Review: Perry's Killer Playlist

Sequel to AU REVOIR, CRAZY EUROPEAN CHICK
By Joe Schreiber
Available now from Houghton Mifflin
Review copy

Like its predecessor, PERRY'S KILLER PLAYLIST is a slim volume.  224 pages nowadays seems more like an appetizer than a meal.  But Joe Schreiber's second young adult novel puts the pedal to the metal and doesn't let up.  This would be one exhausting novel if it were much longer.

(Although it could use a few less chapters that are only a page or two long.)

Fans of character-driven novels should look elsewhere.  PERRY'S KILLER PLAYLIST is all about the action and comedy with little room for anything else.  Perry is a young man touring Europe with his band Inchworm.  This could be their big break.  But then he runs into Gobi Zaksaukas, the foreign exchange student his family hosted during senior year - until she revealed herself to be an assassin on prom night and forced Perry to drive her as she sought revenge.  Now she's killing again and Perry is once more caught in the crossfire.

There is some attempt at characterization, but it's secondary to the crazy set pieces.  Honestly, I found PERRY'S KILLER PLAYLIST extremely fun.  I enjoy a good action movie, and PERRY'S KILLER PLAYLIST is like the book version of The Killers except not terrible.  (Let's face it, it should be criminal to screw up, "One is a cold-blooded assassin!  The other is an ordinary person!  Together they escape certain death!")

I think PERRY'S KILLER PLAYLIST can be read and enjoyed by those who haven't read AU REVOIR, CRAZY EUROPEAN CHICK.  The beginning starts with Perry and does a pretty good job of introducing who Gobi is and why he hopes to see her despite having a wonderful girlfriend.  And this isn't a series that asks you to remember any complex backstories.  There is continuity, like Perry's issues with his father, but I think father issues are pretty easy to understand.

Do you want to read something quick, funny, with bursts of improbable violence?  Then you'll probably enjoy PERRY'S KILLER PLAYLIST.  You might not care deeply about the characters, but it makes for an entertaining hour or two.

Movie Monday: Attack the Block

Attack the Block, like Drive, tops my list of best 2011 movies. The director, Joe Cornish, and most of his cast might be new to movies, but Attack the Block is brisk and assured. There's no padding to this socially-aware monster movie.

The eponymous block is a council estate - think projects - in South London, where Moses (John Boyega) and his four friends live. Attack the Block opens when they mug Sam (Jodie Whittaker), a young nurse who recently moved into the block. Immediately after a dog-sized creature falls from the sky and the boys easily kill it. Both of these actions have repercussions that last throughout the movie.

Uncredited, from Tumblr

You see, that wasn't the only alien to come to Earth - and the others aren't so easy to kill. I love the monster design in Attack the Block. It's a low-budget movie, but being able to see nothing of the creature but a glowing mouth is extremely effective. If you're concerned about watching a horror film, Attack the Block is neither gory nor super scary. There are some effective shocks and a few violent kills, but that's not the true focus of the movie.

Most of the attention is given to the humor and the setting. Attack the Block is produced by the same people as Shaun of the Dead, after all. Whenever things get too tense, there's a Brewis (Luke Treadaway) scene to lighten the atmosphere. (Brewis is a rich kid who went to buy weed for a party at the wrong time.) The girls who act as a counterpart to Moses's gang are also delightful. The dialogue, almost entirely in the chav vernacular, is pretty easy to pick up and helps the block feel fully realized.

I think a council estate is a wonderful setting for a horror movie.  It's claustrophobic but still allows for movement.  (Chase scenes are essential.  Attack the Block has some great ones.)  The balance between the gang and Sam shifts throughout the movie but it never feels like the story is trying to have its cake and eat it too.  There's more to the gang than violence, but Sam doesn't have to forgive them just because they had their reasons.  What Moses, Pest, Biggz, Dennis, and Jerome did was wrong and Attack the Block never pretends it wasn't.  It just acknowledges people can do good things and bad things.  Thugs can care about and protect their home.

Actions have consequences and those consequences can make for a terrific movie.