I understand why some other have panned the ending to this book. I myself found it a little rushed, and I generally dislike endings with all sorts of twists and turns in the last five pages. However, I'll let that slide, because the rest of the book is well-written and rather original. It's a book I'll re-read sometime in the future, I'm sure. Also, I'm definitely going to check out Ruff's other stuff when I get the chance.

I'm glad Matt Ruff didn't fall into the superhero trap when writing Bad Monkeys. Superheroes and their respective movies are annoyingly everywhere these days, and it's getting really boring. Instead, Ruff delves into the more interesting realm of secret organizations and the psychologically jarring surveillance they use to either maintain or take control. Real people using gritty manipulation to get what they want, without the super dooper special effects.

Without giving away the details, we are introduced to Jane Charlotte and her situation. She's just been detained by the authorities, and we subsequently learn about her seemingly aimless life, culminating in an active career inside an organization, THE organization, purposed to find and eliminate those in civilized society deemed "bad monkeys". From the hazy fog of San Francisco to the deserts and aching lights of Las Vegas, we are told a twisting, bending story in which we are constantly asking ourselves whether we have the whole story. Mayhem, scary clowns, mind alterations and machinations...it's all here.

Everything in Bad Monkeys is written with color: the characters, the action, the intrigue and the manipulation. It's not exclusively a work of sci-fi, though there are definite moments where reality and belief are playing ping-pong in dreamlike suspension. But the novel is as Orwellian as it is weird and that's slightly disconcerting in a good way. Surveillance is a major theme, and its parameters are absurdly carried out to its obvious conclusions; the MO is called "Eyes Only", and while one may consider the details a bit too fantastical, know that bionic eyes apparently are being tested as I write. Bad Monkeys is an entertaining, creepy, puzzling, and fast read that'll keep you thinking.

This is a great read. The book it well paced, interesting and has you constantly wondering what is delusion and what is real. On first blush Bad Monkeys is your typical quirky and strange story, but it leaves you unsettled because you are never quite sure what is really going on. You are set up from page one and it is a house of mirrors through to the end...or is it? If you are looking for the next PEN/Faulkner Award winner or sweeping saga, maybe this is not it, but if you want to be captivated, intrigued and use those little gray cells, this book is just the ticket.

This book begins like a thoroughbred racing from the gate with a stride and speed that indicates an easy win or, at the least, a good finish. Then somewhere in the middle of the race, the horse pulls back. You can't quite see what is happening. Was there a foul? Is the horse hurt? As the rest of the pack pulls away, it becomes clear that the horse is badly injured, has broken a leg, and the jockey is struggling to control the damaged animal. At the end, the horse has to be shot and they are calling for a tractor. The closing shot shows the owner crying in her mink coat.

What a disappointment. The first pages, read standing in the book store, got me to buy the book. But the narrative drops away, the events become more and more implausible (in terms of the rules the book itself sets, not some outside set of rules), the narrative begins to feel thin and then, at the end, plain silly. The end is not just a disappointment, it's a betrayal, but maybe "silly" is still the better word, because betrayal implies something of substance to betray, and we have gotten past that point about half way in.

The narrative turns out to be a parable of biblical good and evil presented in a simplistic way. Not simple, simplistic. The author's theological upbringing dominates the characters and the narrative, turning "show" into "tell." Thinking dominates, then eclipses, the writer's active imagination. Ultimately the book does not stand either as theology or dramatic character-driven narrative, and the hackneyed device - "I have a secret!" - that provides an end twist that has not been set up well in advance makes the reader, too, twist in his or her chair, close the book, and sigh.

It's too bad. The book begins with a promise but it isn't fulfilled.

While I generally read novels very slowly it took me to time at all to finish "Bad Monkeys". The slow revelation style of narrative sunk its teeth in and would not let go. I came to Amazon to grab Ruff's other books.

Highly recommend.