Rich Bottles, Jr. The Big Book of Bizarro. Bridgeport, WV: Burning Bulb Publishing, 2011. ISBN: 9780615502038.
In the foreword, the editor briefly discusses how this collection was created. He acknowledges that readers "are not going to like every single piece of prose in this anthology" but he hopes you'll find something "interesting, captivating, entertaining, and fun ahead" (ix). That sounds mostly right.
As happens with many anthologies, quality can vary greatly from one story to the next. Carlton Mellick III is quoted on the foreword commenting that the Bizarro genre (at least at the time of the book) is still in a fledgling stage, as you read through many of the stories you can feel that. There are a few good stories. There are more that are average, and others just are not there yet. They may have potential, but they are not quite there yet. As a result, I often to drag myself to keep reading. Many of the stories were just not that interesting to me. On a positive, if you seek variety of themes and ideas, there is a lot of variety in this collection. You might find tales to like one way or another. In my case, I had to plow through to find the gems.
One of the tales I particularly enjoyed was "The Whore of Dartmoor," which does a nice twist on dreams, authorship, and the idea of copyright. It may get you to see things like pastiches and fan fiction in a new light. Another tale I enjoyed was "Channel 666," which may make you rethink how much television you watch.
Overall, the book was OK for me. By now, the genre has grown, and there are more options. If anything, this anthology may provide a glimpse of where the genre was at the time. I'd consider it an optional selection for libraries seeking to collect in the Bizarro genre. It does provide a sampling of what the genre can offer, but it is quite uneven.
2 out of 5 stars.
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