Fantasist's Scroll

Okay, so I’ve been reading a lot of Christopher Moore lately!
It’s the upside to travelling for work, actually, having all that time to read on the plane or in airports. I took advantage of it to read another delightful tale by Moore, titled The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove. Obviously, the story is about a large lizard, but it’s not quite what you might think. It’s actually a love story.
The story follows the antics of Moore’s favorite fictional town as the local psychiatrist decides to make up for past apathy by putting all her patients on sugar-pills instead of their regular medication. Throw in a giant sea-lizard, a hidden drug lab, a Mississippi Blues man, and a former B-movie star and you get classic Moore. This time around we get to see some old friends from Practical Demonkeeping, too, like Howard Phillips, occult owner of the local diner and “The Hammer/Nailgun”, super-geek police computer specialist and source of lots of interesting information. Oddly enough, the main “love story” is between the fallen movie star and the sea-creature. Though, there are actually several love stories going on all at once. There’s a little bit of everything in The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove and so many sub-plots it’ll make your head spin. But, in a good way.

And again, there’s that underlying current of a spiritual search. A search for meaning and love in a sad, drab world. Surprisingly, despite opening with an apparent suicide and lots of mental anguish, including a somewhat dark look at psychotherapy, it’s really an upbeat and fun book. As always, Moore manages to tie everything together and end on a rather happy note. Again, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove is a great book, like everything by Christopher Moore, and I cannot reccomend it enough.