Book Review: Piecemeal June by Jordan Krall

This is a story about a guy named Kevin, a cat named Mithra, a living sexdoll named June and the god-king of an alternate universe named Simon. (Simon's the name of the god-king, not the universe. The universe is named On-am.) If that's not enough, there are also three human-crab assassins whose hits are dispatched, in bloody chunks, to the flesh peddlers of On-am, an oracle who divines the future via a pool of feces in her back and a hodgepodge of pornographers, bikers and boxers.

If you're not intrigued already, there's something seriously lacking with your sense of curiosity. Or would that be your sense of smell?

As the story unfolds, Kevin's cat begins to bring his owner pieces of a very realistic sex doll. A foot. A hand. Boobs. He also brings Tarot cards and dead bunny heads, but that's neither here nor there. Kevin superglues these parts together until he has a whole woman, who then comes to life, and the two proceed to shag madly and fall in love. But there's always a turd in the punchbowl, isn't there? And Kevin and his living doll must fight for their love as all the underworld slimeballs and supernatural beings who think they have a claim on the affections of the piecemeal lovedoll come oozing out of the woodwork. Can their love survive the scatological storm of violence that ensues?

Piecemeal June is short. Far too short, in my opinion. The universes Krall creates in this novelette are much too interesting and unique to be left as is. This tale demands to be fleshed out, the world of On-am explored in more detail, and the love affair between Kevin and his living sexdoll delved into more deeply. Although the book is in need of some editing here and there, I couldn't help but think as I read it that this story was something special. Yes, it is disgusting. It is perverse, nasty, noxious and crude. But that is the world Krall has chosen to take us to. They can't all be OZ's. I just hope that, like Frank L. Baum, the author decides to revisit the worlds he has created here-- first, to expand this tale into a full fledged novel, as it deserves to be-- and maybe later, to bring us more tales from this multiverse of shit and sexdolls.

He may be, as he states in his afterword, somewhat embarrassed by his creation, but he shouldn't be.

He made something new, and that is something to take pride in.

Get your Kindle copy of Piecemeal June here!