A Hoarse Half-human Cheer by X.J. Kennedy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Hoarse, Half-Human Cheer was a real hoot. You may find yourself speaking like this after emerging from the book, blinking in the modern light, expecting, perhaps, a sepia tinge to the air.

I got A Hoarse, Half-Human Cheer for free through NetGalley.

X.J. Kennedy’s got this great sense of the voice of the fifties, or at least the voice of the fifties as passed down to us through the generations, just soaked throughout the entire novel. And accompanying the voice is a fun little caper story involving the mob, basketball, wise-cracking secretaries, karate-kicking priests (reminded me of the Dead Alive scene with the priest shouting, “I kick ass for the Lord!”), army surplus, and a dame with a lot of moxie. There are clear villains and good guys, there is some good, old fashioned violence. There is a really, really funny scene where a renegade priest has gone off his rocker and blessed a warehouse full of Ritz crackers which, as their Catholic duty, the priests and nuns of the Catholic college at the heart of the story, the college staff have to eat in one evening, lest the body of Christ be profaned. “Surely you wouldn’t smear jelly on the Body of Our Lord?”

Well worth your time.



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