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Todd Grimson: Brand New Cherry Flavor (Paperback, 2011, Schaffner Press, Inc.) 4 stars

Review of 'Brand New Cherry Flavor' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Why I Picked It Up ##

Watched and loved the TV show. Wanted to read the book it was based on.

## What I Liked About It ##

Interesting blend of noir, mystery, survival zombie horror, and Hollywood showbiz.

It meandered here and there, in a good way: I like it when the author pauses to describe somebody's outfit, or what they're eating, or that they spent the morning swimming.

## What I Didn't Like About It ##

It seemed really long for what it was. Maybe that's my fault though: I took my sweet, sweet time reading it.

There were way too many characters. There could have been one detective instead of like five cops. There could have been maybe 2 producers/hollywood types instead 3 - 5.

Edit: The ending! Forgot to mention the ending. The final confrontation was classic slasher film twist content, and I liked it quite a bit. But the epilogue of sorts after that with Lisa and Track in the desert? That felt weird. I don't know, maybe it's also thematically correct "The end, or is it??? Dun-dun-dun."

## What I Want To Remember About It ##

This is one of those rare cases in which the TV show is much better than the book.

The show was tight and focused. TV's Boro was much more interesting and compelling, whereas the book's Boro was just this bad guy? Also, the supernatural elements of the book were just sprinkled in here and there in a way that would have made them really weird on TV, so they made the right choice to up the magic stuff.

The TV show ended about a third of the way through the book, which was surprising to me. Hope they pick it back up. I'm curious to see what they'd do with the rest of the material.