Lucky Day

Do you believe in luck? Gambling sites and Casinos hope you do as you believe there is a chance that you will win big. You may just do that, but there is a reason some of the richest people in the UK own gambling websites, the house always wins. You may win big, but elsewhere someone is losing big, or lots of people are losing small. It all balances out with a nice rich tithe for the corporation acting as intermediary, but what happens if the odds are purposely placed in your favour? It may just be your Lucky Day, but Chuck Tingle has a warning for you; you may win a million or be caught up in a million to one disaster. 

Vera is finally starting to feel like she is getting her life sorted; one of the youngest professors at her university, soon to be a published author, and a new fiancée. All she needs to do is tell her mother that she is bisexual and marrying a woman. Easier said than done when talking about her strong-willed mother and the fact that fish have started to rain from the sky. And a monkey is beating a friend to death with a typewriter. And a semi is hurting towards you both. It seems that an event has hit Chicago in which bad luck has befallen the city. Can Vera survive long enough to understand what is happening? 

Lucky Day is some of the most enjoyable gonzo science fiction I have read in a long time. It is Urban Fantasy, but with a twisted sense of horror and sci fi. At the centre is Vera, a complicated character who deals in logic and statistics, thrust into a world in which logic seems to no longer apply. Or does it? There is a twisted sense of reason to the unlucky events that Vera has a unique ability to understand. 

The opening section of the book is bizarre, thrilling, funny, and horrific. Tingle has a joyous way of creating some bizarro scenes that you cannot look away from. I love the way that the book does not go out of its way to explain what is happening immediately, but you must read on to find the reveals.  

I got moments of The Final Destination films, but also the gonzo nature of a David Wong novel, and the themes touched upon by Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko. Those are some excellent touchstones to remind me of, as I love them all and Lucky Day certainly hits that quality. Tingle certainly has their own voice in the style of writing, it is darkly humorous, but also strongly science and horror led. 

I enjoy a book that has interesting ideas and tells them in an interesting way. This book certainly does that, and I would consider it a page turner as you want to know what is going to happen next. It deals with deep themes such as attitudes to sexuality, depression, nihilism, but also it has humour. Even in the most horrific scenes, there is an evil humour included. One of the oddest and most enjoyable books I have read in a long time.