The Robusta Incident

Howard Danishefsky lives a rather unfortunate life. His boss is tyrannical (and also, due to a lapse in judgment, his ex-lover), the salesmen are infuriating, there’s blood on the front step of his apartment, the people he meets on public transport could be most charitably described as interesting, one of his neighbors very likely hates him… and he often hears his dead mother’s voice in his head. Fortunately, Howard has found a mature, healthy way to work through these problems: making the phrase “mindless corporate zombie” as literal as humanly possible. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know that it’s best to be careful what he wishes for, and when the Consortium of Evil and a Voodoo Queen get involved, he finds himself in over his head.

Though it’s billed as a horror novel, the first few chapters of The Robusta Incident are more comedic than frightening. Howard is far from being a good guy (after all, what good guy would want to turn all his coworkers into zombies?), but he’s rather likable simply because he’s got a bit of a wicked side. There’s something refreshing about reading through the eyes of a man who has simply given up and decided he might as well be evil, and given the way the other characters treat him, who wouldn’t want to give up and become an evil genius? Bill the salesman is downright terrible, and Mimi, the mother whose voice lives in his head, is a delight to read but sounds rather difficult to put up with every day. The way the book transitions from comedy to horror is smooth and natural, and it doesn’t lose any of its humor for doing so. The one complaint I have is that it loses steam a little in the last two chapters, but even with that, it’s a very worthwhile and enjoyable read.