Book Review: Creature Feature by Steven Paul Leiva
The Details
Media Type: Audio Book
Title: Creature Feature
Author: Paul Leiva
Narrator(s): Paulina Dever; Seamus Dever
Publisher: Magpie Press
Pages/Length: Audio Book; 4 hours 30 minutes
Release Date: Spring 2021
Source: Publisher
Add it on: Goodreads | Audible | Amazon
THERE IS SOMETHING STRANGE HAPPENING IN PLACIDVILLE!
It is 1962. Kathy Anderson, a serious actress who took her training at the Actors Studio in New York, is stuck playing Vivacia, the Vampire Woman on Vivacia’s House of Horrors for a local Chicago TV station.
Finally fed up showing old monster movies to creature feature fans, she quits and heads to New York and the fame and footlights of Broadway.
She stops off to visit her parents and old friends in Placidville, the all-Ameican, middle-class, blissfully normal Midwest small town she grew up in.
But she finds things are strange in Placidville.
Kathy’s parents, her best friend from high school, the local druggist, even the Oberhausen twins are all acting curiously creepy, odiously odd, and wholly weird. Especially the town’s super geeky nerd, Gerald, who warns of dark days ahead.
Has Kathy entered a zone in the twilight? Did she reach the limits that are outer? Has she fallen through a mirror that is black? Or is it just—just—politics as usual!
The Narrators
Oh wow! I am so glad that I was gifted a copy of this audio book to experience this story! Juliana and Seamus Dever make this book an enjoyable, cackle worthy romp. Their voices for their respective characters are on point, and the whole thing is more like watching a television show than merely experiencing an audio book. If you are an audio book lover, snap this one up! You’ll be so pleased.
Juliana Dever is a professional actor, writer, and world traveler. She’s best known for her role as Jenny Ryan on the globally popular show Castle. Recently you may have seen her brilliant per-formance in “Stalked by My Husband’s Ex” on Lifetime. Having traveled to over 60 countries, her award-winning travel blog CleverDeverWherever.com (named Best Independent Travel Blog in North America) helps readers find unexpected experiences in unusual places. She curates ad-ventures though former communist countries and Frommer’s listed her tours as a trend that will shape travel.
Seamus Dever is best known to television audiences as Detective Kevin Ryan on ABC’s Castle. He played Sherlock Holmes in the Audie Award-winning “Hound of the Baskervilles” with LA Theatre Works and has 10 other radio plays with them and the BBC. He is the voice of the villain John Seed in the hit video game “Far Cry 5” and originated the DC Comic’s bad guy Trigon on “Titans.” Dever has performed in over 80 plays and has 300 hours of television to his name. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Juliana.
The Review
If I had to describe Creature Feature in one word, it would amusing. Amusing in the absolute best way possible! This book is 100% a gentle rib at the b-movie favorite concept of “pod people”. Placidville (the perfect name for Kathy’s hometown, might I add) has something very wrong with it. The townspeople are all acting oddly, or missing entirely, and strange sights are around every corner. Plus Kathy’s parents are just a little more forgetful than normal.
Meanwhile Kathy, or Vivacia as she is known on her local, late-night, horror television show, is oblivious to all of it. Being honest, Kathy is my favorite kind of character. The one in the movies who somehow magically misses all the things wrong in a situation. The character that we, the viewers, love to yell at and attempt to dissuade from making all the wrong choices while ominous music plays in the background. She keeps dismissing the odd things that she sees as a lack of caffeine, or a lack of sleep, no matter how much they point to issues with her hometown. What sets this story apart, however, is that it takes this concept out of the scary realm and makes it fun instead!
Our narrator has a blast ribbing Kathy as she misses things that he sees, and of course that we see as well. Even the one person in town who knows what’s really going on, can’t seem to sway Kathy out of her comfort zone. The whole thing is absurd, hilarious, and just a ton of fun to experience. As I mentioned above, I was lucky enough to be gifted an audio copy of this book. I highly recommend it! The narrators (bios below) are stellar, and they make this whole story so much more enjoyable. Think of the radio plays of old, and that’s what you’ll be getting with this audio book.
Looking for something a little silly, a little creepy, and the perfect length for a quiet afternoon? Creature Feature needs to get onto your reading list. Stat.
A Scribe award-winner, receiving the praise of Ray Bradbury and the Oscar-winning film producer, Richard Zanuck, Steven Paul Leiva is no stranger to the business of telling a good story. Author of several novels, and with a writing-style that lays hard on the satire, this Hollywood-escapee doesn’t pull punches when it comes to politics.
Need to know more? Follow him on Amazon or Goodreads, or check out his blog here: http://emotionalrationalist.blogspot.com/p/about-steven-paul-leiva.html
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