Mildly amusing, always interestingly presented story of sorts. The Ignatius J. Reilly-esque character of Billy isn't exactly a comedic dynamo. Much of the book...almost 2/3, at 63%...is spent building up to a completely wacky ending.

I got very close to Pearl-Ruling the book at multiple times and didn't because Billy's got something I like in a fictional character: An infuriating ability to be right. When you're sure he's wrong, he's weirdly right.

I don't think this is for everyone. I do think anyone who starts it will know by the 10% mark whether they're even going to be able to take the full trip. But if you can stick to it, there's a payoff in chortles and whinnys of laughter that made me think "oh...okay, that was a good time."

This was a difficult book to get into. I didn't care for Billy and the other characters were really off the wall. The story did get better as you read it, but it just wasn't for me. I couldn't connect with Billy and the whole romantic arc was a joke. There was some humor in there and an actual plot, but I was already turned off by the time I got to that point. I did finish it though, hence the Two Stars!

The characters were unbelievable and confusing. Too much description went into them and I gave this one up.

Halfway into the book I decided to stop trying. From the very beginning I didn't enjoy the long paragraphs, the multitude of descriptions that added more information about the characters, but didn't do much for the story. The author kept a thesaurus too close while writing this book, which didn't make any sense for these characters.

In regards to the characters, they're really not believable, nor likeable in any way. There's an attempt to make them awful and complex at the same time, but it's a failed attempt. Any person that reads philosophy has at least a basic grasp of communication skills and vocabulary, which doesn't qualify in the case of the character named Warden.

I wasn't sure if the chapters are connected, but it feels like at some point the stories could and should mingle together in a meaningful way, but I wouldn't want to discover they don't, which is what I'm anticipating.

There's just too much of everything squished into this book. It's clear the author is knowledgeable about many things, but they don't all fit together in a book. There were parts that I sort of enjoyed, some of them kept me interested enough to get halfway, but all in all the experience was lacking in substance and consistency.
Maybe a collection of short stories would have been a better choice in this case.

So, I initially got this book through Goodreads for free, but didn’t finish reading it. Out of sure stupidity and morbid curiosity to get to the end, I purchased from B&N. What I really thought- it’s a bit of mixed bag, really. Although none of the characters were written to be likable (I assume) it is hard to become invested in them. The wording is definitely on a more extended vocabulary level, leaving it confusing or difficult for the average person to understand and acquaint themselves with. These two combined makes this book, with words few relate to and characters most won’t like, the perfect storm for trash can fodder. I took my time with this book. When it became frustrating, I set it aside. I was happy I finished it. I personally liked the book if for no other reason that Canterel invested all the time and effort that had to go in to writing it.

A bit of a jumble of ideas. It took me several attempts to get through. Ultimately, not the book for me. Two stars.

*shrug* I can see how this can be entertaining, just not my cup of tea. I just couldn't get into the story and the writing style fell flat for me.

This looked like a great book, but unfortunately it was archived before I could read it. I will pay more attention to that before requesting. Thank you.

I just could not get through the book as fast as I wanted to. As parts were easy to read and understand, others confused me and had me wonder why that was in the book at all. I really am not sure I get what exactly the author was trying to express or convey to the reader all of the time.

Thanks to netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

3 stars ⭐️ out of 5

I appreciate where this book goes and the goal for the characters involved. It was a little too wordy for me and that made it difficult for me to get through, but that is on me more than anyone else. Pretty interesting ideas.

I received this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

I’m on the fence with this one. There were definitely elements that fully engrossed me and that I found entertaining, but there was also a fair bit of confusion in how some parts related to the overall story. Perhaps it just wasn’t right for me but the next person may love it. You’ll have to read it to decide.

An interesting novel that works on many levels. After the first chapter you settle in and think you know what to expect next, but guess again. This is not a book to sit back and relax with as it has you constantly questioning and thinking back to earlier chapters. I'd recommend this but it is a challenging and humourous novel that may not appeal to all.

picaresque
adjective
relating to an episodic style of fiction dealing with the adventures of a rough and dishonest but appealing hero.

Well the hero is rough and dishonest but far from appealing,and certainly could not be described as Jolly under any stretch of the imagination. A beer swilling, farting, drug addicted coroner is our hero.

This book has a good story underneath but is completely ruined By the authors attempts to fill every criterion of writers 101. There is descriptive overload from the outset and boy am i glad that i read it on Kindle as Canterel had obviously swallowed a dictionary on the day he wrote this and a dictionary is needed to interpret it - by the end of the first chapter I was exhausted by the work required. Try a few of these eructation - a belch, olio - a spiced stew of meat used to describe a mixture of smells including urine; a boscage - a mass of trees - what on earth is wrong with belch, smell and copse. Some of the chapters are entitled in a foreign language, he philosophises, use geographical, historic, paleontological, voodoo references - Why? Perhaps they are meant to show what an erudite author he is. Instead All these fancies completely distract from the storyline and made the book far less enjoyable and far longer than necessary in my opinion. I can't say i will be looking for anymore by this author

This one was a bit difficult for me, I didn't really love any of the characters. I understand that they are portrayed for that purpose. This one took me a while to finish.

I wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't get through it. The writing was blah and the story line just couldn't hold my attention.

Honetly I wish read this book because the cover, but i ended finding a really entertaiment and funny story

This book was odd and a little on the slow side. Not recommended. (Amazon reviewed).

Very difficult to get into. Perhaps I should not have taken this book to read, but the description made it sound quirky and interesting. It was verbose, and very hard to get into and when I did, I found it a struggle to keep with it and all of the convolutions in the plot(s). I put it down several times and was not able to finish it.