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A review by smitchy
The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes
3.0
This mind-bending blend of crime noir and comic fantasy is a must for fans of Jasper Fforde!
Tippy is the best detective in the Stillreal. He also happens to be a bright yellow plush triceratops. He was once someone's best friend - a detective imagined to help make sense of the world but one tragic event changed everything an Tippy was set aside: Still loved, still real, but no longer required. When that happened Tippy when where all abandoned but fiercely imagined ideas go; The Stillreal.
Setting out on a case, Tippy discovers a nightmare newly arrived in the Stillreal, somehow chased out of his person's head by a creature that terrifies it. Tippy doesn't take the new arrival's ramblings too seriously, afterall everyone is a bit disorientated when they first arrive. But when the nightmare is attacked Tippy discovers that this new creature can do the impossible: Kill an idea, permanently.
With time running out Tippy has to face his own deamons and rally the beings of the Stillreal to end this creature and help everyone - real and imagined alike.
Tippy is a wonderful blend of hard bitten noir-style detective and the most innocent of childhood pleasures; with a tragic backstory, PTSD, and addiction to root-beer floats. He brings comfort to villans and shows kindness to nightmares. The fights he gets into are both action-packed and strangely, innocently, violent - Tippy gets the stuffing knocked out of him more than once!
This is hard bitten crime without any blood, and there is nothing that would cause me to hesitate in giving this book to an early teen reader. However, I feel an older audience might enjoy the play of ideas more.
I would love to see some more of Tippy and his imaginary friends and see the world fleshed out more in future adventures.
Pure, escapist fun for those who love comic fantasy.
Tippy is the best detective in the Stillreal. He also happens to be a bright yellow plush triceratops. He was once someone's best friend - a detective imagined to help make sense of the world but one tragic event changed everything an Tippy was set aside: Still loved, still real, but no longer required. When that happened Tippy when where all abandoned but fiercely imagined ideas go; The Stillreal.
Setting out on a case, Tippy discovers a nightmare newly arrived in the Stillreal, somehow chased out of his person's head by a creature that terrifies it. Tippy doesn't take the new arrival's ramblings too seriously, afterall everyone is a bit disorientated when they first arrive. But when the nightmare is attacked Tippy discovers that this new creature can do the impossible: Kill an idea, permanently.
With time running out Tippy has to face his own deamons and rally the beings of the Stillreal to end this creature and help everyone - real and imagined alike.
Tippy is a wonderful blend of hard bitten noir-style detective and the most innocent of childhood pleasures; with a tragic backstory, PTSD, and addiction to root-beer floats. He brings comfort to villans and shows kindness to nightmares. The fights he gets into are both action-packed and strangely, innocently, violent - Tippy gets the stuffing knocked out of him more than once!
This is hard bitten crime without any blood, and there is nothing that would cause me to hesitate in giving this book to an early teen reader. However, I feel an older audience might enjoy the play of ideas more.
I would love to see some more of Tippy and his imaginary friends and see the world fleshed out more in future adventures.
Pure, escapist fun for those who love comic fantasy.