Rating:
4/5 Shattered Teeth
Give me the short version:
Decency is crucified upside down on a bizarro messianistic journey ...
Having liked The Grimhaven Disaster and very much enjoyed Kelpies in Deadman's Tome: Monsters Exist, I was lucky enough to land an advance copy of Jesus of Scumburg.
While the story wasn't necessarily my mug of vodka, the style and examination of inverted social norms certainly is.
Jesus of Scumburg doesn't exist merely to shock or titillate, although depending on the reader's temperament it may certainly do both. Like others in the field such as Lance Carbuncle's Sloughing Off the Rot, we follow a charasmatic messianic figure on a quest of peeling back and examining boundaaries we take for granted.
Mr Robertson writes with undeniable frenetic energy, a gathering promise of transcendence that knits tightly what could otherwise be a disconnected, disorienting series of events. Not recommended for the faint of heart, but definitely a tale that will have you questioning your reactions every step of the way.
Favourite bit:
"They swayed back and forth until they were a shower of sparks surrounded by flailing electrical wires. They tore open their shirts to willingly receive the blessed touch of a ripped cable tip to end their pain, ensured by Jesus that if they did so while worshiping him, they would enter the next life stronger than ever, ready to tear that one apart too."