is my main issue with the book - there was pretty much no character development. I'm pretty sure that anyone who would find themselves in their 5 minutes of fame would have some sort of development - maybe figuring out that they really like being in the limelight or maybe the opposite.

After the lottery ticket incident, I thought that maybe the point was that all these absurd things keep happening to Vicar and he sort of plays the straight-man to all the chaos around him. But even that didn't happen because most of the story was Vicar hanging out with his friends so we don't really see the people in the town getting all worked up over his 'miracles'. Also, there were really only 2 main 'misadventures' that amped up his celebrity status and they both happened pretty quickly in the book so I wasn't sure why the excitement of people was still so high at points. If anything, his girlfriend was the one who was outside any of this bubble and seemed to be pretty unimpressed. As a character focused reader, I can deal with a pretty low action, low tension plot if there's good character development or character exploration. However, I really didn't feel like there was any exploring done. At times, it felt like this book was just a list of things that happened to Vicar as he lived his pretty mundane life. Went to work, drove some deliveries, had a date with my girlfriend, those people were outside my house again asking for autographs, had a nice piece of pie for dessert. Everything was just monotone. And if this book was meant to be some sort of lit-fic exploration of one man's life, then the description is really misleading.

The last 30% of the book is where a lot of the consequences I was looking for came in, but they did seem to come out of nowhere. Since we don't get to see how amped up the Vicar fan-club is becoming, we have no idea what level of celebrity Vicar is achieving. Because of this, when the stalker plot line is introduced, it really felt like it came out of nowhere. I would have loved to have gotten a split POV earlier in the book with this stalker maybe as soon as the car accident happened and they met Vicar for the first time and just latched onto him. Maybe getting this outside perspective on the whole situation would have helped give the reader a different point of view that would then directly contrast Vicar's POV of just going about his life like nothing is really happening. When the stalker plot comes to a head, we do get Vicar thinking a little more about his impact on the community and how his 'miracles' have come across to people who really believe he can help them. So we get a tiny bit of character exploration, but it was too little too late for me.

I did enjoy the writing style and the dry humor throughout the book. I think Ditrich does a great job setting the scenes quickly and introducing new characters effectively with just a few lines. Ditrich really zooms in on a few key details that really give the reader a quick way to get an idea of what sort of situation or character we're meeting. I really liked Vicar's character and how 'over it' he is about a lot of things. He's set in his ways and he's a little grumpy which comes across in the humor style in the writing. This isn't a character who is really over-the-top in his reactions to what's going on around him. There were a good number of jokes and humorous parts that got a chuckle out of me but I love this dry humor style. I think other readers who prefer more amped up reactions or funny moments would find this, for lack of a better term, too dry.

Overall, this story had an interesting premise but the execution was not there for me. The book did end strong for me, so I'd be open to continuing if we get a second book. Writing style and humor were a win for me, but I found the character development and plot pretty lacking.

Thanks NetGalley and Dundurn Press for the ARC in exchange for review

Expected publication date is September 14, 2021.

This book just wasn’t really what I was hoping for, I just couldn’t really enjoy it.
There were moments that I found funny, but overall it left me conflicted about my thoughts.
Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher and author, for so kindly gifting me this novel to read and review.

Hated this not just because the main character was sad and unlikable. I just could not muster an ounce of sympathy for a character that is depicted so dull. The writing was not that great either. It was really a chore to read this and found myself reading some chapters and skimming the rest. This book was just not for me, at all.

Cannot recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley, Vince R Ditrich and Dundum Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 9/14/21

1.5/5 stars. Slight spoilers ahead.

This book was not for me at all. For one thing, the writing made it difficult to focus on the story, and I found myself bored by the plot. There was a lot of telling instead of showing, and descriptions tended to be flat and stiff, made up of short sentences. The book was quick to read since it had short chapters, which I appreciated, but it takes a while to get to the main action of the story.

Besides, the writing, I greatly disliked the main character. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Lots of famous characters are unlikeable people (like Holden Caulfield), but to me it didn't seem like this MC really grew by the end of the book. The way he viewed women and the way women were talked about in this book made me uncomfortable and had me skipping some parts. In general, the MC gave me "I'm not like other guy" vibes - him aggressively insisting that he's not vegan, him saying that he wouldn't go on a date with a woman who was, him calling the waiter "pompous"...Like I said, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it did put me off from wanting to read the book for a while.

All in all, I didn't find the book particularly funny. I'm not really sure what kind of humor it contained to be honest. It just wasn't for me.

Alright, so this one is maybe not for me. I read the words "gallows humor" in the blurb and pounced. This does indeed have some very dark comedy in it, but at some point it starts to lose its acerbic quality and just becomes kind of lazy. Lots of low-hanging fruit in terms of the comedy in that it felt like it was reaching, like it was trying very, very hard to say, "See? Look how funny I am!" Now, to be fair I know I find comedy in literature to be pretty hit or miss, and I picked this up knowing I can be difficult to please in this genre. That isn't Ditrich's fault, that's MY fault. Sense of humor is extremely individual, and I can see this being funny to someone with a different sense of humor from mine. If the lackluster humor were the only sin, I could forgive it easily enough. However, it was only one of many issues.

The plot is certainly zany, to say the least, but kind of to the point of being detrimental to the narrative as a whole. It's very ambling and felt absurdist just for the sake of being absurdist. The ambling quality is one that picks up within the first ten pages and will carry through to (I'm assuming) the end of the book. Or, if you're like me, it will carry you to about 70% before you DNF and take a nap to recover. I don't feel like I missed much by putting it down. In fact if anything, the book probably could have been a good hundred pages shorter if only some words were minced. The writing is very detailed, and there is a lot of it for there to be so little happening for so long.

It's disappointing, really. An alcoholic musician (generous with that word) gets his taste of celebrity (if not in the way he'd hoped or expected) and everything that comes with that. Throw in some dark humor, a killer cast of characters, and some inventive shenanigans, and I'm there! This just wasn't it for me.

The reason it still gets a second star is that I acknowledge this one just wasn't for me, specifically. I can see this doing well with the right audience. I also have to say that Ditrich has a gift for interesting characters.

Thank you muchly to NetGalley, Dundurn Press, and Vince Rd. Ditrich for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

UGH. I am so conflicted about how I feel about this book. The Liquor Vicar is a dark comedy, I will say that. There are some of the most ridiculous and outrageous but also twisted and hilarious moments throughout this story. It follows Tony Vicar, a drunk DJ/Elvis impersonator who stumbles into a situation that is bigger than himself and brings him fame and attention from all over. I won't say too much more about the plot because there are some weird twists. The characters were the strong point of this story, they were quirky and fun. I was surprised that I really got to like them towards the end. However, it was one of the rougher starts to a book that I have had in a long time. The plot didn't really show up until a solid third of the way into it, which just seems too long for a less than 300 page one. If things had gotten moving a bit faster, I would have rated it higher.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for my ARC.

I suppose you would call this book surreal. I was about a quarter of the book in before I started to get what it is about and before I got used to the writing style . Set in a small town in British Columbia, Canada, the population is colourful . Tony Vicar (the hero of the book) is a musician .He hooks up with Jacquie and ends up working at a liquor store outside the town.
The plot was quite convoluted, though interesting and reading the book got easier as it progressed and the different strands of the story started to make more sense. Lots of detail,, which at times seemed irrelevant but which added to the surreal atmosphere of the book. There is a storyline buried in there too, though this only becomes apparent later too . In retrospect funny/strange though I came to quite like the characters in the book. Not an easy read , but quite enjoyable on the whole
Thank you to net galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Liquor Vicar is the story of an alcoholic middle-aged man named Tony Vicar who works in a bar/liquor store. His life is a sad, disheveled mess until he comes across a fatal car accident and seemingly brings one of the victims back to to life.

On concept, this story is fresh and fun, and the beginning few chapters embody the dark humor this novel is sold on. Vicar’s POV of the world and the people he is forced to inhabit it with is hilariously jaded. But it also gives you the sense that there is a real intelligence and soul behind his crusty and sometimes downright rudeness. And the supporting characters of Ross Poutine and Frankie Hall bring serve as anchors of the real heart in the story.

However, the story itself is very thin and the delightful boorish charm that is the Tony Vicar we are introduced to, is very quickly lost in it. There were far too many moments in the novel where we spend pages on descriptions of what Vicar is feeling and seeing, but not so much on who he is. There is room there for a really strong character and story arc, and satisfying payoff, but it’s never reached. The true transformation of Vicar seems to happen off-page and conveniently quickly. In fact, by the middle of the book, he already feels like a completely different character being carried along on these external events with little agency at all, and becomes uninteresting.

There is also the problem of the antagonist who is also not fully realized, and the fact that the climax comes about with little to no build-up or tension, and then ends with little fanfare. Only for the reader to realize there’s quite a bit more to the novel that’s spent on tying up loose ends which all could have been done in an epilogue instead of the whole back 3rd of the novel.

Truthfully, although I did feel quite a bit let down, I think I would recommend others read. It’s a quick read, and there are definitely some great moments and characters. And again, the first 3rd of the book is fantastic.

Listen to the full review at: https://bookclubbed.buzzsprout.com/1572124/8138075-black-humor-in-fiction

I saw “black humor” and, despite my suspicions of what black humor has come to mean, read regardless. Hell, any humor is hard to pull off in a book. The written word doesn’t have the advantage of the screen in regard to facial expressions, timing, and tone. Despite the disclaimers and lowered expectations, I should have listened to my gut. This book is painful.

Black humor should have bite. It should make us laugh initially but leave us uneasy, pondering our own mortality or these silly little plights we call life. It should come from well-crafted characters and their misadventures, as one-liners too often come across as interjections of the author.

The humor in this book is predictable and cartoonish, a mix of sad dad jokes and mistimed punchlines. For example, at one point, they deliver liquor to an old man whose balls are hanging out of his shorts. I love a good balls jokes, but this is just a prop the author has set up to land a lazy punchline. It might have play in Family Guy, but not a novel that is ostensibly trying to tell a story. Most of the other jokes are easy slams on people who live in the suburbs and shop at Costco. I mean, you could write these in your sleep.

There is nothing authentic in here. Every scene is straining towards hysteria in place of true dramatics, the characters are washed-up archetypes we have seen over and over, and the writing reads like a college freshman trying to prove he’s the class humorist. I mean, the MC, a failing DJ, lands a stripper with a heart of gold. Woody Allen would like to have a word about projecting sad fantasies onto your characters.

Very funny book about a down on his luck wedding DJ. As he is dancing around as Elvis as a special treat for the bride, in his mind he is wondering how he got to this low point. He knows which songs a person is going to choose just by the way they walk up to the DJ stand. His running commentary in his mind about the different guests is very funny because some people think that but do not put a voice to. I love the liquor store owner's little old lady customer who fills up her trunk with cheap wine. She drives an enormous car and the only thing you see is the top of her hair in the driver's seat. I really enjoyed being along for the ride.

This is good, mostly quirky fun. I enjoyed this unusual story with interesting characters, and a mostly engaging plot. The author has a nice writing style and the ending was pretty good too. I hope Mr Ditrich keeps writing.

I really appreciate the ARC for review!!

Thanks to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for this outrageous black comedy in return for an honest review. It was written by Vince Ditrich, a rock musician and drummer for the Canadian band, The Spirit of the West.

There is no doubt the author can plot an interesting story with disturbing and hilarious situations. His quirky characters were well developed, with great descriptions of their erratic behaviour, apparel, and appearance. I often found the humour too crude, frantic and over-the-top for my taste that detracted from my full enjoyment. There was mild profanity that seemed to decrease as I read, but maybe I just got used to it.

The main character, Tony Vicar, is a member of a failed cover band and reduced to DJ work at the occasional wedding and low-life venues. After drinking too much at his latest gig, he scandalously disgraces himself and sees little hope for the future. He gets work delivering liquor for a rundown, out of date establishment with an eccentric owner. Tony meets a former exotic dancer, Jacquie O, and they begin an unlikely romance.

After assisting a woman whom the paramedics believe dead following a car accident, she regains consciousness. News of his assumed magical touch makes him famous. A lottery ticket, which he is reluctantly asked to bless, wins his owner millions. He is now considered a legend and a miracle worker and is uncomfortable with the fame.

Serena, an insane, dangerous, criminal, and seductive woman, becomes obsessed with Tony. She stalks him and will do anything to break up his romance with Jacquie O. She intends to claim him as her lover and husband. She has a small group of male followers who will help her with her devious plans.

After much peril and shenanigans, the story is brought to a well-planned, enjoyable, and satisfactory conclusion.