Book Jacket

 

rank 5341
word count 47173
date submitted 18.01.2012
date updated 19.01.2012
genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Comedy
classification: moderate
incomplete

Strange Beasts in a Small Town

Adam Armour

A mountainous pile of living trash, a neurotic monster hound, several hundred golem-like creatures and one misanthropic sniper all walk into a small town...

 

Set in the years following a lengthy war between mankind and a race of giant monsters, "Strange Beasts in a Small Town" tells the story of Agnes Stegall, an ex-monster hunter who is asked by the residents of a tiny, dried-up Alabama town named Verbena Fields to kill a giant garbage monster believed to be threatening the town.

Basically, she says “no,” but with more profanity.

There are reasons for this, of course. It’s been years since Agnes helped destroy most of the giant monsters and being of a generally disagreeable nature, she is reluctant to get involved. But then the townspeople call on King Vislor — a monster with such an obsessive reverence for humankind he helped kill his peers in its defense — for aid instead. Because Agnes believes his presence will have disastrous consequences for everyone involved, she attempts to undo the chain of events her reluctance has caused.

But King Vislor is coming, and soon Agnes must battle the destructive lengths both he and the townsfolk are willing to undertake to keep Verbena Fields safe while simultaneously confronting some monsters of her own.

 
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tags

action, adventure, daikaiju, fantasy, female protagonists, giant monsters, godzilla, humor, kaiju, monsters, small towns, southern gothic, southern st...

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4 comments

 

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Adam Armour wrote 31 days ago

Adam,

I have only been able to read chapter one as time always limits these things. I'm not sure I get the page references etc. I know you're trying to make it look like a genuine history book, but I don't see the need for it. If there were some humour attached, I might understand it better.

Your writing, however, is good. You have nicely set the scene for the first monster and given us a taste for how the book will be laid out.

I spotted one small error, "...obviously travelled countess times..." where you missed the "l" in "countless".

Best regards
Warrick



Hey, thanks for spotting that for me. I'll make the fix.

I appreciate the compliment on the writing. Always nice to hear.

I thought using the text book format for the intro would serve as an example for how commonplace the monsters are in people's lives...i.e. even little kids learn all about them in elementary school. It may not work, though. If other readers think the same thing, I may have to change it up a bit. Thanks again for the read. If you check out any more, please let me know what you think.

Warrick Mayes wrote 31 days ago

Adam,

I have only been able to read chapter one as time always limits these things. I'm not sure I get the page references etc. I know you're trying to make it look like a genuine history book, but I don't see the need for it. If there were some humour attached, I might understand it better.

Your writing, however, is good. You have nicely set the scene for the first monster and given us a taste for how the book will be laid out.

I spotted one small error, "...obviously travelled countess times..." where you missed the "l" in "countless".

Best regards
Warrick

Adam Armour wrote 32 days ago

Adam, I've read this all the way through because I wanted to get a sense of where the story is going. Your premise is intriguing and the kaiju monsters threatening Japan reminded me immediately of the Fukushima disaster - Rubbish is a great metaphor for that catastrophe. Then the scene shifts to America and Verbena Fields, with Agnes as the linking human [although we meet the monsters again.] I began to feel your story drifting and losing shape, especially in chapters like 12 where nothing seems to be happening. I also have a problem with who your main character or protagonist is meant to be - is it Vizlor? Rubbish? Agnes? Lily? Olen? And that is a major problem for a reader. We don't have any guidance from you about where our sympathies or loyalties should be - I rather liked Rubbish, but he seems to have exited the action by now. My feeling is that you need to take your story firmly by the hand and organise it. Imagine if you were to make the film of this book - where would it start? Whose journey or character arc are we following? Where do we see choices that your protagonist makes, that will make us hope she or he gets to her goal? There needs to be a building excitement, and every time you leave us a clue, those clues should add up. For me, one of the most interesting moments was when Lily started talking to the monster - I really wanted to know what they were saying - but you throw it away and next time we meet Lily she is having a fairly mundane chat with to her son - what happened? Everything must add up. Sorry if I seem to be giving you a lot of critical comment here, it's just that you have a really intriguing central idea [and I hoped that we would have more Japanese settings], but the idea is not developed consistently. It's worth working on - I can see you have already put a lot of energy into this - don't lose heart. The book I have here took me fifteen years to write.



Hey, thanks so much for reading and commenting on the book. I really appreciate it. And no need to apologize for critical comments; that's what this site is all about.

Most of the characters who have chapters devoted to them are, by and large, protagonists in a way. The story is really the story of a small town trying to maintain their traditional way of life while battling forces totally out of their control. Having grown up in small towns all of my life, I've seen how major world events tend to pass by without really affecting the daily lives of the people there. And since giant monsters always attack large cities, I figured the people in "Small Town U.S.A." wouldn't really have been affected at all. I like the idea of seeing how they react to something that drastically changes their way of life.

So, while I guess Agnes is the main, main character, I think all of them are important to the story in the end. All of their stories and character arcs, in theory, connect and close by the end.

I'm so glad you like Rubbish. He has a special place in my heart, too. He definitely plays a part again, but does sit out for a chunk of the story.

I'm going to mull over your comments and think about what needs to be done. Thanks so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it

FrancesK wrote 32 days ago

Adam, I've read this all the way through because I wanted to get a sense of where the story is going. Your premise is intriguing and the kaiju monsters threatening Japan reminded me immediately of the Fukushima disaster - Rubbish is a great metaphor for that catastrophe. Then the scene shifts to America and Verbena Fields, with Agnes as the linking human [although we meet the monsters again.] I began to feel your story drifting and losing shape, especially in chapters like 12 where nothing seems to be happening. I also have a problem with who your main character or protagonist is meant to be - is it Vizlor? Rubbish? Agnes? Lily? Olen? And that is a major problem for a reader. We don't have any guidance from you about where our sympathies or loyalties should be - I rather liked Rubbish, but he seems to have exited the action by now. My feeling is that you need to take your story firmly by the hand and organise it. Imagine if you were to make the film of this book - where would it start? Whose journey or character arc are we following? Where do we see choices that your protagonist makes, that will make us hope she or he gets to her goal? There needs to be a building excitement, and every time you leave us a clue, those clues should add up. For me, one of the most interesting moments was when Lily started talking to the monster - I really wanted to know what they were saying - but you throw it away and next time we meet Lily she is having a fairly mundane chat with to her son - what happened? Everything must add up. Sorry if I seem to be giving you a lot of critical comment here, it's just that you have a really intriguing central idea [and I hoped that we would have more Japanese settings], but the idea is not developed consistently. It's worth working on - I can see you have already put a lot of energy into this - don't lose heart. The book I have here took me fifteen years to write.

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